Virginia just released its recommendations for Richmond-Washington improvements. There's good news (lots of it) and a little bit of bad news. The good news:
-The plan includes 100% triple-tracking from Long Bridge down to south of Washington (though in Richmond, by technicality it's split over the S-line and A-line). At a bare minimum, this gets us the capacity for ten additional round-trips (2 to Lynchburg, 4 to Hampton Roads [plus some others being extended; total is 9x daily], and 4 to North Carolina). The extra capacity SHOULD be good for some additional trains (e.g. Daily Cardinal) since alongside Long Bridge it gets four tracks from CP Virginia to the RF&P/Southern interchange. Basically we'll have more-or-less an entire track to play with alongside significant use of other tracks for passing.
--Notably, this covers basically the entire state (there's enough capacity to cover added service on all presently-served lines save the Cardinal west of CVS), so the odds of a political collapse are probably limited. The fact that VRE probaly gets something substantial out of this should make that more remote as well.
-They went with plans to improve both RVR and RVM and to have most or all trains serve both stations (e.g. it's possible that one or two trains might skip one or the other, but all trains would be routed via the S-line). Included in this is a rebuild of the platforms at Richmond Staples Mill (featuring a "commuter station-style" bridge so that four tracks are accessible at any given time from the station rather than having pax crossing the sidings make only one track usable). RVM would also have two tracks on each side of the station as well.
-This should be good for the 90-90-90 plan (90% OTP, 90 minutes Richmond-Washington, and 90 MPH service).
The bad news:
-Original estimate from 2009 was $1.8bn or so. New cost estimate is about $5bn, depending on some loose ends on various options. Some of this is inflation, some is because of environmental issues along the Potomac, and some is because of how much stuff in Richmond got rolled in.
-Ashland is a total mess. Basically, Ashland/Hanover County were for the project and then decided they wanted to fight it at the last minute. With that said, there's a very real chance of either some NIMBY roadkill or a fairly "interesting" solution (elevated additional tracks or a tunnel).
http://dc2rvarail.com/about/recommendations
Edit: Just an amusing realization, but due to being a run-through station instead of a terminal, under the full implementation of this plan plus a daily Cardinal ALX might have the most daily arrivals/departures of any station off the NEC proper (22 daily trains, meaning 44 departures). Chicago has "only" about 28-30 (going in numerous directions), but they all originate/terminate. The closest competitor is Martinez, CA (which is right on top of it, with 15 Capitol Corridor trains, 5 San Joaquins, plus the Starlight and Zephyr for a total of 44 departures) followed by Emeryville (which drops one arrival/departure since the Zephyr terminates there). Richmond and Fredericksburg would be chasing close behind at 34 and probably about 30 (presuming that a few LD trains continue to skip FBG).
-The plan includes 100% triple-tracking from Long Bridge down to south of Washington (though in Richmond, by technicality it's split over the S-line and A-line). At a bare minimum, this gets us the capacity for ten additional round-trips (2 to Lynchburg, 4 to Hampton Roads [plus some others being extended; total is 9x daily], and 4 to North Carolina). The extra capacity SHOULD be good for some additional trains (e.g. Daily Cardinal) since alongside Long Bridge it gets four tracks from CP Virginia to the RF&P/Southern interchange. Basically we'll have more-or-less an entire track to play with alongside significant use of other tracks for passing.
--Notably, this covers basically the entire state (there's enough capacity to cover added service on all presently-served lines save the Cardinal west of CVS), so the odds of a political collapse are probably limited. The fact that VRE probaly gets something substantial out of this should make that more remote as well.
-They went with plans to improve both RVR and RVM and to have most or all trains serve both stations (e.g. it's possible that one or two trains might skip one or the other, but all trains would be routed via the S-line). Included in this is a rebuild of the platforms at Richmond Staples Mill (featuring a "commuter station-style" bridge so that four tracks are accessible at any given time from the station rather than having pax crossing the sidings make only one track usable). RVM would also have two tracks on each side of the station as well.
-This should be good for the 90-90-90 plan (90% OTP, 90 minutes Richmond-Washington, and 90 MPH service).
The bad news:
-Original estimate from 2009 was $1.8bn or so. New cost estimate is about $5bn, depending on some loose ends on various options. Some of this is inflation, some is because of environmental issues along the Potomac, and some is because of how much stuff in Richmond got rolled in.
-Ashland is a total mess. Basically, Ashland/Hanover County were for the project and then decided they wanted to fight it at the last minute. With that said, there's a very real chance of either some NIMBY roadkill or a fairly "interesting" solution (elevated additional tracks or a tunnel).
http://dc2rvarail.com/about/recommendations
Edit: Just an amusing realization, but due to being a run-through station instead of a terminal, under the full implementation of this plan plus a daily Cardinal ALX might have the most daily arrivals/departures of any station off the NEC proper (22 daily trains, meaning 44 departures). Chicago has "only" about 28-30 (going in numerous directions), but they all originate/terminate. The closest competitor is Martinez, CA (which is right on top of it, with 15 Capitol Corridor trains, 5 San Joaquins, plus the Starlight and Zephyr for a total of 44 departures) followed by Emeryville (which drops one arrival/departure since the Zephyr terminates there). Richmond and Fredericksburg would be chasing close behind at 34 and probably about 30 (presuming that a few LD trains continue to skip FBG).
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