(The following article by Don Phillips appeared in the Washington Post on March 27.)
WASHINGTON — CSX Corp., which has played havoc with Virginia and Maryland commuters by slowing or halting passenger trains during extreme weather, has proposed new operating procedures that would allow trains to go faster during periods of flash flooding, officials said yesterday.
Virginia officials said CSX also has agreed to install new switch heaters on the line to Fredericksburg as part of an effort to keep commuter trains running during snowstorms like the one in mid-February, when CSX halted all service between Washington and Richmond for several days.
CSX said that within a few weeks, it will also have a new policy on speed limits during extreme heat. Speed limits were imposed after Amtrak’s Capitol Limited derailed in Silver Spring last summer. Track misalignment because of heat was thought to be a contributor to the wreck.
Top officials of CSX, whose tracks are used by numerous Amtrak, Virginia Railway Express and Maryland Rail Commuter Service (MARC) trains, flew to Washington on Tuesday to confer with federal and local officials, who have been critical of CSX for forcing passenger trains to a crawl or stop during extreme weather while continuing to operate freight service at higher speeds.
Amtrak operates VRE trains under contract, while CSX itself operates MARC’s Brunswick and Camden lines. Amtrak’s long-distance trains from New York and Washington to Chicago and Florida operate wholly, or in large part, over CSX tracks.
During periods of heavy rain last Thursday, Amtrak and VRE in particular were upset that freight trains were allowed to go 40 mph while passenger and commuter trains were limited to 15 mph by both CSX and Norfolk Southern Corp. Trains were delayed for up to three hours on the Fredericksburg line and up to five hours on MARC’s line to Martinsburg, W.Va. Some passenger trains were stopped to allow freight trains to pass them, including one Amtrak train that was sidetracked at Fredericksburg to make way for a CSX trainload of New Jersey trash headed for a landfill in southeastern Virginia.
CSX proposed a new policy Tuesday that would allow passenger trains to travel at “conditional speed not to exceed 50 mph” when a flash-flood warning is issued. “Conditional speed” is a speed that would allow an engineer to stop the train within half the range of vision. That speed would be left to the engineer’s discretion.
Freight trains would be allowed to continue operating at 40 mph.
In areas where high water is actually present or the danger is obvious, speeds of all trains would be limited to 15 mph.
In addition, CSX agreed to drop its policy of applying flash-flood speed limits to entire subdivisions, such as Washington-Richmond, and apply them more specifically to areas likely to be hit by heavy rains. CSX’s private weather service, Weather Bank, has told the railroad it can be more definitive in pinpointing areas of greatest concern.
In a letter to Amtrak President David L. Gunn, CSX Vice President John M. Gibson Jr. said Amtrak engineers and conductors would have to undergo additional training on the concept of conditional speed, and receive written certification before they could operate trains under the new policy.
While not directly addressing the CSX proposal, Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black said Amtrak would “welcome any effort to promote a rational operating plan for adverse weather conditions, and will work with CSX to accomplish that.”
During last week’s heavy rains, Norfolk Southern, whose tracks are used by VRE’s Manassas trains and several Amtrak trains, also limited passenger trains to 15 mph and freight trains to 40 mph. But neither VRE nor Amtrak criticized Norfolk Southern, partly because it lifted its speed limits earlier in the Thursday afternoon rush hour, and partly because Amtrak and VRE have a good operating relationship with NS.
Norfolk Southern said it received no complaints about its actions Thursday, and did not join CSX in making any changes. But NS spokesman Frank Brown said that passengers are “important customers.”
“We have not been contacted about it, but we would be glad to discuss any speed limit issues as they apply to the Norfolk Southern system,” Brown said.