Good news. Thanks to $117 million of Virginia funds, work has started on the long sought Richmond Acca Yard bypass which will speed up not only the Newport News and Norfolk Regionals, but also the Carolinian, the Silvers, the Palmetto, and the AutoTrain. There was $117 million of VA state funding for in the FY2016-2021 Six Year Improvement Plan (SYIP) for CSX under "Improvements Richmond to Petersburg for 2 Train Extension to Norfolk and Lynchburg Second Train" but I had not seen any details on what the improvements were. Now we have some.
Richmond Times-Dispatch: $132 million reworking of CSX's Acca yard proceeding step by step. Excerpt:
Richmond Times-Dispatch: $132 million reworking of CSX's Acca yard proceeding step by step. Excerpt:
So, not only fixing the slow crawl through the Acca Yard, but also 10 miles of double tracking south of Petersburg with 3 new cross-overs? Not bad. Would be interesting to see what the projections are for trip time savings for the Norfolk Regionals and the Amtrak trains running south of Richmond.“You just crawl through Acca,” said Jeremy Latimer, rail programs administrator for the department.
But a $132 million reconfiguration of the yard that started in November and is scheduled to be finished in the spring of 2018, along with other related projects, aims to change that.
“Acca yard’s original main line configuration was that the main lines went straight down the middle of the yard and that made for extremely slow going, including Amtrak trains,” said Peter Burrus, the chief of rail at the state Department of Rail and Public Transportation who worked at CSX for 25 years.
“By creating this bypass, they can get around Acca yard much faster, without the other freight involvement.”
The state will contribute $117 million of the price tag, which also will include double tracking along 10 miles of railroad between Carson and Reams near Petersburg; and three new “crossovers,” which allow trains to switch between tracks at Westover Hills, Walmsley and Colonial Heights.