Biography

I grew up in Pine Ridge, about one mile from the Fairfax Hospital, in Fairfax County, Virginia. In about 1952, I remember traveling on the Washington and Old Dominion (W&OD) Railroad (the "Virginia Creeper") from Falls Church to Roslyn. This train ran from Bluemont to Roslyn and Alexandria, VA, with a branch to Great Falls, which ceased operations earlier. I graduated from Fairfax High School (1963), the College of William and Mary, BS, Biology (1968) and the University of Connecticut, MS, Zoology (1974).
I spent a year (1966-1967) working for the Smithsonian Institution in Venezuela collecting mammals and parasites. I was in the US Army (1969-1971) and spent a year in Japan, outside Toyko. That was first experience with a well run train system and with a ride on their Bullet Train, which traveled at 130 mph at the time. I have worked for the Office of Pesticide Programs at the Environmental Protection Agency for 36 years (1973 to 2009). During that period, I have ridden the Virginia Railway Express (VRE), a Washington/Virginia commuter rail system since its beginning in 1992. Now I am paying more interest in Amtrak and want to stimulate ridership and new service, especially in Virginia. I am a member of the Virginia Association of Railway Patrons (VARP), www.varprail.org, which has been promoting passenger rail in the state for 30 years and a member of Cvillerail, www.Cvillerail.org, which was major reason for the establishment of the new Amtrak Train to Lynchburg, the subject of this blog.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Burke Centre to become Amtrak Station on January 18, 2010!


Thanks to cooperation among Amtrak, the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transporation (VDRPT), and the Virginia Railway Express (VRE), the Burke Centre VRE Station will officially also become an Amtrak Station on January 18, 2010.
On that day, the new Boston/Springfield to Lynchburg, VA train, which had been stopping only on weekdays (except Holidays), but not weekends, will make its first Holiday stop at Burke Centre.
The following Saturday (Jan 23) and Sunday (Jan 24), the Lynchburg Train would begin stopping on the weekends (Trains 145, 147, and 156).
Now persons in Western Fairfax County, which has one of the highests per capita incomes in the United States, will have the convenience of traveling to and from Washington DC and anywhere that Amtrak and other commuter rail, light rail, and subway services travel.
For example, riders can travel to and from Burke Center daily to Lynchburg, Charlottesville, DC, BWI Airport, National Airport (via subway connection), Dulles Airport (via subway connection to Roslyn and 5A Bus), Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelpha, New York, New Haven, Hartford, Springfield, Providence, and Boston and many more towns and cities!
I expect the Lynchburg weekend train to be very popular with college students, as well as seniors and business travelers.
In the future, Amtrak may even install a "Quick-Trak" machine for printing off reserved train tickets.
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