(The following story by Edie Gross appeared on the Free Lance-Star website on February 27.)
FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — After years of complaints by passengers and public officials, Amtrak says it’s trying to make it easier for travelers to know on which track the train is arriving at the Fredericksburg train station.
Early this week, Amtrak began using the station’s public-address system to tell passengers whether trains were arriving on Track 2, on the east side of the station, or on Track 3, the west side.
Amtrak spokeswoman Marcie Golgoski said the system is far from perfect, but the company is trying to communicate with its customers.
“It’s not running 100 percent,” she said. “Really, the whole thing is a work in progress.”
Riders and government officials have for years urged Amtrak to announce the arrival of its trains in Fredericksburg. Until now, the company had resisted, saying CSX Transportation, the owner of the tracks, should do it.
In the meantime, passengers had to guess where to stand. More often than not, they would wait for trains on the east platform, which is closest to the parking lot.
But when trains showed up on the west side, travelers often made a mad dash down the ramp, under the tracks and back up again–often with luggage–to get on board.
Frustrated passengers, some of whom actually missed their trains, wrote plenty of letters to the editor. Several caught the eye of U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Davis, R-1st, who contacted Amtrak in December, asking them to fix the problem.
Amtrak’s office at the Alexandria train station has equipment–purchased by the Virginia Railway Express–that allows Amtrak employees there to monitor train activity on all the tracks between Washington and Richmond.
VRE officials had urged them to use that equipment to spot trains coming into Fredericksburg and then to make announcements over the station’s speakers.
In a Feb. 3 letter to Davis, Joe McHugh, Amtrak’s vice president for government affairs, said it would be difficult for the limited personnel in Alexandria to announce trains coming into Fredericksburg.
But yesterday, Golgoski said that’s exactly what they were doing.
“They’re doing their absolute best in Alexandria to make announcements,” she said. “It’s obviously now twice the work, but they’re trying to get into a routine. We definitely want to help our passengers get on the right train.”
Chris Connelly, Davis’ spokesman, said the congresswoman still wants to meet with Amtrak officials to find out why it took so long to remedy the situation and to make sure the announcements are regular and accurate.
“It needs to be 100 percent, and it needs to be correct,” Connelly said.
Amtrak is still working out glitches. Yesterday, passengers had already boarded northbound train 86 around 9:30 a.m. when a voice came over the public-address system, announcing that the train would arrive momentarily on Track 2.
Fredericksburg City Councilman Joe Wilson has been pushing Amtrak for years to communicate better with its passengers. This is a step in the right direction, he said.
“They’re doing it because of the pressure we put on from this end,” he said. “I told them a long time ago this was not going to go away.”