(The following article by Chip Jones was posted on the Richmond Times-Dispatch website on September 2.)
RICHMOND, Va. — Paul Higgs usually helps Amtrak keep its trains running on time. Yesterday, he just wanted to get its lights back on.
Staples Mill Station has been plunged into darkness since Monday night. “I’m hoping we have limited power soon,” said Higgs, general foreman for the passenger railroad’s mid-Atlantic division.
By afternoon, a contractor had installed generators that powered up Amtrak’s computers, phones and limited lighting in restrooms. Until then, green glow sticks cast a ghostly light around the station’s sinks and commodes.
But Amtrak still was waiting for regular electrical service to be restored by Dominion Virginia Power.
Meanwhile, miles of damaged or washed out track forced Amtrak to cancel all service between Richmond and Newport News until at least tomorrow.
In addition, Main Street Station, the downtown stop for limited Amtrak service, remained closed because of flooding in Shockoe Bottom.
North-south trains still stopped at Staples Mill Station but faced delays from continuing problems along CSX Corp. railroad, which the passenger service also uses.
Acca Yard reopened as CSX started what spokeswoman Misty Skipper called “limited operations” yesterday.
About 30 percent of CSX’s track was damaged by the storm. “We’re repairing some areas that could reopen by tonight, but other track could take a week or more to repair,” Skipper said.
Utility problems created a ripple effect along the railroad as electric track switches malfunctioned, forcing train crews to move them by hand. This caused some train delays, Higgs said.
Trains also were slowed because of congestion from limited track capacity and because some CSX crews AMTRAKhad to stop trains when the crews reached federally-mandated work limits.
At Staples Mill Station, Amtrak’s employees labored steadily during the power outage with no computers and no phones.
“The employees at this station have been exceptional,” Higgs said.
In a throwback to pre-computer days, ticket agents wrote tickets by hand. Sometimes they used their own cell phones to call Amtrak’s reservation center.
Passenger Buster Batts of Henrico County visited the station Tuesday and found it in the dark.
A ticket agent suggested he go home and use his computer to check Amtrak’s online reservation system. Batts said he found out which trains were running and managed to book a new reservation by calling (800) USA-RAIL.
Amtrak employees took other creative measures, such as recharging cell phones in their car lighters and tapping into power systems of trains that stopped at the station. “We’re sucking all the juice we can out of the trains,” Higgs said.
“Our staff’s been pretty much running around the clock,” he said. “The employees have been exceptional.”
As morning passengers arrived, Higgs held open the station’s automatic door that no longer worked.
“Have a seat,” he said pleasantly. “The train’s not ready for the boarding.”
Marianna Cady shepherded her three children into the station with their rolling luggage. After visiting her sister near Newport News, she was supposed to board a train there for a trip north to New Jersey.
Then someone called from Amtrak and told her trains weren’t leaving Newport News come to Staples Mill Station outside of Richmond.
“This is the first I’ve ever done the train,” Cady said. “My sister told me how easy the train is.”