(Fredericksburg.com published the following Associated Press article on March 28.)
FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — Hoping to avoid a repeat of last week’s fiasco, Virginia Railway Express and Amtrak have reached an agreement with the freight company that owns some of their tracks.
Riders spent hours getting home last Thursday when CSX slapped a 15-mile-an-hour speed limit on passenger trains, because of a flash flood warning. Passengers watched freight trains whizzing by.
CSX is changing its policy under pressure from angry VRE and Amtrak managers.
From now on, whenever there’s a flood warning, passenger trains will be able to travel up to 50-miles-an-hour, with the exact speed left up to the engineer’s discretion. The speed will be restricted to 15-miles-an-hour only if there’s high water.