In a jam: Busy rails slow trains down

The improving economy has created delays on the tracks.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- John Benck boarded an Amtrak train in downtown Richmond and almost instantly regretted it. Inching along, the locomotive took a half hour to travel eight miles north to the next station.
"I could have ridden my bike," said Benck, a Richmond-area high school teacher traveling to New York. "It's sort of pointless."
Behind the slowdown is a rail yard little known to the public but a familiar headache to rail officials. Each day, more than 50 passenger and freight trains approach CSX Corp.'s busy Acca Yard, where workers repair locomotives and reroute blocks of freight cars. Many trains slow to a crawl. Others come to a complete standstill, waiting their turn to enter the property.
Acca Yard has helped turn Richmond into a rail choke point comparable to the highway congestion in the Washington, D.C., area. Last year, the yard ranked No. 1 in passenger slowdowns and was among the top five contributors to freight delays in the railroad's north-south corridor, according to Jacksonville, Fla.-based CSX.
Not just there
The problem is not limited to the East. Across the nation, yards and tracks have become congested as the economy has improved, leading to record rail volumes this year. The federal agency that regulates railroads warns that the rail system, which carries more than 40 percent of the nation's freight volume, is straining even before the upcoming peak shipping season.
The U.S. Surface Transportation Board has asked CSX and other railroads to explain how they will cope with the expected surge in August, when holiday merchandise bound for store shelves will join a network already encumbered by a surge of coal, grain, steel and other products.
Acca Yard has no easy solution. It is in the middle of a heavily trafficked route shared by passenger and freight trains that needs upgrades, rail officials said. The yard, too, is behind the times; it is too small and too complicated to handle the extra traffic and workload, Galloway said.
"It's a busier yard than it ever was, and infrastructure changes were not made," said Drew Galloway, senior director of Amtrak's strategic planning department. "So there is an awful lot of congestion for Amtrak and CSX."
On average, 40 freight trains chugged through Richmond each day in the first half of 2004, compared to 38 in the year-earlier period.
More cars
But on busy days, the city could see as many as 65 trains. And many of CSX's trains are getting longer. This year, those hauling general merchandise are pulling an extra five to 10 cars -- which can further slow down Acca and other yards.
When train traffic backs up, it causes a ripple effect of delays. CSX's freight trains sometimes have to stop midtrack to relieve crews who have reached the federal maximum they are permitted to work -- a 12-hour shift. Until a new crew takes over, the train sits -- another clog in the network.
Despite the clog, rail officials and freight customers say CSX's problems are not as severe as those facing Union Pacific Corp. in the West and Midwest. With parts of its system bottlenecked, the nation's largest railroad has been forced to reject some business, including an expedited Los Angeles-Chicago train for United Parcel Service.
"We certainly have seen some delays and some congestion on the CSX [rails], but it is not anywhere near the problem or the level of concern that we have out West," said Norman Black, a UPS spokesman.
John Gibson, a CSX vice president, said the railroad is revamping operations to speed up freight and passenger trains. Under the new plan, CSX will be able reduce the handling of cars and take them by more direct routes, easing the workloads at Acca and other yards. On a smaller scale are $15 million in small improvements that could speed up train traffic and ease congestion through Acca.
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