(The following story by John D. Boyd appeared on The Journal of Commerce website on August 19, 2010.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Norfolk Southern Railway completed in and around Front Royal, Va., a series of state- and company-funded construction projects, which will boost speeds for its double-stack intermodal trains moving along the north-south route that parallels Interstate 81.
Those six projects, which also improved tracks and signal systems near the Virginia Inland Port outside that city, together eliminate what NS said was “a critical choke point” on the company’s Crescent Corridor — a long-term double-stack lane program that stretches from New Orleans and Memphis up into the Northeast.
Virginia put $43 million into the work, while NS spent nearly $20 million, to help move more containers by rail that might otherwise travel by truck in what is already a heavily used I-81 trucking route and to aid state efforts to expand passenger travel by train.
“The completion of these I-81 corridor improvements will benefit both freight and passenger rail service in Virginia,” said Thelma Drake, director of the state Department of Rail and Public Transportation. “This capacity will attract more trucks from the highways to trains, as well as facilitate future passenger expansion in Northern Virginia.”
NS spokesman Robin Chapman said the last project of the six straightened curves of two separate rail lines that merge into a single-lane rail bridge over the Shenandoah River just north of Front Royal. The previous curvature had forced stack trains to slow to just 15 mph in that area.
Now, said Chapman, train speeds in that junction will double to 30 mph for loads moving between Manassas, Va., and Hagerstown, Md., while those moving along the valley line to Roanoke can move at 25 mph.
Other projects included five miles of double-tracking near the port facility north of Front Royal, while sidings were lengthened to allow faster trains to pass more easily between Front Royal and Manassas to the east.
“With these improvements, we can move more trains faster through Northern Virginia,” said John Friedmann, NS vice president for strategic planning. “This is a significant milestone in increasing the freight capacity of the Crescent Corridor in Virginia, and a prime example of a successful public-private partnership at work.”