Virginia Service expansion

[thefirewarde]

I hadn't heard about additional Roanoke round trips, but I'm in favor. I thought there was a Charlotte Lynchburg DC trip waiting on Charlotte Gateway and the Long Bridge (and equipment availability).

 

[City of Miami]

Someone (i.e. Amtrak or NS) has not done well with the addition of the second RNK frequency. In the mornings 3 Amtrak trains need to meet generally between Manassas and Charlottesville. There's ample double track there. But somehow they rarely manage it smoothly and often all 3 lose about half an hour south of Culpeper. 176 used to be very dependable; now it's late to WAS almost every trip. I don't get it. Adding in 20 to the mix 4 hrs later than the previous schedule certainly didn't help. There is almost never freight interference. The southbound trains are very frequently late departing WAS even if they arrive early. What is the persistent problem? VA is not getting what we paid for imo. Even so ridership is astonishing to me. 150+ people on the CVS platform is normal on Sunday mornings when all 3 trains arrive within half an hour (or so )!

 

[Septa9739]

Could it be a problem similar to what is happening in Columbus, WI with the Borealis? There is no platform (as far as I know) on the mainline farthest from the station. Does this artificially create single tracking conditions?

 

[thefirewarde]

Someone (i.e. Amtrak or NS) has not done well with the addition of the second RNK frequency. In the mornings 3 Amtrak trains need to meet generally between Manassas and Charlottesville. There's ample double track there. But somehow they rarely manage it smoothly and often all 3 lose about half an hour south of Culpeper. 176 used to be very dependable; now it's late to WAS almost every trip. I don't get it. Adding in 20 to the mix 4 hrs later than the previous schedule certainly didn't help. There is almost never freight interference. The southbound trains are very frequently late departing WAS even if they arrive early. What is the persistent problem? VA is not getting what we paid for imo. Even so ridership is astonishing to me. 150+ people on the CVS platform is normal on Sunday mornings when all 3 trains arrive within half an hour (or so )!

Per OpenRailwayMap there's quite a bit of single track starting adjacent to Zachary Taylor Highway to just after the Rapidan River crossing, over nine miles. Then you have over four miles of double track, then at Orange you drop back to single for maybe seven miles (I'm guessing they use the Washington district not Washington Subdivision?) - what I'm saying is, if they aren't in their slots in the first place I do kind of see how they hit more delays through there. Hopefully that spot, whatever is actually causing the issue, is on VPRA's radar.

 

[City of Miami]

Could it be a problem similar to what is happening in Columbus, WI with the Borealis? There is no platform (as far as I know) on the mainline farthest from the station. Does this artificially create single tracking conditions?

No. I have observed at least once a freight passing through CVS on the far track while an Amtrak train was in the station loading.

 

[Septa9739]

Correct. I understand it is physically double tracked, so is Columbus. The problem there is only one track currently serves the station, leading to a large block that is effectively single track for passenger trains, causing cascading delays if something enters that territory even a bit off schedule. If there’s little FTI and the delays are PTI, I’m curious how large that block is for Charlottesville.