Public Transportation and Smart Growth

BREAKING TOP STORY
Virginia has $3.7 billion deal to expand rail service between Richmond and Washington
By MICHAEL MARTZ Richmond Times-Dispatch 19 hrs ago

Trains will run almost every hour between Washington and Richmond — including Main Street Station downtown — within 10 years under a deal between Virginia and CSX Corp. that will open the gateway for expanded rail service in the region and other parts of the state.

The blockbuster $3.7 billion agreement that Gov. Ralph Northam and CSX announced Thursday will give Virginia control over hundreds of miles of railroad track and underlying right of way in three rail corridors, including the former RF&P line that parallels Interstate 95 between Richmond and Washington. It will not expand the two-track rail line that runs through Ashland, which the state already has promised to preserve.

The cost of the project would be split roughly three ways between Virginia, Amtrak and regional partnerships, but would not require any new state money, state officials said.
....

Virginia will send $525 million to CSX, based in Jacksonville, Fla., for right of way and existing track on three rail lines.

The agreement will allow the state to build and own track for high-speed passenger rail service, including expansion of Long Bridge, a 115-year-old railroad bridge across the Potomac River that is critical to passenger and freight service along the Eastern Seaboard but operating at near full capacity.
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The deal also includes:

• passenger train rights to 30 miles of track between Richmond and Petersburg;
• 75 miles of right of way on the abandoned S-Line between Petersburg and Ridgeway, N.C., to eventually allow high-speed rail service to the Southeast; and
• 173 miles of right of way and 186 miles of track on the Buckingham Branch Line between Doswell and Clifton Forge for eventual cross-state passenger service.

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mmartz@timesdispatch.com

(804) 649-6964

Staff writer C. Suarez Rojas contributed to this story.

Map of Virginia Rail Project
19 hrs ago

Amtrak Service Plan
18 hrs ago