All routes through Virginia are brutal!

[Pgl]

Just took 2 roundtrips thorough Virginia (1 short, 1 long).

EVERY trip through. Virginia resulted in a 1.5-2.5 delay. Why? Massive areas on single-track due to CSX maintenance. We were stopped for freight traffic 5 times from the VA border to DC :-(.

Now I don't mind a 2 hour delay on a long trip, but my 5 hour trip took 7.5 hours- that's not OK.

The worst part, there's absolutely NO service alert on the route from amtrak. I asked a conductor and he said "yep, EVERY train EVERY day has been 1-2 hours delayed in this area. No idea why amtrak won't post an alert"

Grrrrr.

 

[xyzzy]

It stinks, but this time of year I-95 is no better... especially Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

 

[afigg]

Well, not all routes through Virginia, The Crescent, Lynchburg Regional, and the Cardinal take the NS tracks to the west and don't go through the mess that is the Richmond Staples Mill to Rocky Mount segment on CSX. Not every train has been delayed 1 to 2 hours, there have been some that get through without long delays, but yes, most are encountering delays.

As for why Amtrak does not post a service alert, don't know. The posting of service alerts for track work projects appears to be haphazard, sometimes they post them for sustained delays, sometimes not.

 

[crescent2]

Yes, we just rode the Crescent twice and the Cardinal, and we were on time. It varies.

 

[Anderson]

I'll save the railfan details, but there have been issues with CSX around Richmond for decades. I remember there being problems back in the '90s or early 2000s when my parents took me to New York (though I did a lot of sleeping on that trip; I know we took the train once, but the memories are so hazy I sometimes wonder if the trip ever happened). You've got two problems. One is a lack of crossovers around the main yard in Richmond. The other is that the RF&P (the line between Richmond and DC) is horridly overloaded and if you're out of slot you're screwed.

 

[xyzzy]

The only real solution for DC-Richmond is to triple-track half of it. Do a Rip Van Winkle, and in 30 years I expect it will happen... probably how long it will take SEHSR to be completed Richmond-Raleigh-Charlotte, and by that time they'll be thinking about Charlotte-Atlanta.