Richmond Region Transportation

[burt]

I still think the Buckingham line should have been selected for express high(er) speed passenger rail between Richmond/Doswell and the northeast. A study including graphics and designs is somewhere in this thread. It determined that the cost would be several million more than the MSS/Acca Yard/Ashland route. Also, it was determined that wetland/environmental problems MIGHT add to the price.

What the study did NOT address to my satisfaction is that additional rail traffic thru Acca and Ashland could concievably increase to mind-boggling proportions. Instead of moving Staples Mill Station further north on the Main Line to Parham Road, a commuter station could be built on the improved Buckingham line near or at the junction of Rt. 301 and I-295 north of Richmond to serve suburban AND Ashland traffic.

IMO, the powers-that-be gave short-sighted attention to the MSS/Doswell plan.

Edited June 26, 2010 by burt

[calwinston]

"Momentum is building for passenger rail service, but other states are farther down the track."

Thelma Drake is the director of the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation and she is doing a great job within her first year!

Line from Richmond to Norfolk. Light Rail on track in Norfolk. Soon imagine riding from New York City to the Virginia Beach Oceanfront without getting in one car or bus! Or the opposite drive. No other beach from Atlantic City, NJ to Miami, FL has that!

When Thelma Drake reluctantly drives from Richmond to a meeting in Northern Virginia, she fantasizes about a way to hasten her journey through one of the nation’s most dysfunctional corridors. “I wish I knew where the sluggers are,” she says, referring to the corps of commuters who are picked up by motorists so they can use high occupancy lanes on Interstate 95.

Drake, director of the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation since January, survived many traffic nightmares during two terms in Congress as a Republican representative from Norfolk. One time, she recalls, a truck spilled hydrochloric acid on I-95. “It literally took us 11 hours to get back to Norfolk,” she says.

Such experiences fuel her passion to find an alternative to driving a car in the Old Dominion. While plans to overhaul the state’s congested road system languish in the General Assembly, support for improved passenger rail service is gaining momentum. But despite its strategic position along the southern rail gateway into Washington, Virginia is trailing other states in passenger rail initiatives and wound up on the short end of the track when billions in federal rail dollars were awarded earlier this year. Critics say the Old Dominion’s halting approach to rail development is the result of missed opportunities and a lack of initiative in the past by the department Drake now heads.

Improving rail service is a slow, often tedious business — one that requires a political skill on the state and local level. The scores of studies of high-speed rail alternatives, which now gather dust in Drake’s offices, are a reminder of the snail’s pace of government bureaucracy. “That’s why everybody felt they were ready to move ahead,” she says. “You can spend a lot of money studying things. It’s one of the things Governor McDonnell said, ‘Let’s stop studying things and do something!’ ”

During the last session of the General Assembly, Drake helped craft an amendment to Gov. Bob McDonnell’s budget. The change freed up funds to make track and signal improvements that will bring Amtrak service to Norfolk within three years. The 1.1 million residents of South Hampton Roads haven’t had passenger service since 1977. The rail fever was evident in January when more than 500 people showed up in Norfolk for a state public hearing on high-speed rail.

By gaining a one-time waiver to use the state’s only dedicated source of rail funding, Norfolk Southern Corp. agreed to begin the three-year effort to upgrade its line along U.S. 460 between Norfolk and Petersburg — a $75 million project intended to create a passenger rail connection for Norfolk, Richmond and Washington. The state is negotiating with CSX Corp. to upgrade a stretch of track from Petersburg to Richmond as well.

(Richmond officials complain that the planned route of Norfolk-to-Washington trains initially would bypass Main Street Station downtown in favor of Staples Mill station in Henrico County. Rail officials say improving tracks approaching Main Street Station to accommodate Norfolk trains could cost $600 million.)

With plans to start daily, roundtrip service by 2013, Amtrak hopes to meet the needs of military and defense workers wanting to avoid the sometimes tricky car trek from Norfolk. Drake will be among the first to board the train. “We know that with the technology, you can go easily to 90 mph, maybe even 110 mph, so we’re hoping that with time, Norfolk Southern will be comfortable with a little bit higher speeds,” she says.

Drake sees tremendous potential in the Norfolk project, which also could create an attractive travel alternative for beach-bound vacationers. With a seven-mile light rail transit system opening in Norfolk next spring — and plans for light rail percolating in Virginia Beach — “you could get on a train in D.C. and spend a week at the beach and never have a car,” she says. “That would be a great vacation.”

Already, the state is making inroads to improve the reliability and consistency of Amtrak service — improvements that are even more important than higher speeds in getting people to take the train.

A state-subsidized Amtrak train that began serving the Washington-Charlottesville-Lynchburg corridor last fall has exceeded expectations. In addition, Amtrak plans to add trains from Newport News to Richmond, and from Richmond to D.C. In Northern Virginia, construction of a 23-mile extension of the Metro rail system to Washington Dulles International Airport should help take more cars off the Capital Beltway, as well as help rail passengers making airline connections.

Across Virginia, ridership data shows that when given the chance, travelers will trade car keys for train tickets. In March (the latest month for which information was available), 101,806 passengers rode Amtrak trains in Virginia, up 28 percent from 79,391 during the same month last year.

In fact, during its first six months of operation, the new Lynchburg-Charlottesville-Washington daily train had 55,025 passengers, surpassing its annual ridership goal of 51,000. Because of the new train’s momentum, Amtrak added a station in Burke Center in Fairfax County.

The Lynchburg train is part of a three-year-long demonstration project using state funds. If it stays on its fast track, and if state funds are available, Drake says the Lynchburg train service could be extended to Roanoke. This would be a counterpart in western Virginia to Amtrak’s plans to start serving Norfolk to the east.

Underlying every plan for more passenger service is the uneasy coexistence of passenger and freight service. The fact is that the freight rail systems own all of the lines used by Amtrak in Virginia, and, with the exception of the Northeast Corridor, throughout most of Amtrak’s 21,000-mile network.

“One thing that should be clear to anybody who knows anything about the rail business is that there are few, if any, passenger rail projects anywhere in the world that are profitable,” says Wiley F. Mitchell Jr., a former senior general counsel for Norfolk Southern Corp. who chaired the state’s Rail Advisory Board. “If the railroads had figured out a way after World War II to make a profit out of passenger rail, they would have done it.”

After passenger service was handed over to the National Passenger Railroad Corp. — Amtrak — in 1971, it was inevitable that this stepchild of Congress would never come close to breaking even, Mitchell says. Now, nearly four decades later, the government is still trying to figure out how to run the passenger railroad in a consistent and affordable fashion.

This is the root of the troubled marriage in which the freight railroads — focused on moving coal and other goods on lines that they spend millions to build and repair — operate under a federal mandate to share their tracks with Amtrak.

In 2005, Virginia created the state’s first dedicated revenue stream for rail improvements — both freight and passenger. The fund is relatively small, about $23 million a year, but it provided the money being used to get the Norfolk Amtrak project under way.

But critics say that by mixing freight and passenger rail projects, the General Assembly muddied the waters. The fund requires that for every grant allocated by the state, a matching grant of 30 percent must be made. Theoretically this could come from localities, but in reality only the big freight railroads — Norfolk Southern and CSX — have the deep pockets to participate. This creates a fund that favors the freight carriers’ interests over the need for passenger trains, critics say.

“I’m not saying the [freight] projects are necessarily bad, and they may fit into a strategic vision if there was one,” says Richard Beadles, a longtime passenger-rail activist who once served as president of the old RF&P railroad. “But the Department of Rail and Public Transportation largely reacts to what rail companies, large and small ask for, and what they ask for is not in sync with the larger concerns of the commonwealth. We ought to figure out what we, the commonwealth, want to achieve and try to hand the money out based on that.”

Otherwise, Beadles contends, “We’re not as ready to contend for the Obama Administration’s money as North Carolina was.” Indeed, when the states competed this year for $8 billion from the Rail Stimulus Fund, Virginia walked away with $75 million — a fraction of its application for $1.8 billion. North Carolina, which owns a 317-mile railroad, was awarded $540 million.

Beadles doesn’t blame Drake for that setback, announced just a few days after she took office. “She has demonstrated great personal initiative, and I think that’s great.” But he believes Drake has inherited a system of planning and funding projects that needs an overhaul.

The critical juncture for Virginia and North Carolina came in the early 1990s: Virginia sold the RF&P rail line to CSX Corp., while keeping the railroad’s real estate holdings, thus “completely ignoring the far-greater longer-term strategic value of the rail corridor linking D.C. with Richmond,” Beadles writes in a report for the Virginia Rail Policy.

North Carolina, meanwhile, bought out the minority-held shares in the North Carolina Railroad and went on to build a passenger service that links its urban centers from Raleigh to Charlotte.

Nonetheless, a North Carolina official says the states are working in tandem to plan for the future. “We’re pleased that Virginia has gotten much more active in the past few years,” says Patrick Simmons, director of the rail division of the North Carolina Department of Transportation. “Virginia has done a lot of high-quality work. If there’s a lesson I’ve learned from years in the business, you have to do that work, and you’ll reap the benefits.”

In fact, North Carolina has conducted the first phase of a lengthy environmental impact study in Virginia as part of a federally backed plan to build a railroad from Petersburg to the North Carolina line, ultimately linking the two states in a high-speed rail corridor. “We’re in the process of scheduling public hearings in Virginia and North Carolina,” Simmons says. (Hearings will be held in Alberta, Richmond, Petersburg and McKenney in July.) The Federal Railroad Administration has designated this region — including Hampton Roads — as part of the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor.

Project engineers envision trains that can go at least 110 mph in “sealed corridors” — that is, railroads such as Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, which is unhampered by dangerous road-rail crossings.

Even though construction funds may not be available today, Simmons says, “We’re trying to engineer something [that can handle] higher speeds so that it won’t have to be rebuilt in the future.” Currently, Amtrak trains run at an average speed of 65 mph in Virginia.

The Obama Administration has pledged to allocate another $2.5 billion this fiscal year for states to reach the president’s stated dream of “whisking through towns at speeds over 100 miles an hour, walking only a few steps to public transportation, and ending up just blocks from your destination.”

But can Virginia hop aboard before this next funding train leaves the station? “It’s going to take the General Assembly coming up with capital money and operating money,” Drake says.

The funding issue became even more pressing last month as state rail officials pondered Amtrak’s plans to create a consistent federal policy for paying for passenger rail service by 2013.

Amtrak officials say they hope to have a national policy in place by the end of summer to standardize what are now different policies with the states. That, in turn, is expected to require millions of dollars in currently unfunded subsidies. According to the state’s estimate, the two state-subsidized Amtrak trains have unfunded operating costs of $41 million for 2011-16.

One problem with securing more federal funds could come if the government requires the states to match every dollar with at least 20 cents of their own money. “We don’t have a 20 percent match,” Drake says, and given the state of the economy, she adds, “Most states don’t have a 20 percent match.”

Despite the fiscal uncertainty, Virginia’s rail advocates report a new sense of momentum — one that goes far beyond nostalgia for Pullman cars and Chattanooga Choo-Choos. It’s grounded in the younger generation’s desire to get off the road and replicate the kind of high-quality ride that many have experienced in travels through Europe or Japan.

“When gas hit $4 a gallon several years ago, Amtrak ridership spiked,” says Daniel Plaugher, the 28-year-old executive director of Richmond-based Virginians for High Speed Rail. “Even though the economy has crashed, they still posted the second highest ridership last year. For the most part, when people have been on the train, they’re sticking to the train.”

Plaugher has been busy spreading the gospel of the state’s leading rail advocacy group. With more than 300 members, three-dozen businesses, nine localities and four economic development agencies, Virginians for High Speed Rail appears to have the right connections. But Plaugher says the appeal of rail goes beyond traditional economic development arguments — developing downtowns, creating multi-modal transportation hubs and the like.

At the end of the day, rail offers an alternative to traffic gridlock — the only transportation system his twenty-something cohort has ever known. Thus, one of his pet arguments for Virginia to ratchet up support for passenger trains: increased worker productivity. “Two hours on a train is totally different than two hours in a car,” says Plaugher, who works on his laptop when taking the train from Richmond to D.C. A typical round-trip fare is $54, “which is still much cheaper than paying the average for mileage reimbursement.”

In Charlottesville, Meredith Richards, the president of Virginians for High Speed Rail, also has seen signs of a rail renaissance among the young. “We know U.Va. students are using it,” she says of Amtrak’s expanded round-trip service, which offers one-way fares to Washington ranging from $22 to $56. (The price changes depending on time of year, travel demand, and how far in advance you book the ticket.)

When the rock band U2 played at U.Va. last fall, “about 300 people arrived from Northern Virginia on the southbound evening train, got off and walked to Scott Stadium,” Richards recalls.

The growing interest in passenger rail among Pentagon-bound defense workers and Bono-bound rock fans proves that “If you build it, they will come,” Richards says.

But is passenger service sustainable, especially given the recent derailments of so many federal and state programs? Plaugher, for one, believes investment in passenger rail enjoys bipartisan support in Congress. “The question becomes: Is Virginia going to have the will and the resources and the ability to participate actively?”

State Sen. Yvonne Miller, D-Norfolk and chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Committee, introduced a bill that led to the formation of a 10-member joint subcommittee to study the expansion and funding of high-speed passenger rail service. “Part of the problem … is when you ask the state to take care of the maintenance” of new or upgraded rail lines “you also have to make a strong case that it would pay for itself and be worth the investment,” the legislator says.

Like other passenger-rail supporters, the senator is seeing more people interested in taking the train. “We’re in an evolving process as people are beginning to understand they can live in a world without cars if they have good passenger rail,” she says.

http://www.virginiab...n-board/238817/

Edited July 1, 2010 by calwinston

[calwinston]

This is a Op/Ed piece from the Richmond Times Dispatch by Richard Beadles

http://www2.timesdis...ad27-ar-231867/

About a couple of weeks ago I was looking at an aerial view of Richmond and studying the train routes. Since Main St Station is no way built to handle 16 trains a day! Then maybe the best option is to move the Staples Mill Station to behind the Science Musuem(same train route) on the vacant property on Leigh St(also moving the greyhound station here since they refuse to leave that area) and have light rail connecting the two train stations going down Broad St. This will be a lower cost option than having more aerial tracks at Main St Station which is greatly more expensive!

Aerial View of site: Change to aerial view

http://www.mapquest....geocode=ADDRESS

Edited July 2, 2010 by calwinston

[calwinston]

Why should the federal government put out its neck and fund high speed rail and light rail in the region when Richmond suburban officials cannot even fund the current GRTC system properly?!

While the city pushes aggressively to bring faster rail to Main Street Station and turn Richmond into a true regional transportation hub, GRTC continues to face obstacles extending service into the counties and gets politically shortchanged.

Ironically, GRTC’s Lewis says, the city’s efforts to secure federal funding for rail improvements hinges, in part, on the quality of the regional bus system.

Lewis, who says he continues to work with city officials on additional applications for federal high-speed rail grants and a possible bus-transfer hub at Main Street Station, the bus system’s financial weakness already has affected Richmond’s bid to be viewed as a regional transit player.

In the state’s request last year for $1.5 billion for higher-speed rail improvements, Richmond applied for $491 million to upgrade CSX’s Acca rail yard and Main Street Station. The state received only $75 million in federal stimulus money for rail, all of it for improvements in Northern Virginia.

“If you go back and look at the regions that received money from the federal government for high-speed rail,” Lewis says, “one thing that is abundant, that is absolutely clear [is that] those systems were very strong, very well-funded, truly regional transit systems.”

The bus system’s political issues have a long history. For Jewell, it starts with GRTC’s ownership. In a move that many observers say was motivated by racism, Chesterfield County purchased half the company’s shares in 1989 but long has refused to pay for bus service into the county. Chesterfield now has two dedicated express lines that are paid for by the state, but that money ends next year.

“We’ve not been able to get past this pernicious intent of all these years to block GRTC service out into the county,” Jewell says. “The attitudes in Chesterfield County may prove to be very, very different and more progressive” these days, Jewell adds, “but nobody’s testing that.”

But some people closer to county lines say the demand for transit just isn’t there.

“Stop putting the money into the GRTC system and give it back to the taxpayers,” says 1st District Councilman Bruce Tyler, who has called for a task force to examine GRTC’s structure and proposes an “on-demand transit system” employing vans at strategic locations. “I’m not saying take the bus system away,” he says, but “until we prove to the counties that we have a system that’s cost-effective and is something that people would want to use, there’s no reason to join in.”

Henrico County Manager Virgil Hazelett says demand for buses hinges on density. Given the county’s sprawling development patterns, what Hazelett considers “natural migration” by choice, “the majority of the citizens are more concerned about roads than public transit.” To account for its own budget shortfalls, Henrico cut two underperforming bus routes this month, one in the county’s East End and the other taking passengers between the city and park-and-ride stops in the West End.

http://styleweekly.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=21B2D2A6C8E34C63B0B5292EDB1BFCC7

[calwinston]

"AMTRAK VIRGINIA INTRODUCES ADDITIONAL SERVICE

BETWEEN RICHMOND, VA AND WASHINGTON, DC" starting July 20!

This brings the total of trains passing through Richmond's two train stations to 18!

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/BlobServer?blobcol=urldata&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobkey=id&blobwhere=1249211868227&blobheader=application/pdf&blobhead

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/08/AR2010070804538.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/08/AR2010070804538.html

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1998453

[burt]

"AMTRAK VIRGINIA INTRODUCES ADDITIONAL SERVICE

BETWEEN RICHMOND, VA AND WASHINGTON, DC" starting July 20!

This brings the total of trains passing through Richmond's two train stations to 18!

http://www.amtrak.co...on/pdf

http://www.washingto...0070804538.html

http://www.washingto...0070804538.html

http://www.wtop.com/...=25&sid=1998453

When the Norfolk roundtrip begins three years from now there will be 20 (or 21?) passing thru Staples Mill. But sadly, Main Street will continue to see only 4 of that twenty (or 21.)

The 18 figure you come up with might actually be 19. But I'd have to see an Amtrak schedule to make sure. In addition to the 5 morning and 6 evening trains there are 3 roundtrip Florida trains and 1 Carolina roundtrip passing thru Staples Mill. One of those 6 southbounds may be The Carolinian. The 2 Newport News roundtrips are included in the new 5 morning/six evening trips. It's very confusing, and to make it even more so, all of the trains don't operate on a daily schedule. .

Also, the Auto Train between Lorton and Florida passes through Staples Mill twice a day and may make a crew stop but doesn't discharge or accept passengers.

Edited July 9, 2010 by burt

[burt]

Greater Richmond Transit Company has received a grant to purchase 5 new, larger buses. They will seat 56 passengers versus 37-seats in the present fleet.

From yesterday's RTD:

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2010/jul/10/GRTC10-ar-287182/

[burt]

Hearings begin in Carolina and Virginia on High Speed Rail plans.

From today's RTD:

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/business/news/2010/jul/14/rail14-ar-290984/

[calwinston]

"VDOT to rebuild 11 bridges on I-95 In Richmond"

Rebuilding 11 bridges on Interstate 95 in Richmond and Henrico County will cost taxpayers about $15 million less than the Virginia Department of Transportation expected.The Commonwealth Transportation Board awarded a $68 million contract yesterday to Archer Western Contractors of Atlanta to rebuild the aging spans.

The bridges should be in full operation before morning rush hour, and daytime travelers on I-95 should have all lanes of travel available.Up to 160,000 vehicles a day use this section of I-95, VDOT said, and about 60,000 vehicles travel the stretch during the 8 p.m.-6 a.m. period.

This project will complete the rehabilitation of all the mainline bridges on the old Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike," which opened more than 50 years ago, Hawthorne said. "We should get another 50 to 70 years out of these bridges with this work."

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/business/news/2010/jul/15/vdot15-ar-296475/

Edited July 15, 2010 by calwinston

[burt]

This is an unofficial look at the prospect of high-er speed rail along the southeast corridor from Washington via Richmond to Raleigh.

The story is dated June 4, 2010 and is from a site called The Transport Politic.

http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/category/places/richmond/

[burt]

Media outlets are talking more and more about rail transit.

Here's a story by Peter Bacque, a writer for the Times Dispatch whose expertise is in public transportation

From today's RTD:

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/business/news/2010/jul/18/rail18-ar-317680/

[burt]

...and yet another story about high speed rail from political writer Tyler Whitley of The Times Dispatch.

From today's RTD:

http://www2.timesdis...18s1-ar-317683/

The picture accompanying Whitley's story illustrates part of the track delimma at Main Street Station. There's only one track in and out of the station on the route to and from Newport News.

Edited July 18, 2010 by burt

[burt]

Media outlets are talking more and more about rail transit.

Here's a story by Peter Bacque, a writer for the Times Dispatch whose expertise is in public transportation

From today's RTD:

http://www2.timesdis...il18-ar-317680/

If you want to attend a public hearing on the subject of Southeast High Speed Rail, here is the schedule:

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/business/2010/jul/18/rail18g1-ar-317660/

I believe the one scheduled for this Tuesday at DMV is being held in the building's cafeteria.

[burt]

Columnist Michael Paul Williams discusses high speed rail in his story and video from today's RTD:

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2010/jul/20/mike20-ar-53242/

As he points out, you can't get from Washington to anyplace in Carolina via rail without passing through Virginia. While North Carolina received more than $500 million for shovel-ready rail improvements from Federal funds, Virginia's share was about $75 million.

[burt]

I was in Penn Station here in NYCity last week and picked up the most current Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Virginia Service timetable dated May 10, 2010.

The new 7AM departure from Staples Mill which begins today and originates in Richmond is not shown on the schedule. The four trains that do operate Mondays thru Fridays (weekend times are different) are:

5:09AM (The Silver Meteor from Miami -- fat chance of that being on time!)

6:00AM Northeast Regional originates at Staples Mill in Richmond

8:00AM Northeast Regional originates at Staples Mill in Richmond

11:04AM Northeast Regional originates in Newport News and stops at Main Street Station before arriving at Staples Mill.

The new 7:00AM departure originating at Staples Mill is the 5th morning northbound if you include the Meteor from Miami.

I haven't had time to check out the six afternoon/early-evening return trips, but I know two of them are Florida-bound trains (The Palmetto and The Silver Star) and another is The Carolinian to Charlotte.

From today's RTD:

http://www2.timesdis...gat20-ar-53268/

Edited July 20, 2010 by burt

[burt]

I was in Penn Station here in NYCity last week and picked up the most current Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Virginia Service timetable dated May 10, 2010.

The new 7AM departure from Staples Mill which begins today and originates in Richmond is not shown on the schedule. The four trains that do operate Mondays thru Fridays (weekend times are different) are:

5:09AM (The Silver Meteor from Miami -- fat chance of that being on time!)

6:00AM Northeast Regional originates at Staples Mill in Richmond

8:00AM Northeast Regional originates at Staples Mill in Richmond

11:04AM Northeast Regional originates in Newport News and stops at Main Street Station before arriving at Staples Mill.

The new 7:00AM departure originating at Staples Mill is the 5th morning northbound if you include the Meteor from Miami.

I haven't had time to check out the six afternoon/early-evening return trips, but I know two of them are Florida-bound trains (The Palmetto and The Silver Star) and another is The Carolinian to Charlotte.

From today's RTD:

http://www2.timesdis...gat20-ar-53268/

And an interesting note: Due to heavy demand Virginia Railway Express has added a 4th car to its express service at 5:05AM from Fredericksburg to Union Station in D. C.

From today's RTD:

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2010/jul/20/VREGAT20-ar-320160/

[calwinston]

Columnist Michael Paul Williams discusses high speed rail in his story and video from today's RTD:

http://www2.timesdis...ike20-ar-53242/

As he points out, you can't get from Washington to anyplace in Carolina via rail without passing through Virginia. While North Carolina received more than $500 million for shovel-ready rail improvements from Federal funds, Virginia's share was about $75 million.

The only thing about Virginia now is their are still no shovel ready projects! Do Virginia officials expect to get money from the federal government and they have us sit on it for the next 5 years. More than likely if we do not use that money it will funneled to another high speed rail project in another state. Is their anyway to fast track these projects to shovel ready?

[burt]

The fastest trains southbound from Washington to Staples Mill are the reserved-seat Florida trains called The Palmetto (the fastest at 1 hour and 55 minutes), The Silver Star and the Silver Meteor, each running 2 hours and 10 minutes.

For instance, The Palmetto leaves Union Station at 9:55AM and arrives Staples Mill at 11:50AM, while The Star leaves D.C. Union Station daily at 3:00PM and arrives Staples Mill at 5:09PM and The Meteor departs Union Station at 7:30PM and arrives Staples Mill at 9:40PM.

All of the Florida trains between Washington and Richmond run express except for one stop in Alexandria

But northbound Florida trains from Staples Mill have delays built into their schedules and their running times average about 2 hours and 40 minutes.

All of the Florida trains require reservations and the northbound Silver Star discharges passengers ONLY and does not receive passengers in Richmond.

The northbound Meteor at 5:09AM and The Palmetto at 5:25PM arriving, respectively, at Union Station at 7:47AM and 7:57PM may be boarded in Richmond but reservations are required.

From personal experience I can tell you that I would never reserve on a northbound Florida train between Richmond and New York. Southbound from New York is a different matter since the trains generally depart on time from Penn Station. But they are more expensive than Northeast Regionals. You can even reserve a roomette on the Star and Meteor and enjoy a free meal in the dining car (not on The Palmetto.)

Edited July 20, 2010 by burt

[jbjust]

I once had a ticket on the northbound 5:09 train and when I checked the status of the train before leaving home, it was already reporting as 8 hours late . I drove to D.C. instead.

[burt]

I once had a ticket on the northbound 5:09 train and when I checked the status of the train before leaving home, it was already reporting as 8 hours late . I drove to D.C. instead.

Although the 5:09AM Silver Meteor is seldom that late, it is a rare thing indeed when it arrives even close to schedule. IMO, it's a PR disaster for Amrtrak to promote it as an "on the hour morning departure."

[calwinston]

At Petersburg Union Station last night many support High Speed Rail

The only concerns many people have are the grade crossings!

If you want your voice heard on high speed rail then read below!

The comments gathered will go into an environmental assessment document. Another session will take place tonight at 5 p.m. at Sunnyside Elementary in McKenney. Comments may be submitted through August 30 at ww.sehsr.org or mailed to:

Public Information Office

Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation

600 E. Main St. Suite 2102

Richmond VA 23219

http://progress-index.com/news/many-support-high-speed-rail-plan-but-some-worry-about-overpasses-1.898430

[calwinston]

Petersburg will be a huge transportation hub soon. I see many warehouses and manufacturing companies in the tri-cities future!

Interstate 85 via Petersburg-Research Triangle-Charlotte-Atlanta

Interstate 95 via New York to Miami through Petersburg

The new Route 460 from Hampton Roads possbile construction start 2011

New Rail line spur to Norfolk starts operation in 2013

Rail line from Miami to New York

Rail line to points west

3rd largest port in the United States 75 miles away!

http://hamptonroads.com/2010/07/state-sweetens-pot-get-bidders-new-us-460

http://progress-index.com/news/many-support-high-speed-rail-plan-but-some-worry-about-overpasses-1.898430

New US 460

http://www.virginiadot.org/PPTA_Projects/Route_460/documents/460NM1_MAP.pdf

New Rail line starts operation 2013

Interstate 85

Intestate 95

[calwinston]

Is it just me or is Gov McDonnell plan to privatize the ABC for 300-500 million dollars windfall for transportation(closer to 300 million in this economy) not a smart idea when the Commonwealth receives 200-220 million dollars a year in profit from the ABC?

http://www2.timesdis...at27-ar-351874/

The Numbers

http://www2.timesdis...25g1-ar-349322/

Poll

http://www2.timesdis...abc-poll-pl-29/

Honestly privatizing the ABC for 300 million to 500 million would build you nothing in todays money and 2 years down the road Virginia will be in the same boat of where to get funds for transportation!

Edited July 27, 2010 by calwinston

[LordChesterfield]

You're right, but how can we do anything about it? There's that group of people who won't listen to reason but just want to downsize government any way they can. Isn't it more important to have a steady revenue stream rather than a one-time payout? I've read many comments by people who think that the privatization of ABC will result in lower prices for alcohol, even though the governor himself states this isn't true.

[jbjust]

Um, the state will still be receiving taxes on the sale of the liquor which might be as high as the mark-up the state was receiving when it owned the liquor stores.