(The following article by Kelly Hannon was posted on the Free Lance Star website on September 21.)
FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — Rep. Jo Ann Davis summoned the biggest names in area rail transit to her office last week–Amtrak, Virginia Railway Express and CSX.
She posed a question: What did she need to do to address service problems on Virginia’s eastern rail line, running through the Fredericksburg region? Find funding? Cut through red tape?
She was underwhelmed by the response.
‘They didn’t give me any answers, and that’s my concern,” Davis said.
The Republican represents Virginia’s 1st District, which includes the commuter-rich Fredericksburg area. She gets a lot of mail from constituents whose work and travel plans are upended by canceled and delayed Amtrak and VRE trains.
Davis emphasized she’s not placing blame on any agency. She just wants to know how to bring better service to passengers.
‘They need to come to me and the other members of Congress in a succinct, specific way and tell us us what they need. What dollars do you need? No one’s come to me and said they need anything,” Davis said.
She thinks Amtrak should appoint a full-time manager to solely focus on the Virginia Railway Express. Amtrak now has one person who coordinates with VRE and MARC, a substantially larger commuter train network in Maryland and West Virginia.
“MARC is a bigger operation and requires more attention than VRE and it does not even have service in Virginia,” Davis wrote in a letter to Amtrak. “This leads me to the conclusion that VRE does not get the attention it is due, and this is simply unacceptable.”
Agencies that participated in last week’s meeting said it was productive.
No one could point to one definitive thing that would instantly improve service, said Mark Roeber, VRE’s manager of government relations and public affairs. Rather, people talked about the long-term approach to better service on Virginia’s eastern rail corridor, he said.
It will be a costly and complicated effort involving federal and state governments and the rail lines, Roeber said.
“When we left that meeting, we felt it was a positive first step,” he said. “We are thankful she took the initiative to call the meeting and get the participants together in a room without finger-pointing or name-calling.”
CSX agreed. “We will continue to work in partnership with Congresswoman Davis, VRE and other state and federal officials, and all other interested parties, to develop a funding strategy that will get the Virginia area passengers the new rail line needed for service quality,” said CSX spokesman Bob Sullivan.
Amtrak did not return a call seeking comment.
A few changes are in the works to improve the ride for VRE commuters.
Starting next spring, Fredericksburg-line riders will have a swifter crossing at Quantico Creek. That’s when a new bridge is expected to open, doubling track capacity for freight and passenger trains. The current bridge is a choke point as trains take turns crossing on a single track.
Commuters will also have a more comfortable ride. Eleven of the railway’s 50 new railcars will arrive in November.
And VRE is working to meet passenger demand for another morning train, one that departs earlier than 5:15 a.m. from the Fredericksburg station.
Perhaps best of all, on-time performance is improving.
In September, 89 percent of morning trains on the Fredericksburg line arrived on time. For all Fredericksburg trains, the on-time performance is 79 percent, much higher than summer rates of 48 percent in July and 68 percent in August.
Ridership has rebounded, to an average of 14,500 daily riders systemwide from 13,300 people in August.
But a single day of delays can disrupt progress.
On Tuesday morning, the locomotive failed on Train 310 just south of Lorton. More than 300 passengers, many of whom boarded the train as early as 7:50 at the Fredericksburg station, were stuck on the tracks until 11 a.m.
VRE tried to get a nearby Amtrak train to push Train 310. But the Amtrak locomotive died, too, leaving two stranded trains on the tracks.
Amtrak and VRE called in teams of mechanics. Finally, VRE was able to push Train 310 to Lorton, where passengers could board buses to home stations or the Franconia/Springfield Metro station.
VRE’s CEO Dale Zehner was at the station to meet them. Zehner also rode Train 310 yesterday morning to field questions and comments from passengers.
“We were absolutely, positively saddened by the delays and the fact the delays were as severe as they were. In our best effort we were trying everything in our power to remedy the situation,” Roeber said.
The locomotive failure highlights another challenge for VRE–old equipment. It started service in 1992 with 40-year old refurbished locomotives. The same locomotives are pushing or pulling trains today.
For VRE to add seats on its trains, it will need to expand from six cars to 10 cars. Carrying the extra weight will require new or additional locomotives, Roeber said.
Another key to improving service on the Fredericksburg line will be expanding capacity on the tracks. CSX, which moves freight trains on the corridor, acknowledges this need.
“VRE commuter service suffers from the same basic problem as the entire D.C.- area commute. There’s too much demand on a system that hasn’t grown in decades,” Sullivan said.
Growing the tracks will mean installing a $70 million stretch of third track over 11.4 miles from North Stafford to Prince William, combined with a separate federal effort to install a third track near Springfield.
But the Stafford-Prince William project needs money. In December, the Commonwealth Transportation Board approved $2.5 million, and there’s a chance more money could result from next week’s special transportation session of the Virginia General Assembly.
House Speaker Bill Howell submitted an amendment to provide $17.6 million earlier this year, but it was cut during final budget negotiations.
Davis plans to reconvene the rail working group again, soon. She said she hopes to have a better response.
“We can put all the cars on the track we want,” she said. “But unless we work out the bugs, we’ve still got a problem.”