Norfolk VA service to start by end of 2012

[afigg]

I'm hoping that they'll extend one more of the trains down the Peninsula (as has been the plan for a while), but I also agree that at least one train is going to need to spend the night in Richmond unless they decide to have a 5 AM and 7 AM departure from NFK and put the 6 AM departure in NPN (which is also possible, I'll admit).

Getting a train down to Norfolk in the morning/back up in the evening is going to be necessary eventually...are there any candidate trains for extending to fill that, or are we likely looking at splitting 66/67 (or throwing some cars onto the Palmetto in the vein of how the Carolinian started, which is probably far too early of an afternoon departure to be desirable) if Amtrak wants to do that?

Looking at the NEC schedules (weekdays only), there are some possible NYP-WAS NE Regionals to extend to Norfolk for a WAS-Norfolk round trip. In the morning, there are NE Regionals #151 and #111. #151 departs NYP at 4:40 AM, terminates at WAS at 8:15 AM. #111 departs NYP 5:30 AM, terminates WAS 8:45 AM. So, after an engine change, #151 could depart WAS at 8:45 to 9 AM, arrive RVR at ~ 11 AM, arrive Norfolk at ~ 1 PM.

Northbound in the evening, #188 departs WAS 7:10 PM, arrives NYP 10:34 PM. So if the turnaround train departed Norfolk at ~2:30 PM, arrived RVR ~4:30 PM, arrives at WAS 6:45 PM it could become #188 to NYP. Palmetto however arriving WAS at 7:57 PM is not that far behind. If a later departure out of Norfolk is desired, #198 departs WAS at 8:45 PM for NYP. Still, this looks like it could work - ignoring equipment, personnel issues, and whether CSX would be agreeable. These NE Regionals could also be used for a second day round trip train to Lynchburg if VA were to go for that.

Figuring a good schedule for 3 daily trains to/from Norfolk could be quite a trick balancing off the possible connections to the NEC and WAS-Norfolk traffic issues. I think there would be a desire to have viable connections to/from either the Carolinian, Palmetto, or Silver Star to points south of Petersburg from Norfolk. I'll have to look at the schedule to see what might work. A connection to the bus at RVR to Charlottesville to connect to the Cardinal would also be nice to have for those in the Norfolk area (even more so for a daily Cardinal). Looking at the schedule, the bus departs RVR at 12 Noon, so a mid-morning departure from Norfolk would be needed to meet up. Which wouldn't match up well with a 7 AM departure from Norfolk. Hmm, ok, how about 4-5 daily trains to Norfolk? :lol:

Thinking long term, after there are 2 daily trains to Roanoke, 3 trains to Norfolk, 3 trains to NPN, after $1 billion plus of track and bridge upgrades WAS-Petersburg with all trains are running through Main Street Station, and the Buckingham Branch has been all fixed up, VA starts a daily Norfolk-Richmond-Charlottesville-Roanoke train? It is sort of in the long range plans. That would give VA a pretty decent intrastate passenger train system. Virginia is fortunate that the tracks to do that are still there and in use.

 

[Sky Pilot]

I'm hoping that they'll extend one more of the trains down the Peninsula (as has been the plan for a while), but I also agree that at least one train is going to need to spend the night in Richmond unless they decide to have a 5 AM and 7 AM departure from NFK and put the 6 AM departure in NPN (which is also possible, I'll admit).

Getting a train down to Norfolk in the morning/back up in the evening is going to be necessary eventually...are there any candidate trains for extending to fill that, or are we likely looking at splitting 66/67 (or throwing some cars onto the Palmetto in the vein of how the Carolinian started, which is probably far too early of an afternoon departure to be desirable) if Amtrak wants to do that?

Thinking long term, after there are 2 daily trains to Roanoke, 3 trains to Norfolk, 3 trains to NPN, after $1 billion plus of track and bridge upgrades WAS-Petersburg with all trains are running through Main Street Station, and the Buckingham Branch has been all fixed up, VA starts a daily Norfolk-Richmond-Charlottesville-Roanoke train? It is sort of in the long range plans. That would give VA a pretty decent intrastate passenger train system. Virginia is fortunate that the tracks to do that are still there and in use.

Don't stop there .. you've got most of the Trans Dominion Express going. Now just take it all the way down to Bristol as the plan calls for. Make the folks in Tennsessee so jealous they support extending it to Knoxville and then Chattanooga. hboy:

 

[Anderson]

Long-term, the plan is for 6 trains to Norfolk and 3 to Newport News (the plan is 9 into Hampton roads; the only question was the distribution between NPN and NFK). However, I don't think the DRPT wants to count their chickens before they hatch on this front, hence the agreement for three trains/day instead of 6 (and who knows? They may want to keep their options open for running some of the "last three" trains down the Peninsula). Sadly, I don't know of any plans for a Norfolk/Newport News-Charlottesville[-anywhere] train (and that's one I would have had a lot of use for over the years)...I asked about that, and I think the TDX going via Lynchburg has a decent chance of blocking an RVM-CVS train since if the train goes south from CVS, it would be a slower service that would be redundant with the TDX.

As to Main Street, the long-term numbers appear to indicate the following:

-RVM-Roanoke[-Bristol] TDX: 2/day

-RVM-Raleigh-Charlotte: 4/day per SEHSR

-RVM-NPN: 3/day

-RVM-NFK: 6/day

-RVM-SAV[-MIA]: 3/day (same as the present)

That's 18 trains per day, and each of these has a "backwards" counterpart (36 total). Furthermore, 16 of them head north to Washington (whether the TDX would be extended to Norfolk/Newport News, I don't know), which should provide slightly more than hourly service up that way.

 

[The Chief]

GaSteve's thread about NS improvements on this project here .

 

[afigg]

Don't stop there .. you've got most of the Trans Dominion Express going. Now just take it all the way down to Bristol as the plan calls for. Make the folks in Tennsessee so jealous they support extending it to Knoxville and then Chattanooga. hboy:

A cross state trip from Bristol to Roanoke to CVS to Richmond to Norfolk would take a while. Might need sleeper cars and a diner for that long of a route, figuring there would be some extended stretches of 60 mph max speed tracks.

 

[Anderson]

Don't stop there .. you've got most of the Trans Dominion Express going. Now just take it all the way down to Bristol as the plan calls for. Make the folks in Tennsessee so jealous they support extending it to Knoxville and then Chattanooga. hboy:

A cross state trip from Bristol to Roanoke to CVS to Richmond to Norfolk would take a while. Might need sleeper cars and a diner for that long of a route, figuring there would be some extended stretches of 60 mph max speed tracks.

You're raising a question in my mind: Assuming that the RVM-LYH train is a decent priority and that the state wanted to run something RVM-CVS as well, might it not make sense to simply run one set of trains NPN-RVM-CVS[-LYH?] and the other set NFK-RVM-LYH (and time them so that transferring one way or the other would be exceedingly easy)? Also, when dealing with trains heading to Bristol and so forth...though it would lose some business, why not just run any trains going beyond Roanoke/Blacksburg either up to WAS and facilitate transfers at CVS and/or LYH? At some point, the cost of running lots and lots of trains outweighs the benefit of lots of single-seat rides.

 

[afigg]

I suspect that the schedule is such that, if they desired, they could just have one bus bounce between NFK and NPN. Cutting the Virginia Beach stop wouldn't be a deal-killer, I don't think, particularly if folks could just take The Tide to NFK, pick up the Ambus, and take the train from NPN.

The Tide light rail does not go to Virginia Beach and probably won't for some years. I would expect that there would be a local bus transit connection to VA Beach that connects at one of The Tide stations. The current 7.4 mile system is really a stub, the first phase (one would hope) of a larger LRT system to come.

One interesting aspect of the service extension to Norfolk is that it will have an intermodal station with connections to a local rail transit system right from the start. Not sure, besides Phoenix AZ, how many other cities are there in the US that now have local rail transit systems (be they streetcars, light rail, heavy rail subway), that currently don't have Amtrak service at all. I guess San Francisco could be another depending on how ones looks at it, as the greater SF-Oakland area certainly has Amtrak service across the bay. There is the subset of cities that have Amtrak service, but the station is an Amshack or older station at a poor location with no walkable connections to the local rail transit system (Atlanta, etc).

I see that the city plans for the Harbor Park station are to build a true intermodal (or multimodal) station there by adding a bus terminal and ferry service terminal there. The plans for the other parts of the intermodal station have been put off until they can line up the funding to build the rest. If/once the station becomes busy enough, they should include space to add car rental facilities so people can get rental cars at the station. The more intermodal stations on the Amtrak system that provide connections to local transit and have car rental available at the station, the more people will consider taking the train.

 

[afigg]

You're raising a question in my mind: Assuming that the RVM-LYH train is a decent priority and that the state wanted to run something RVM-CVS as well, might it not make sense to simply run one set of trains NPN-RVM-CVS[-LYH?] and the other set NFK-RVM-LYH (and time them so that transferring one way or the other would be exceedingly easy)? Also, when dealing with trains heading to Bristol and so forth...though it would lose some business, why not just run any trains going beyond Roanoke/Blacksburg either up to WAS and facilitate transfers at CVS and/or LYH? At some point, the cost of running lots and lots of trains outweighs the benefit of lots of single-seat rides.

We are a long way from all these train services, especially any extension south of Roanoke (or Christianburg) to Bristol. You are right, if there are a number of trains that provide good connection options, a full state cross train might not be needed. But even with all these trains, we are not talking NYP or PHL level connection options. The option of a single daily one seat trip, say from Roanoke to CVS to RVM to Norfolk, will get more passengers than a train trip having to make one or 2 connections.

One comment from looking at the FY11 ridership numbers. In FY11, the WAS - NPN corridor (which includes the trains terminating at Richmond) had 557K passengers with a hefty +19.1% growth from FY10. The ridership growth is +11.9% for the first 2 months of FY12 so it continues. The Lynchburger is growing even faster but it can grow only so much as a single daily train. If Amtrak includes the Norfolk trains in the same corridor listing to become WAS-Richmond-Newport News / Norfolk, the corridor could jump into the 1 million passengers a year group in just a few years. Other than the NEC Acelas and Regionals, there are only 5 other corridors now at the 1+ million category: Keystone, Empire NYP-ALB, Surfliner, Capitol Corridor, San Joaquin. The Hiawatha and Cascades are likely to break above 1+ million before the WAS-NPN/Norfolk corridor is. Could be in a race against the the CHI to St. Louis at 549K in FY11 to see who gets to a million passengers a year first.

 

[Anderson]

I suspect that the schedule is such that, if they desired, they could just have one bus bounce between NFK and NPN. Cutting the Virginia Beach stop wouldn't be a deal-killer, I don't think, particularly if folks could just take The Tide to NFK, pick up the Ambus, and take the train from NPN.

The Tide light rail does not go to Virginia Beach and probably won't for some years. I would expect that there would be a local bus transit connection to VA Beach that connects at one of The Tide stations. The current 7.4 mile system is really a stub, the first phase (one would hope) of a larger LRT system to come.

One interesting aspect of the service extension to Norfolk is that it will have an intermodal station with connections to a local rail transit system right from the start. Not sure, besides Phoenix AZ, how many other cities are there in the US that now have local rail transit systems (be they streetcars, light rail, heavy rail subway), that currently don't have Amtrak service at all. I guess San Francisco could be another depending on how ones looks at it, as the greater SF-Oakland area certainly has Amtrak service across the bay. There is the subset of cities that have Amtrak service, but the station is an Amshack or older station at a poor location with no walkable connections to the local rail transit system (Atlanta, etc).

I see that the city plans for the Harbor Park station are to build a true intermodal (or multimodal) station there by adding a bus terminal and ferry service terminal there. The plans for the other parts of the intermodal station have been put off until they can line up the funding to build the rest. If/once the station becomes busy enough, they should include space to add car rental facilities so people can get rental cars at the station. The more intermodal stations on the Amtrak system that provide connections to local transit and have car rental available at the station, the more people will consider taking the train.

Right. My bad. I mixed up the proposal with what actually panned out.

As to areas with direct or across-the-street connections, off the top of my head:

-San Diego

-Los Angeles

-Chicago

-New York

-Philly (I think)

-Boston

-Washington

-Miami is coming online

-Orlando is the same (Sunrail and the local light rail both hit ORL IIRC)

-St. Louis

-Minneapolis, I think

-Salt Lake City

-Seattle

-Does Portland? I can't recall.

You're raising a question in my mind: Assuming that the RVM-LYH train is a decent priority and that the state wanted to run something RVM-CVS as well, might it not make sense to simply run one set of trains NPN-RVM-CVS[-LYH?] and the other set NFK-RVM-LYH (and time them so that transferring one way or the other would be exceedingly easy)? Also, when dealing with trains heading to Bristol and so forth...though it would lose some business, why not just run any trains going beyond Roanoke/Blacksburg either up to WAS and facilitate transfers at CVS and/or LYH? At some point, the cost of running lots and lots of trains outweighs the benefit of lots of single-seat rides.

We are a long way from all these train services, especially any extension south of Roanoke (or Christianburg) to Bristol. You are right, if there are a number of trains that provide good connection options, a full state cross train might not be needed. But even with all these trains, we are not talking NYP or PHL level connection options. The option of a single daily one seat trip, say from Roanoke to CVS to RVM to Norfolk, will get more passengers than a train trip having to make one or 2 connections.

One comment from looking at the FY11 ridership numbers. In FY11, the WAS - NPN corridor (which includes the trains terminating at Richmond) had 557K passengers with a hefty +19.1% growth from FY10. The ridership growth is +11.9% for the first 2 months of FY12 so it continues. The Lynchburger is growing even faster but it can grow only so much as a single daily train. If Amtrak includes the Norfolk trains in the same corridor listing to become WAS-Richmond-Newport News / Norfolk, the corridor could jump into the 1 million passengers a year group in just a few years. Other than the NEC Acelas and Regionals, there are only 5 other corridors now at the 1+ million category: Keystone, Empire NYP-ALB, Surfliner, Capitol Corridor, San Joaquin. The Hiawatha and Cascades are likely to break above 1+ million before the WAS-NPN/Norfolk corridor is. Could be in a race against the the CHI to St. Louis at 549K in FY11 to see who gets to a million passengers a year first.

Well, Virginia is already over a million riders per year, Auto Train excluded. RVR is over 300,000 riders per year. NPN is over 100,000 even ignoring the bus. Per this, the NE Regionals in Virginia are at about 730,000 for FY11 (remember, the Carolinan is another non-LD train running through VA, and there are four more daily LD trains as well).

I agree that if we get all three NFK trains in good order (and with it at least one extra Regional running to RVR) it's going to be a good race up to a million for the Hampton Roads-Washington corridor. The other question is just how far the Lynchburg train can run up the score. It's almost assuredly going to pass the Pennsylvanian this year for busiest single-train route...I think the question at this point is whether it can top out substantially over 200,000 riders before the "ramp up" ends.

 

[MattW]

Based on the largest cities without Amtrak but fixed-guideway transit, it appears only Las Vegas (if you count the monorail) and Nashville are like this.

 

[PRR 60]

Based on the largest cities without Amtrak but fixed-guideway transit, it appears only Las Vegas (if you count the monorail) and Nashville are like this.

Plus Phoenix: larger than Las Vegas or Nashville.

 

[Train2104]

Based on the largest cities without Amtrak but fixed-guideway transit, it appears only Las Vegas (if you count the monorail) and Nashville are like this.

Plus Phoenix: larger than Las Vegas or Nashville.

Or San Francisco, even larger than Phoenix.

 

[gatelouse]

"Service will start with one train departing and one arriving daily. The morning departure is set for around 5 a.m., with service to Richmond's Staples Mill station by 7 a.m., and on to Washington by 9 a.m. A train will depart Washington around 3 p.m., arriving in Norfolk by 7 p.m. Officials designed the schedule to be attractive to military and business officials who make day trips to the capital area.

The one-seat service will carry riders all the way to Boston. Officials plan to increase service to three round-trips daily. It will be the first intercity passenger rail service in Norfolk since 1977."

Those times indicate that the weekday northbound train will Regional 174. The closest southbound that fits is #125 which departs WAS at 3:55 PM for RVR. #95 departs WAS at 2:30 PM for Newport News. #125 originates at NYP, so it would not provide a one seat ride back from north of NYP. Amtrak could be planning some adjustments to the Regional schedules prior to extension to Norfolk. These would be the weekday trains, hopefully the first weekend trains won't depart Norfolk that early in the day..

Keep in mind that the early departure of 95 is to ensure that its connecting bus to Norfolk and VA Beach reach their destinations at reasonable hours. I'll hazard a guess that 95 will be retimed slightly to become that 7pm arrival into Norfolk. The next southbound Regional becomes the day train to Newport News, serving RVM, WBG, and NPN 60-90 minutes later.

Regarding eastbound WBG-NPN running times, yes, I believe that's schedule padding and nothing more. The run should take roughly the same amount of time in each direction.

 

[edding]

Based on the largest cities without Amtrak but fixed-guideway transit, it appears only Las Vegas (if you count the monorail) and Nashville are like this.

Plus Phoenix: larger than Las Vegas or Nashville.

Or San Francisco, even larger than Phoenix.

Point of Correction:

2010 Phoenix(city) population ( US Census):

Population, 2010 1,445,632

2010 San Francisco (city) population (US Census):

Population, 2010 805,235

 

[Anderson]

"Service will start with one train departing and one arriving daily. The morning departure is set for around 5 a.m., with service to Richmond's Staples Mill station by 7 a.m., and on to Washington by 9 a.m. A train will depart Washington around 3 p.m., arriving in Norfolk by 7 p.m. Officials designed the schedule to be attractive to military and business officials who make day trips to the capital area.

The one-seat service will carry riders all the way to Boston. Officials plan to increase service to three round-trips daily. It will be the first intercity passenger rail service in Norfolk since 1977."

Those times indicate that the weekday northbound train will Regional 174. The closest southbound that fits is #125 which departs WAS at 3:55 PM for RVR. #95 departs WAS at 2:30 PM for Newport News. #125 originates at NYP, so it would not provide a one seat ride back from north of NYP. Amtrak could be planning some adjustments to the Regional schedules prior to extension to Norfolk. These would be the weekday trains, hopefully the first weekend trains won't depart Norfolk that early in the day..

Keep in mind that the early departure of 95 is to ensure that its connecting bus to Norfolk and VA Beach reach their destinations at reasonable hours. I'll hazard a guess that 95 will be retimed slightly to become that 7pm arrival into Norfolk. The next southbound Regional becomes the day train to Newport News, serving RVM, WBG, and NPN 60-90 minutes later.

Regarding eastbound WBG-NPN running times, yes, I believe that's schedule padding and nothing more. The run should take roughly the same amount of time in each direction.

So 95 goes into NFK, and 83/93/99 (the train has three different numbers at the moment because of stop variations on M-Th, F, and SaSu) goes into NPN? I like that a lot...it certainly makes a lot more sense than having the last train to get you to NPN leaving WAS in early afternoon. Being able to leave at 5:00 or 5:50 is a big improvement over 2:30 from virtually any standpoint IMHO. I also think that simply extending 93 into NPN (83/99 already go in) makes sense from a "standardize the schedule" perspective, and I'm getting the feeling that Amtrak is trying to at least keep times reasonably consistent from day to day in terms of which trains they run daily.

 

[Acela150]

IINM 83 turns at NPN and returns to RVR and becomes 164, 82, or 88. Most likely 88. There are three trains on Saturday and two go into RVR on Fridays. So one could guess that 83 heads back to RVR. But that leads to the question why doesn't it terminate at RVR. My guess is there might be enough demand on Friday's for service from BOS, NYP, PHL, WAS, and RVR to go down to NPN as 83 gets in at 1010pm. So I guess a late night arrival is in demand on Fridays.

 

[gatelouse]

Actually I was thinking of 125 (4pm departure) being the daily daytime WAS-NPN train. Running the Friday-only late departure gets you to WBG and NPN around 9:30pm and 10pm, a bit later than many might like or are used to. So I'd expect a daily 7:30pm arrival into NPN.

An expanded schedule could see the next two southbound Regionals hitting NFK and NPN. This leaves no equipment for the 6am northbound from RVR so only one of the two is likely to be extended until a new RVR frequency can be added.

Given presumed capacity constraints with VRE and Amtrak south of WAS, I'd like to see shuttle trains, or at least Thruway connections, to increase service RVR-RVM-WBG-NPN. With direct service to NFK, the Peninsula market can get by with 2-3 daily through trains and a couple of shuttles/thruways to fill gaps.

 

[gatelouse]

IINM 83 turns at NPN and returns to RVR and becomes 164, 82, or 88. Most likely 88. There are three trains on Saturday and two go into RVR on Fridays. So one could guess that 83 heads back to RVR. But that leads to the question why doesn't it terminate at RVR. My guess is there might be enough demand on Friday's for service from BOS, NYP, PHL, WAS, and RVR to go down to NPN as 83 gets in at 1010pm. So I guess a late night arrival is in demand on Fridays.

Yes, 83 or Friday's 95--don't know for certain--deadheads to RVR and makes the extended southbound run due to Friday demand or some other artifact (suppose CSX said "15 trains a week in each direction"--on what day do you run three?).

Many years ago the NPN-RVR Friday move was available for revenue booking as unreserved service. That was a long time ago.

 

[Acela150]

IINM 83 turns at NPN and returns to RVR and becomes 164, 82, or 88. Most likely 88. There are three trains on Saturday and two go into RVR on Fridays. So one could guess that 83 heads back to RVR. But that leads to the question why doesn't it terminate at RVR. My guess is there might be enough demand on Friday's for service from BOS, NYP, PHL, WAS, and RVR to go down to NPN as 83 gets in at 1010pm. So I guess a late night arrival is in demand on Fridays.

Yes, 83 or Friday's 95--don't know for certain--deadheads to RVR and makes the extended southbound run due to Friday demand or some other artifact (suppose CSX said "15 trains a week in each direction"--on what day do you run three?).

Many years ago the NPN-RVR Friday move was available for revenue booking as unreserved service. That was a long time ago.

I remember there was a train 78?? Now who knows how it works.

 

[Anderson]

IINM 83 turns at NPN and returns to RVR and becomes 164, 82, or 88. Most likely 88. There are three trains on Saturday and two go into RVR on Fridays. So one could guess that 83 heads back to RVR. But that leads to the question why doesn't it terminate at RVR. My guess is there might be enough demand on Friday's for service from BOS, NYP, PHL, WAS, and RVR to go down to NPN as 83 gets in at 1010pm. So I guess a late night arrival is in demand on Fridays.

Yes, 83 or Friday's 95--don't know for certain--deadheads to RVR and makes the extended southbound run due to Friday demand or some other artifact (suppose CSX said "15 trains a week in each direction"--on what day do you run three?).

Many years ago the NPN-RVR Friday move was available for revenue booking as unreserved service. That was a long time ago.

I remember there was a train 78?? Now who knows how it works.

Though I don't know when it was cut, I know the train of which you speak. Basically, a train only running NPN-RVR generated next to no business (hence why it was unreserved), so they just cut the train entirely from the schedule and switched it to a deadhead move. Doing so also means that they can move it when the cars are ready rather than worrying about the passenger schedule.

Wasn't there a page someone made that listed every Amtrak number in current use, as well as the former uses of a lot of the lower numbers (<100, IIRC)?

 

[Acela150]

IINM 83 turns at NPN and returns to RVR and becomes 164, 82, or 88. Most likely 88. There are three trains on Saturday and two go into RVR on Fridays. So one could guess that 83 heads back to RVR. But that leads to the question why doesn't it terminate at RVR. My guess is there might be enough demand on Friday's for service from BOS, NYP, PHL, WAS, and RVR to go down to NPN as 83 gets in at 1010pm. So I guess a late night arrival is in demand on Fridays.

Yes, 83 or Friday's 95--don't know for certain--deadheads to RVR and makes the extended southbound run due to Friday demand or some other artifact (suppose CSX said "15 trains a week in each direction"--on what day do you run three?).

Many years ago the NPN-RVR Friday move was available for revenue booking as unreserved service. That was a long time ago.

I remember there was a train 78?? Now who knows how it works.

Though I don't know when it was cut, I know the train of which you speak. Basically, a train only running NPN-RVR generated next to no business (hence why it was unreserved), so they just cut the train entirely from the schedule and switched it to a deadhead move. Doing so also means that they can move it when the cars are ready rather than worrying about the passenger schedule.

Wasn't there a page someone made that listed every Amtrak number in current use, as well as the former uses of a lot of the lower numbers (<100, IIRC)?

If you have the time you can browse through this which only goes unto 2009. Which displays all timetables.

 

[AlanB]

Wasn't there a page someone made that listed every Amtrak number in current use, as well as the former uses of a lot of the lower numbers (<100, IIRC)?

Not sure about the historical numbers from the past, but Kevin Korell (superliner diner) maintains a current list on his site found here.

 

[Anderson]

Wasn't there a page someone made that listed every Amtrak number in current use, as well as the former uses of a lot of the lower numbers (<100, IIRC)?

Not sure about the historical numbers from the past, but Kevin Korell (superliner diner) maintains a current list on his site found here.

That was it. I think someone may have referred me to an archived copy of the site that listed 78 (at least as a former train). Either that or I asked about gaps and that's what came up.

 

[Richard T]

Cost increases of $13M announced. Details here.

Saw the news with additional details on the cost overrun elsewhere. Good news is they will start the service 10 months early. Bad news is that they are projecting a $13 million cost over run and will postpone the double tracking project near Nokesville which will help the Crescent, Cardinal, Lynchburger route. Lots of anti-rail and anti-Amtrak comments in the Hampton Roads article comments section, but those are par for the course.

There are anti-everything comments in all Hampton Roads articles. If you read the comments of every article on HamptonRoads.com, you would think we live in the worst city in the country when in actuality we live in a beautiful city.

I'm VERY excited about this news personally. Anyone that lives in this area and drives to DC even semi-regularly knows that one accident anywhere on I-64 or I-95 can lead to hours of frustration. Parking at Harbor Park, driving to DC and not having to worry about parking fees (or finding a space on the street) in DC is such a pleasant thought. I'll definitely be taking Amtrak from Norfolk to DC very soon after the service begins!

 

[dlagrua]

I have not been following Amtraks VA activities and train proposals very closely but it would seem that Roanoke is a prime city to have service to it again. The train station is still there and it's perfect shape. Its only use is the gift shop, tourist info counter and Link museum which is largely in the basement. The upstairs looks pretty much as it did when train service was halted back in the 1960's. The only thing needed is the replacement of the corridor and steps which went down to the tracks below. With gasoline prices to be at or above $4 per gallon in a couple of months, there would be a need for train service here again.