![]() I’m not saying that CSX couldn’t do better but there rarely was a commitment from them to OTP. I spend a fair amount of time around the Brunswick Line and if anything the number of trains appears to be down. It all runs in a big cycle, earlier this year the Penn Line was abysmal, largely due to mechanical problems. The Brunswick Line is particularly bad because of the steep grades which get freight trains down to 10-15mph. Just throw in a trespasser strike or a MARC mechanical failure and it adds up. And if there are two freights going either way then the MARC trains just follow. Despite Precision Scheduled Railroading, other than some intermodal trains the rest can vary 2 or 3 hours either way. All it can take is one freight going in emergency to bang 3 or 4 trains. I was Chief Transportation Officer for MARC for 12 years and I don’t believe it is the number of trains. “We continue to meet our contractual obligations with our partners and work to improve on-time performance, which minimizes avoidable delays,” Schild wrote. Meanwhile, MARC’s Penn line, which runs on the Amtrak-owned Northeast Corridor, achieved a 91-percent on-time rate.ĬSX spokeswoman Cindy Schild told the Post in an email that freight traffic information is proprietary but that she did not believe there had been a year-over-year increase in trains in the Washington Area. That improved to 68% in June, still well short of the 90% target for arrival within five minutes of schedule. For VRE, only about 57 percent of trains arrived on time in April and May. On the Brunswick Line, from Union Station to Martinsburg, W.Va., the figure was 73 percent. “It is not unusual for us to occasionally get caught behind a freight train, and that causes some delays.”įor MARC, on-time performance for the Camden Line, which runs from Washington Union Station to Camden Yards in Baltimore, dropped to 65% in June. “There’s just a lot more trains out on the system than there used to be,” Joe Swartz, VRE’s chief of staff, told the Post. But congestion from CSX traffic is playing a big part. ![]() The Washington Post reports that Maryland Area Regional Commuter trains and Virginia Railway Express both note there are other factors: hot weather, mechanical issues, and glitches in the roll-out of positive train control. WASHINGTON - The two commuter railroads serving the Washington area are experiencing a major drop in on-time performance, and both say increased freight traffic on host railroad CSX Transportation is a significant factor.
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