(The following article by Chip Jones was posted on the Richmond Times-Dispatch website on September 15.)
RICHMOND, Va. — CSX Corp., often blamed for favoring its freight trains over passenger service, is working with Amtrak to improve on-time performance, a state rail group learned yesterday.
The governor’s Rail Advisory Board was looking at how long-term growth could affect Virginia’s public investment into private railroads. Some members of the board questioned whether CSX is making good-faith efforts to help Amtrak run smoothly and whether passenger rail service will ever improve.
“What I’d like to see is for CSX, from the top level on down to the dispatcher, to give it the very best they can, with a legal obligation to give priority to Amtrak trains,” said Richard Beadles, a Richmond representative on the board.
Beadles’ criticism followed a report by a CSX executive claiming that the railroad is facing operating problems created by a glut of freight on its lines.
Federal regulations require freight railroads to move Amtrak passenger trains before they move their own trains, except in special cases.
Amtrak trains have run late
This summer, passenger trains have been running later than usual and Amtrak officials and others have turned up the heat on some freight lines.
“We’re talking to Amtrak about realistic schedules on the [Interstate]-95 corridor,” said Jay Westbrook, the CSX assistant vice president assigned to Virginia.
No one from Amtrak spoke at the meeting, held at the Science Museum of Virginia.
Westbrook said he hopes Amtrak will create a more practical schedule for the Auto Train between Lorton in Northern Virginia and Sanford, Fla., near Orlando.
The Auto Train, which hauls vehicles and passengers, are usually an hour or more late. Fewer than 10 percent of the trains arrive on time after the more than 16-hour ride of 855 miles.
“We’re requesting Amtrak to add another hour into that transit time,” Westbrook said.
Overall, Amtrak meets its schedule 75 percent of the time, Westbrook said. That drops to 19.5 percent in the Washington-Florida route known as the I-95 corridor.
More locomotives could help
CSX hopes Amtrak will add locomotives to some of its trains to accelerate departures and improve on-time performance, Westbrook said.
But he conceded that CSX has caused many delays because of ongoing upgrades, including in the Washington-Richmond corridor.
“We’d like to partner with Amtrak and jointly provide a much higher level of reliability for their passengers,” he said.
Despite Westbook’s upbeat tone, comments from another CSX official caught some rail advisers by surprise and raised questions about future state funding.
John Gibson, vice president of operations and planning at CSX, said the railroad plans to invest in new routes primarily where it’s seeing increases in population and industry in the Southeast, particularly Georgia and Florida.
“Manufacturing is not moving into the Northeast,” he said. “It’s moving out.”
For Virginia, this means that the mid-Atlantic is not as vital to CSX.
Sharon Bulova, a Fairfax County supervisor who chairs the Rail Advisory Board, said she hopes Virginia’s rail enhancement fund will spur CSX to increase its financial commitments here.