Virginia service expansion

Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Dumb question but what is the difference between buying Right of Way vs Track? Does ROW imply that there is no track currently there (it may have been removed etc) or is the difference something else?
 
Dumb question but what is the difference between buying Right of Way vs Track? Does ROW imply that there is no track currently there (it may have been removed etc) or is the difference something else?

I should think that regardless of track being there or not, buying the underlying property from the railroad significantly reduces that railroad's property tax bill. They like that sort of thing.
 
I should think that regardless of track being there or not, buying the underlying property from the railroad significantly reduces that railroad's property tax bill. They like that sort of thing.
Note that methods of taxing railways differ from state to state. Both Colorado and Oregon, just as examples that I'm familiar with, use the Centrally Assessed Utilities Method. If track is in place, it's a railway. If not, it's a real estate investment. It's usually less tax for a weedy line than for a real estate parcel.

I believe that this goes back to before the one man - one vote ruling. It has the effect of shifting valuations from urban areas to rural assessments. This makes both the railway and rural legislators happy.
 
Clarification>> Virginia is buying the ROW just east of the west track to the property lines. That allows VA DOT to be able eventually have and own 2 main tracks from Franconia to Richmon Main Street. There are exceptions such as Alexandria and in Richmond.

From Washinfton 1st street tunnel to Franconia the Purchase is on west side. That will include the new Long Bridge west of present CSX 2 track long bridge. There willl be a flyover from the west side VA tracks to the east side. There will be at least a couple of CPs allowing emergency access from VA or CSX to the other RR.

How VA taxes the ROW is unknown but usually track and new signals are considered improvements. Now if it is the whole propery as your home or just the track ???
 
Even the rail friendly executives are ignorant to the point of making wrong assumptions leading to wrong decisions.

I am watching this Webinar (11/1/22) on Virginia rail improvement D. J. Stadler just said with a straight face that he cannot electrify the passenger trackage south of Washington DC using catenary because there is no way to build catenary that would allow operation of double stacks under it. Clearly he has never traveled north of Washington and bothered to look out the window between Baltimore and Wilmington. Sigh.

There is a reason that passenger rail development under these government bureaucrats is totally screwed up.
 
Last edited:
Even the rail friendly executives are ignorant to the point of making wrong assumptions leading to wrong decisions.

I am watching this Webinar (111/1/22) on Virginia rail improvement D. J. Stadler just said with a straight face that he cannot electrify the passenger trackage south of Washington DC using catenary because there is no way to build catenary that would allow operation of double stacks under it. Clearly he has never traveled north of Washington and bothered to look out the window between Baltimore and Wilmington. Sigh.
I'm so confused how thats even still an idea. Like we got photos of it with SEPTA trains next to double stack freights is that not enough to prove we can do so in this country
 
I'm so confused how thats even still an idea. Like we got photos of it with SEPTA trains next to double stack freights is that not enough to prove we can do so in this country
As I said, sometimes the ignorance of the so called executives managing our passenger rail system can be quite astounding.
 
Even the rail friendly executives are ignorant to the point of making wrong assumptions leading to wrong decisions.

I am watching this Webinar (111/1/22) on Virginia rail improvement D. J. Stadler just said with a straight face that he cannot electrify the passenger trackage south of Washington DC using catenary because there is no way to build catenary that would allow operation of double stacks under it. Clearly he has never traveled north of Washington and bothered to look out the window between Baltimore and Wilmington. Sigh.

There is a reason that passenger rail development under these government bureaucrats is totally screwed up.
If we sent him to India to look at the double-stack electric freight I'm guessing his head would explode??
 
If we sent him to India to look at the double-stack electric freight I'm guessing his head would explode??
Not to mention that Indian Railways is now over 90% electrified system-wide and 100% for trunk route main lines.

Stadler seems to thinks that he will just use more efficient diesel engines and call it a day. Talk about fossil :D
 
Even the rail friendly executives are ignorant to the point of making wrong assumptions leading to wrong decisions.

I am watching this Webinar (11/1/22) on Virginia rail improvement D. J. Stadler just said with a straight face that he cannot electrify the passenger trackage south of Washington DC using catenary because there is no way to build catenary that would allow operation of double stacks under it. Clearly he has never traveled north of Washington and bothered to look out the window between Baltimore and Wilmington. Sigh.

There is a reason that passenger rail development under these government bureaucrats is totally screwed up.
Why would he care though? Not like he’s at risk of being fired no matter how badly he performs at his job…. Man it would be great to have competent leadership
 
The Virginia routes (the NER routes originating/terminating in Roanoke, Newport News, Norfolk, and Richmond; not counting any LD routes) are seeing record ridership, with more than 87,000 passengers in January 2023. That's an increase of 160% over January 2022, and about 28% increase over pre-pandemic January 2020. So it's not just recovery, it's actual growth.

Virginia sees record train ridership as passenger rail expands
 
Back
Top