Rail News

WASHINGTON (AP) — Amtrak is hoping live entertainment, exhibits and a national TV personality will lure people who don't normally take the train into its stations — and then inspire them to return to ride the rails another day.

Dubbed "National Train Day," the May 10 effort includes a performance by singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles in Washington's Union Station. Al Roker, of NBC's "Today" show, is serving as the official spokesman and will host the Washington events.

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At the April 15 meeting of the Stafford County Board of Supervisors, the Secondary Six-Year Improvement Program — a six-year plan for secondary road improvements in Stafford County — was presented by Transportation Administrator Fulton deLamorton.

Discussion on local secondary roads will again be a board topic at the upcoming May 6 board meeting.

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Lorton Station Boulevard used to be a lopsided street, with new homes on the east side and empty lots dotted with construction equipment on the west side. In just a few years, the small street has transformed, with a new town center filled with restaurants, coffee shops, a gym and medical offices stretching between Lorton Road and Pohick Road.

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Thirty days to win better rail service?
Well, let’s get moving.
Improved passenger service to Washington has long been a goal of rail advocates and ordinary passengers alike.
The one daily D.C. train that now serves Charlottesville and points north and south is typically booked so far in advance on weekdays that many travelers can’t get a seat.

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The governor got the meeting he asked for, but it didn't produce the consensus he sought.

When the state announced that the eastern Montgomery County community of Elliston is "the only feasible site" in the region for a Norfolk Southern Corp. intermodal rail yard, it also announced that Gov. Tim Kaine wanted the 15 local governments who had supported the idea of an intermodal yard along the Heartland Corridor back in 2006 to "convene as a region within the next thirty days to discuss your shared vision for transportation and economic development."

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There was more discussion today on the Roanoke-area intermodal rail facility, which is now set to be built in the eastern end of Montgomery County.
 

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CULPEPER — Communities along the U.S. 29 corridor have a 30-day “window of opportunity” to persuade state officials and Amtrak to start up a daily passenger train between Lynchburg and Washington, rail advocates told local leaders Thursday.

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Although he knows not all of his constituents agree with him, House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith of Salem is supporting the proposed location of Norfolk-Southern's intermodal yard in Elliston.

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The Piedmont Rail Coalition is urging local residents to get on board with a public-private plan that would bring a second daily Amtrak train to Culpeper en route to Washington, D.C., starting as early as 2010.

“I think we are closer than we have ever been to having at least one new route,” said Meredith Richards, chairwoman of the Piedmont Rail Coalition, a group of government, economic development, tourism and business leaders from around Virginia’s U.S. 29 corridor.

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