(The Richmond Times-Dispatch posted the following article by Chip Jones on its website on February 25.)
RICHMOND, Va. — Ann Long overheard some Richmonders talking about getting off Amtrak early Saturday evening in Washington and driving the rest of the way home.
Ten hours later, when her train finally limped into Richmond shortly before dawn, Long wished she had taken that car ride.
“Every time I get on Amtrak something weird happens,” Long said yesterday. “This was the worst.”
Long was not alone: Hundreds of passengers were caught in a backup of freight and passenger trains in Northern Virginia after flash-flood warnings knocked train speeds down to 15 mph.
“I flew to London in less time” than the 10-hour Washington-Richmond train, said Lois Cady of Midlothian.
CSX Corp., the Richmond-based railroad that owns the track, ordered the slowdown because trains “have to be able to stop quickly” if there is a threat of flood- ing, spokesman Dan Murphy said.
No tracks washed out on the 100-mile stretch between Richmond and Alexandria, but parts of nearby highways, including U.S. 1, were under water, Murphy said.
Some CSX tracks were submerged in West Virginia, but operations returned to normal yesterday.
But the weekend delays came on the heels of a three-day shutdown last week and hampered Amtrak’s efforts to gain the public’s confidence that it is a reliable alternative to driving or flying.
“It’s just very poor timing,” said Michael Jerew, Amtrak’s district manager for Virginia. “We were just bouncing back from the last mess.”
Amtrak officials said they had little choice but to keep the trains running through the flood watch, but some passengers disagreed.
“We were not told before boarding that we were getting on the Gilligan train, taking over nine and a half hours for a two-hour tour,” Cady said.
Traveling with her husband, Cady said they would have stayed at a hotel across the street from the Alexandria station if they had been warned about potential delays.
CSX lowered speeds to 15 mph at 6 p.m. Saturday. (Normally, Amtrak trains run at top speeds of 70 mph between Alexandria and Richmond.) Amtrak officials hoped the weather-related slowdown would be lifted that night.
CSX kept the restrictions in place, though, and the backups occurred up and down the tracks. Nine Am- trak trains were caught in the low-speed zone. The restrictions were lifted at 6 a.m. Sunday.
Adding to the confusion, some trains stopped in their tracks when Amtrak crews hit their 12-hour work limits set by federal law.
That is what happened when Train 99 stopped about 4 a.m. Sunday, four miles from Staples Mill Station.
The passengers peered outside, Cady said, wondering why they were stopped on the edge of Richmond.
The crew left the train, and the passengers waited for a new one to get on board.
“I understand that there are regulations as to crew time, but common sense would have been a welcome change at this point,” Cady said yesterday.
“The passengers were calm and took all of this pretty much in stride,” she said.
But the passengers could have used more timely information.
“The announcements were few and far between and inaudible due to a bad speaker system,” she said.
Amtrak provided free soft drinks and parking at the Staples Mill Station, and some ticket refunds, according to Jerew.
For Long, it was a reminder of the problems she encountered riding Amtrak from Baltimore to Richmond on Sept. 11, 2001, after the terrorist attacks.
That trip took only five hours – half the time of Saturday night’s trip.