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.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Amtrak Corrects Website Map of Northeast (NE) Area in Virginia to Include Lynchburg


On about January 9, 2010, Amtrak revised its website map in the "On-Time Performance" section to include within the Northeast (NE) Corridor Service Area the DC - Lynchburg Corridor.

I had noticed on January 3 that, in contrast to the caption of their maps of the NE Corridor within Virginia, the map itself only included the DC - Newport News Arc, suggesting the absurdity of Lynchburg being located between these two cities. I E-Mail Amtrak about this error and, to their credit, had corrected the mistake in six (6) days.

The question of what trains fall within Amtrak's NE Corridor is a bit complicated. The new DC - Lynchburg train that started October 1, 2009, is actually an extension of existing NE Corridor Service. Therefore, Amtrak considers this new train a NE Corridor train, which qualifies it for cheaper fares, a definite advantage over the Cardinal (Chicago to NY) and the Crescent (New Orleans to NY). These alternative trains, which have been in service for over 30 years, share a common route with the new Amtrak Lynchburg Train (Lynchburg or Charlottesville to NY). However Amtrak considers the Cardinal and Crescent to be "long distance", not "NE Corridor" trains and not eligible for the discounts enjoyed by NE Corridor Trains.

So, it is understandable that, with such a complicated set of definitions, even Amtrak's cartographers can occasionally become confused.

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)