(The following article by Kelly Hannon was posted on the Free Lance Star website on October 19.)
FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — Gripes about Virginia Railway Express service were aired freely last night during a public forum that included top rail and elected officials.
Detailed answers were given by VRE CEO Dale Zehner, along with CSX’s liaison to VRE, Assistant Vice President Jay Westbrook.
Virginia House Speaker Del. Bill Howell, R-Stafford, and Virginia Sens. John Chichester, R-Northumberland, and Edd Houck, D-Spotsylvania, organized the session at the Fredericksburg Expo & Conference Center after getting repeated calls from constituents. The three men also answered questions, mostly on funding.
Zehner started with good news: On-time performance is improving on the VRE’s Fredericksburg Line, and that’s partially due to rapid, detailed communication between CSX and VRE about problems on the tracks.
“It is better,” Zehner said. “The number of delays are down. Lengths of delays are down.”
But some riders questioned why freight trains were allowed to pass in front of passenger trains. Others said CSX makes a profit from running VRE trains.
Westbrook said that’s not true.
“It is not a money-making service. It is a public service we try to cooperatively provide the community,” Westbrook said.
Part of the public’s confusion may be that CSX gets to control who uses the tracks.
The rail lines are private property, and VRE is allowed to run trains because CSX lets it.
When VRE started service in the early 1990s, the two agencies signed a mutual agreement where CSX gave up time and space on its tracks to let VRE operate. In return, VRE had to find a way to replace the rail capacity it was taking away.
Building a third track from Arkendale in North Stafford to Powell’s Creek in Prince William, and a new bridge over Quantico Creek, opening next spring, will accomplish part of this pledge.
“Until that additional infrastructure is in place, you won’t experience the kind of reliability you’d like to see,” Westbrook told the audience of about 100 people.
Eighty-eight trains a day run in the corridor between Richmond and Washington, and 48 of those trains–more than half–are Amtrak or Virginia Railway Express, Westbrook said.
CSX does hold back freight traffic during VRE’s morning and afternoon service window, Westbrook said during a conversation with a Free Lance-Star reporter Tuesday. There are a few clients whose goods they cannot, contractually, hold back, though–among them Tropicana and UPS, he said.
But VRE rider Rick Pullen did the math on the trains, and broken down, those numbers equal an average of four trains an hour.
“Why is it so hard to manage?” Pullen asked. “I’d love to see copies of the reports on why it’s such a crowded track.”
Like Interstate 95, Westbrook said, no one wants to use the rails in the wee hours. “What we’ve got is a rush hour period where everyone wants to operate in that window,” he said.
Signals are part of the problem. They are widely spaced on the Fredericksburg Line tracks, which works well for freight trains, but not for passenger trains, Westbrook said. VRE could run smaller, more closely spaced trains if the signals were positioned closer together–something that will take funding.
Money questions were typically directed at the three legislators.
Howell assured riders that the $17.6 million he had earmarked for a third track will be revived, after it failed to make it into this year’s budget. He said he’s hopeful Gov. Tim Kaine will include it in his budget.
Other topics raised at the forum by riders:
A desire for weekend and evening VRE service to take cars off Interstate 95.
The state of the Fredericksburg station. Congresswoman Jo Ann Davis, who represents the Fredericksburg region, secured more than $2 million in federal funds to improve the station. But riders described it last night as dirty, smelly and a poor introduction to Fredericksburg.
VRE will work with the city of Fredericksburg, which shares responsibility for the station, to use the money to improve the situation, Zehner said.
An earlier morning train.
VRE is currently in negotiations with CSX to run a train that would leave Fredericksburg at around 4:45 a.m., Zehner said. VRE’s earliest train today leaves at 5:15 a.m.
It’s one of its most popular trains, and as a result, VRE added two cars, which can delay arrival times in Northern Virginia and Washington. Zehner said an earlier train would help the 5:15 a.m. train arrive on time.
A Spotsylvania VRE station.
“We’ve negotiated as good a contract as we’re going to ever get with the VRE right now,” said Hap Connors, chairman of the Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors. The problem is there aren’t enough supervisors on the board who would approve the contract to join VRE, Connors said. He urged people interested in rail service to contact their supervisor, and pay attention to who supports VRE membership on Election Day.