Draft Richmond to D.C. rail study out, but controversy remains on route near Ashland

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Draft Richmond to D.C. rail study out, but controversy remains on whether to send route through or around Ashland

By ROBERT ZULLO and MICHAEL O’CONNOR Richmond Times-Dispatch 12 hrs ago

A long-awaited draft environmental statement for a plan to reduce congestion and speed up rail service between Richmond and Washington leaves unresolved the thorniest question along the 123-mile route: how to cross Ashland and Hanover County, where opposition has been fierce.

Despite being “born of the railroad” as a mineral springs resort — a fact the town proudly notes on its website — and hosting the yearly Ashland Train Day event in a downtown bisected by rail lines, many Ashland residents and leaders are dead-set against proposals to run an additional track through the town. And Hanover County leaders are equally obstinate about building a bypass around the town.

The draft environmental impact statement released last week by the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration contains recommendations for additional tracks and other upgrades in parts of Northern Virginia, Fredericksburg, Caroline County and Richmond.

The plan for the project, which could cost more than $5 billion, lacks any dedicated federal funding and remains at least a decade away from construction, also recommends keeping the Richmond area’s existing two-station configuration. It also suggests a new building at the Staples Mills Station and a new bridge across the James River to improve service from Main Street Station.
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The railroad goes right through the middle of Ashland.

The first couple dozen cars on the Q409 (the second southbound freight) are USWX (U.S. Waste) flatcars carrying containers of trash. When I got off my Metrorail Yellow Line train last night at the Braddock Road Metro stop, I saw that the northbound signal at Slaters Lane was clear for track 3. I decided to hang around to see what would show up. It was a CSX freight, and it had some USWX flatcars with trash containers in the mix.

This video shows why you always wait for the crossing arms to go up after the train passes: there could be another one right behind it.

[underpants]

1. Center of the Universe

Self proclaimed

I will say that I'm not sure where they would put the other tracks, some houses are already pretty close to the tracks.

I've never understood the fawning praise of Ashland other than just city pride. It seems to me to be a concrete jungle with a college for private school flunkies where Dave Brat is considered intelligent.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. One option: build an 11,000-foot trench for the rails and then cover it.

I'll link to the report when I dig it up.

[underpants]

3. Actually I think we got one the other day

I saw it at work. No idea how it got there.

[FSogol]

6. They are currently adding a 2nd buried track in SE DC, just north of the ballpark.

The project is taking years. Info here:

http://www.jdland.com/dc/va-ave-tunnel.cfm

[mahatmakanejeeves]

7. I'm on dial-up today.

I thought that was done. I've seen double stack trains crossing the Potomac, and I don't think that was possible with the old Virginia Avenue Tunnel.

Here's what that means in earth terms.

Freight traffic through DC can take a really circuitous routing.

The old Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad (RF&P) comes up from Richmond. When the tracks cross the Potomac, that marks the southern end of the old Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR).

A great deal of freight traffic on the railroads is in the form of containers. These are loaded onto flat cars. Sometimes the containers are put on flat cars so that the containers are one story tall. Those are single-stack containers. Where the clearances allow, the containers are loaded so that they take up two stories. Those are double-stack containers.

The old Virginia Avenue Tunnel had such tight clearances that double-stack containers weren't allowed. The new Virginia Avenue Tunnel permits double-stack trains. I've seen double-stack trains going over the Potomac River, and they have nowhere else to go but through the Virginia Avenue Tunnel. East of that, they run on old PRR tracks and cross the Anacostia River near the Congressional Cemetery (right bank) and Fort Dupont (rive gauche). They head north, paralleling the Metrorail Orange Line.

Between the Deanwood and Cheverly Metrorail stops, there is a place called Tuxedo. There, the old B&O freights and the PRR freights would part ways. In the old days, freight trains at that point would either stay on the Pennsylvania Railroad and go to Landover, or they would switch off to the side and take another railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O), to Hyattsville.

Freight trains now can't go on to Landover, because the tracks north of Landover are all part of the Northeast Corridor and dedicated to passenger traffic. So they have to go to Hyattsville.

At Tuxedo, freights take the old B&O. They go up and over the PRR tracks and head to Hyattsville. They go over Route 50 and run west of Kenilworth Avenue. At Hyattsville, freight trains can make a right turn, toward College Park and Baltimore, or they can make a left turn, and head toward Brunswick and Cumberland.

Double-stack trains can't go north of Baltimore, because of Baltimore's Howard Street Tunnel, which is too low for them. You might remember that there was a fire in the Howard Street Tunnel in July 2001.

So double-stack trains headed north across the Potomac River, after they've gone through the Virginia Avenue Tunnel, have to change direction and head west. When they get to Hyattsville, instead of turning right and heading toward College Park and Baltimore, they turn left and head back in the direction of Union Station. When they get close to Union Station, they make a sweeping turn to the right and head toward Silver Spring.

You can see this curve from trains on the Red Line. It's about a mile north of Union Station, just south of the Rhode Island Ave Metro stop. The old B&O tracks go underneath the Red Line and parallel it off to the west for while. Then one track goes over the Red Line near the Brookland-CUA Metrorail stop. By the time the Red Line reaches the Fort Totten Metrorail stop, the two Metrorail tracks are running between the old B&O tracks. If you see double-stack trains at Fort Totten, they are headed to or are coming from Richmond.

The MARC line to Brunswick also uses the old B&O past Fort Totten.

You can see trains of high enclosed cars carrying automobiles and trucks at Fort Totten. They are headed to a delivery point where they don't have to go through the Howard Street Tunnel.

CSX is the successor to the B&O and the RF&P.

It's not easy to visualize, but that's how they run. I was at Fort Totten on Thursday after work. I caught (i.e, not rode, but watched go by) a westbound freight on the B&O. I remember the last unit was CSX 555.

That's a real struggle for them. They can slow down a lot, as they're coming up out of the Anacostia River valley. All those old Civil War forts were located on the heights, so it's an uphill climb from Union Station to Fort Totten and Silver Spring.

Westbound freights can be coming up from Richmond, or they can be coming down from Philadelphia or Baltimore. Hyattsville is where they come together.

The Braddock Road Metrorail stop is a great place to watch trains on the RF&P, until the Metro Transit Police take an interest in you.

So they're still working on Virginia Avenue? They've reached the point where at least one track has the clearances for the double-stack container traffic.

Also, good morning.

Full disclosure: I had an ADC Regional Road Atlas open as I typed this.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. Read the draft EIS at the D.C. to Richmond Southeast High Speed Rail website

D.C. to Richmond Southeast High Speed Rail Draft EIS

Ashland:

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. Social media uproar over rail project spills into Hanover supervisors meeting

Social media uproar over rail project spills into Hanover supervisors meeting

By MICHAEL O’CONNOR Richmond Times-Dispatch 12 hrs ago



An Amtrak train passes through Ashland, Virginia, Feb. 7, 2016. A plan for a high-speed rail between Richmond and Washington, D.C. has ruffled some feathers among Ashland residents since one idea is to run a third rail directly down Railroad Avenue along the two existing rails.

P. KEVIN MORLEY/TIMES-DISPATCH/

Citing the very strange state of a world that requires people to keep an eye on social media, a Hanover County supervisor sought Wednesday to quell some of the uproar related to talks surrounding a federal rail project.

“My phone has blown up,” Faye Prichard, the Ashland District supervisor, said at Tuesday night’s board meeting. Prichard went on to try to clarify the county’s position on the federal rail project, DC2RVA.

Prichard said she has fielded numerous concerns from people confused by reports that Aubrey M. “Bucky” Stanley of the Beaverdam District presented the Commonwealth Transportation Board with a county resolution that opposed a western bypass alternative for DC2RVA.

“People who heard that and didn’t really understand believed that the county had come out with a new resolution asking to take the western bypass off,” Prichard said. ... In November, the board passed a resolution calling on the Federal Railroad Administration and the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation to abandon consideration of any western bypass and a third rail in Ashland.