More Lynchburg News

[gdj]

The Richmond newspaper http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/sta...-055801/345776/ today reports that ridership is well ahead of expectations.

 

[Notelvis]

I'm proud have been one of those first 55,000 passengers riding the new train from Charlottesville to Washington in April.

 

[acelafan]

I'm proud have been one of those first 55,000 passengers riding the new train from Charlottesville to Washington in April.

And another nice article here with a few more details.

http://www.progressiverailroading.com/prda...ws.asp?id=23356

 

[VARider]

I'm proud have been one of those first 55,000 passengers riding the new train from Charlottesville to Washington in April.

I've taken the new train several times since October, and doing so tomorrow from CVS to ALX.

When the schedule was announced, there was worry that the train was leaving too late for a CVS-WAS day trip--and fear the ridership would be minimal. But not so, it has been a huge success.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

I'm proud have been one of those first 55,000 passengers riding the new train from Charlottesville to Washington in April.

I've taken the new train several times since October, and doing so tomorrow from CVS to ALX.

When the schedule was announced, there was worry that the train was leaving too late for a CVS-WAS day trip--and fear the ridership would be minimal. But not so, it has been a huge success.

Great news.

But how is the Crescent doing meantime? I think I have heard that it was doing well, also. But would like the up to date.

 

[MattW]

I've heard that the Crescent hasn't lost any traffic, and has infact been doing better because its seats are no longer taken up by short-distance passengers.

 

[afigg]

I've heard that the Crescent hasn't lost any traffic, and has infact been doing better because its seats are no longer taken up by short-distance passengers.

The ridership numbers for all trains are available for up through March in the monthly March 2010 report on the Amtrak Reports & Documents web page ( http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServe...2/1237608345018 ). The Crescent ridership for the first 6 months of the Fiscal year, October 09 to March 2010, which matches the startup of the Lynchburg regional service, is up by 1.1% to 135,223 total over the same period in FY09. For the month of March, which was a good month for all the LD trains, Crescent ridership was 26,532, up 6.1% over March 2009. The Lynchburg regional got 11,365 riders in March, a whopping 193.7% over the budget number.

For fun, check the 180 page Northeast Corridor Infrastructure Master Plan draft report at the top of the Amtrak report web page, which was just posted today. The report covers the proposed track & station improvements down to Petersburg as one of the feeder corridors to the NEC. The map on page 24 has a box and line indicating a plan calling for the use of the Buckingham branch to send the Regionals to Charlottesville from the RF&P line and then on to Roanoke. Don't know how Culpepper and Manassas will feel about that. Or whether that route would be faster if the line were to be upgraded. Someone should start a thread on the NEC report as it covers a lot of potential improvements to rail service from Virginia to Maine.