A CSX freight train derailment in Henrico County yesterday blocked Amtrak service but caused no injuries or other hazards. According to railroad and state officials, a CSX train traveling westbound from Newport News to Richmond derailed near Darbytown Road east of Fulton Yard at 6:10 a.m. yesterday. Five cars came off the tracks, hitting a single car standing on an adjacent rail line.

A freight train westbound from Newport News to Richmond derailed east of the Fulton yard near Darbytown Road in Henrico County at 6:10 a.m.
Five cars came off the tracks, hitting a single car standing on an adjacent rail line.

CSX Corp. and the state could finalize plans to improve passenger train flow through Richmond in the next few weeks. Virginia is applying for about $590 million in federal stimulus money to make an interrelated series of rail improvements in the Richmond area—steps needed for the development of a high-speed rail corridor.

Upon learning that the restroom at Amtrak’s Staples Mill Station was off-limits to cab drivers, Ray Muhammad fired off a letter to the boss of the passenger-rail service. “We provide a vital service to Amtrak riders by getting them to their final destinations and had always viewed train and taxi services as complementary,“ he wrote to Joseph Boardman.

An Amtrak train crashed into a vehicle crossing tracks near Detroit today, killing all five people in the car, police said.

There seems to be movement on the transportation front (relax, this editorial includes no more groaners, or at least no intentional ones).

• A recent transportation summit at Randolph-Macon, sponsored by the Greater Richmond Chamber, featured a keynote address in which Amtrak CEO Joseph Boardman spoke of high-speed rail. He also cautioned that progress regarding passenger trains will come incrementally. Boardman is a man who loves trains; his enthusiasm generates confidence in Amtrak, a system that often suffers from a bum rap. The summit also included a presentation in which GRTC head John Lewis described plans for a centralized mass transit center in Shockoe Bottom.

Federal authorities have dropped consideration of an eastern route for proposed high-speed rail service through Richmond that would have bypassed Ashland and Amtrak’s main Staples Mill Road station.

Passenger trains could speed travelers from Richmond to Washington at 135 mph, Amtrak’s president and CEO says. But, said Joseph Boardman: “Don’t expect it next week.“ Boardman spoke yesterday to about 200 people at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland as part of a Greater Richmond Chamber meeting focused on transportation issues.

WASHINGTON—Amtrak is cutting fares by 25 percent on some trains this summer as the national passenger railroad looks to boost demand during the recession. The discount runs from June 2 through Sept. 3. It applies to those taking trains on the Northeast Corridor, which runs from Washington to Boston. The discount also is available from Washington to Newport News.

President Barack Obama yesterday outlined plans for a high-speed rail network he said would change the way Americans travel, drawing comparisons to the 1950s creation of the inter state highway system.

An alert reader with a robust memory reminds us that federal intervention in the management of General Motors is not unprecedented in corporate history. He cites the example of Penn Central. After years of decline, by the late 1960s the U.S. rail industry confronted crisis. With the speed of a runaway locomotive, the Penn Central approached bankruptcy and collapse. The federal government stepped in to save the line. It created Amtrak to take over unprofitable passenger routes and demanded that Penn Central install new top management to continue as a freight carrier. Penn Central went bust anyway, in what at the time rated as the largest bankruptcy ever. The government formed Conrail out of the remnants of Penn Central’s freight network. Conrail eventually was sold to CSX and Norfolk Southern.

There was more trouble on the rails Friday morning, this time just south of Quantico. Virginia Railway Express riders faced delays due to a CSX train that broke down on the tracks just before 5 a.m. This forced VRE to put its trains on a third track to bypass the stalled train. It also meant more than 300 passengers left waiting to board their train at the Brooke station in Stafford County couldn’t do so.

All Aboard A Friday headline elated us. “Va. Rail Service to Grow” reported that the commonwealth will pay Amtrak to bolster intercity passenger service in the state. A three-year $35.2 million project would allow the nation’s passenger carrier to add one daily train between Richmond and Washington and one between Lynchburg and the nation’s capital.

Virginia has agreed to pay Amtrak for additional intercity passenger train service in the state. The Commonwealth Transportation Board approved a $25.2 million, three-year pilot project to run two new passenger trains daily to Washington: one round trip from Richmond and one round trip from Lynchburg.

A man was struck and killed by an Amtrak train near the Lorton Virginia Railway Express station.