VRE is still hoping to add two trains on top of the pre-pandemic service on the Manassas and Fredericksburg lines before the end of the year, which would be the first of many improvements made to the system as part of the state’s $3.7 billion “Transforming Rail in Virginia” project.
CSX, which owned the track Amtrak and VRE used on the Fredericksburg line, previously capped the number of passenger trains that could use the right-of-way per day. As part of the project, Virginia is acquiring that track, but VRE still needs to change its agreement with Norfolk Southern – which owns the Manassas line track – to run the additional trains, said VRE spokesperson Karen Finucan Clarkson.
“We are working very closely right now with Amtrak and CSX to coordinate the times that the trains will run; there will be an adjustment in our schedule to accommodate the new train,” Finucan Clarkson said.
The commuter rail’s allocation from the American Rescue Plan Act, passed by Congress in March, still hasn’t been formally announced. But VRE leaders are considering taking money it received from last December’s stimulus bill and effectively passing it on to the localities that fund the system by cutting their subsidies for fiscal year 2022.
That plan will go to VRE’s two governing commissions – the NVTC and the Potomac Rappahannock Transportation Commission – this week, but Finucan Clarkson said it could be an over 70% reduction in the jurisdiction funding for one year.
https://www.insidenova.com/headlines/vr ... 397b8.html
CSX, which owned the track Amtrak and VRE used on the Fredericksburg line, previously capped the number of passenger trains that could use the right-of-way per day. As part of the project, Virginia is acquiring that track, but VRE still needs to change its agreement with Norfolk Southern – which owns the Manassas line track – to run the additional trains, said VRE spokesperson Karen Finucan Clarkson.
“We are working very closely right now with Amtrak and CSX to coordinate the times that the trains will run; there will be an adjustment in our schedule to accommodate the new train,” Finucan Clarkson said.
The commuter rail’s allocation from the American Rescue Plan Act, passed by Congress in March, still hasn’t been formally announced. But VRE leaders are considering taking money it received from last December’s stimulus bill and effectively passing it on to the localities that fund the system by cutting their subsidies for fiscal year 2022.
That plan will go to VRE’s two governing commissions – the NVTC and the Potomac Rappahannock Transportation Commission – this week, but Finucan Clarkson said it could be an over 70% reduction in the jurisdiction funding for one year.
https://www.insidenova.com/headlines/vr ... 397b8.html
