Long Bridge Study released - 58 more VRE trains & 8 reverse MARC trains

[davinp]

The study recommends a new two-track bridge across the Potomac, as well as keeping the current bridge in place. This expansion of capacity will improve the reliability of our trains, reduce travel times, and allow for the increase of passenger rail service.

Overall, it increases our Amtrak service by 83 percent including New service to Manassas, Culpeper, Charlottesville, Lynchburg, Roanoke, and NRV; New service to Richmond, Petersburg, Williamsburg, Newport News, and Norfolk; and New service to the Southeast including to Raleigh and Charlotte. It also allows for 58 more VRE trains and 8 new reverse commute MARC trains!

https://vhsr.salsalabs.org/longbridge/index.html

http://longbridgeproject.com/wp-content ... geDEIS.pdf

[Backshophoss]

Considering that MARC is about to kill service to W.Va to ONE RT on Weekdays,Don't believe they will head south into Va AT ALL!
Figure on CSX to KILL/Object to any expansion of VRE service or Amtrak service!

[dgvrengineer]

Too bad Virginia sold its holdings in the former RF&P. Would have given them much more leverage.

[schmod]

Considering that MARC is about to kill service to W.Va to ONE RT on Weekdays,Don't believe they will head south into Va AT ALL!
Figure on CSX to KILL/Object to any expansion of VRE service or Amtrak service!

The WV state government is 100% responsible for that situation.

Given that VA tends to be pretty good about supporting and (slowly) expanding its existing rail offerings, I wouldn't really be all that concerned about this.

[mtuandrew]

The WV state government is 100% responsible for that situation.

Given that VA tends to be pretty good about supporting and (slowly) expanding its existing rail offerings, I wouldn't really be all that concerned about this.

Exactly - Virginia has been supportive of passenger rail, and they’d be willing to pay for extra service if it was warranted.

There’s definite demand now. At some point in the middle future though I’m not sure whether additional service (more than an additional 12x/day VRE) will be warranted. It’s valuable for the people who live west and south, but ever since the W&OD went out there hasn’t been any heavy rail service to the hugely populous northwestern suburbs like Reston and Leesville, and the Silver Line doesn’t connect to any VRE stations.

EDIT: as for CSX, they’re getting a new government-funded bridge as well as lots of track improvements. There’s only so much protesting of additional frequencies they can do until said government says “ok, guess this bridge, this third track, and all the various government-funded improvements are ours now. Take a hike.”

[Arlington]

The numbers on PDF page 11 of the DEIS are what the operators (VRE, MARC, Amtrak, CSX) report that they want to operate
NOW, at "No Action Max" and in 2040 with the new bridge:
RR/Now/Max/2040 with new bridge

VREX 34 38 92
MARC 0 0 8
AMTK 24 26 44
CSXT 18 42 42
NS** 0 6 6
TOTAL 76 112 192

**Interesting to see that Norfolk Southern would get 6 trains per day with or without the new bridge

It is also interesting that this basically shows that Amtrak could be running an additional r/t, and VRE has rights for two mor r/ts but somehow must be being stymied elsewhere on NS or CSX from actually operating?



The middle column of numbers