I don’t remember where I heard this, but I think the idea is that Staples Mill is a more “suburban” station where folks can drive in and park, whereas Main Street is the walkable, downtown option. Not too different from Cary Depot vs Raleigh Union Station, in my opinion.
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When I lived in Richmond, Stapes Mill is where the majority of the trains went. (The only time I took the train back to NC, I left from Staples Mill). The downtown station is more of a “museum” station. A few trains do stop there, but it was very limited. Of course, that was 13+ years ago, things may have changed since then.
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Guess they need to do the quick stops like the real high speed trans do. There are numbers on platform for each car and you line up there. Train pulls up and stops, door opens and 2 min later is closed and byessss. people getting or used other end of car and woo be you that try to use the wrong door.
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Only trains to Newport News currently stop at Main Street, but the Southeast High Speed Rail plan would have all trains calling there.
If, at some point, we ever get real high speed trains, like the TGV or Shinkansen or whatever, two stops in Richmond are definitely not a good idea. But for the 110mph service currently contemplated, it’s probably fine, since the time lost to the extra stop is a smaller percentage of the overall trip time.
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Yep first time I was on high speed in China. Got on by time found my seat and put bag in overhead. Glanced out window it was just a bluer of things going by and did not even realize it had started moving. I would really really like to see US get trains like that. But do not think I will live long enough to ever see that. 
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Build the stops. But run intercity trains that only stop at the big cities, and regional trains using the same rails, but making more stops at smaller cities and towns along the way. Of course this would mean we have enough riders to fill both trains.
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Yes a DC, Richmond, Raleigh, Greensboro, Charlotte schedule would be much better than stopping every few miles for one or two people.
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This is certainly how the trains run in Italy - high speed between the major cities, and regionalias connecting smaller towns to the big stations. Both Rome and Florence has stations the trains pull into and then change directions to leave. Rome already has a new station, and Florence is getting one, outside the center of the towns, that will allow for the thru trains to keep going straight and saving a good 20 min’s or more per stop. With dueling systems (the state and a private company) running on the same lines its dirt cheap and incredibly efficient. You can leave Rome for Florence or Milian every hour of the work day. It is idea if you are going metro to metro, but if you want to get somewhere smaller . . . well, the equipment is OLD!! and it runs slow. But its also cheap, and it gets you where you want with out renting a care and braving the autostrassa - which is all tolled.
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I don’t want to see multiple classes of intercity service in NC until we’ve got trains running at least hourly from Raleigh to Charlotte.
Beyond that, though, I see the following service pattern on this corridor:
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Charlotte-Salisbury-Greensboro-Durham-Raleigh-(Richmond-DC) intercity express. As few other stops as possible. Maybe add High Point, Burlington, or Cary. Maybe not. But no more.
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Charlotte-Winston-Salem intercity local. This makes more stops along the way, including places like Concord, Kannapolis, Salisbury, and Lexington among others
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Raleigh-Winston Salem intercity local. This makes more stops as well, like Cary, Hillsborough, Mebane, Elon, and others like the major universities and RDU/RTP
Would try to arrange schedules for timed local<->express transfers in Salisbury and Greensboro, and for local<->local transfers in Winston-Salem.
That way you could book a ticket Kannapolis->Raleigh in which you would ride the local from Kannapolis to Salisbury, and change trains across the platform in Salisbury to an express.
In the other direction, you could board a local in Mebane, change trains to an express with a timed, cross-platform transfer in Greensboro, and get to Charlotte quickly and easily.
Likewise for the fastest trip from Raleigh->Winston-Salem, rather than riding a local the whole way, you could catch an express from Raleigh to Greensboro, change to the local there, and ride that on to Winston-Salem.
These are the sort of schedules that first world rail service planning are able to provide. Basically start by designing a timetable for service, and then follow it up by building the infrastructure necessary to enable it.
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It seems like San Diego is using simulated timetables to partner with BNSF and figure out how to extend their Coaster commuter rail service and run them more frequently. So there seems to be at least one precedent for that.
I agree: a differentiated express and local service would do a lot to make local and regional rail travel more convenient and meaningful! It honestly surprises me how this is so uncommon in North America -not that we need to be extreme about it, like Tokyo’s Keio Main Line does with its seven different classifications.
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I mean hourly is a nice goal between Raleigh and Charlotte, But it seems like it’s a struggle to even have it five times a day as it is, let alone hourly
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Right now, trains headed from Richmond to NC cross the James via CSX’s A-Line, which runs via a track built to bypass west of downtown Richmond. Hence Staples Mill station is west of downtown, which also is where most of the suburban population is.
It used to be that trains could pull off that bypass, turn east into the main Broad Street station, and follow a loop track back out to the A-Line to continue on. But that station was abandoned, and is now the state science museum.
Richmond Main Street is on a through track headed east, so trains continuing to Hampton Roads stop there. It is also on the CSX S-Line south to NC, which CSX abandoned south of Richmond… but which Virginia and NC will rebuild (hence the “via new alignment” on the diagram above). Main Street never had that convenient loop track to send trains back to the A-Line. There’s also some reason about the Acca Yard just past Staples Mill, though I’m unclear on the details.
To an earlier point, the SECC is seeking funding like what the Northeast Corridor Commission has; it’s an independent interstate compact agency but staffed by Amtrak. (I know this only because I once interviewed for a job there.) https://nec-commission.com/
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Right, well, I think hourly trains should be the first goal before we start thinking about local/express intercity service.
Jim Hunt set this as a goal back in like 1985, when the state first started being actively interested in passenger rail. Kind of crappy that, 36 years later, we haven’t even gotten close.
For a line to be competitive with driving, not only does it have to be fast enough, it has to be frequent enough too. Come up with some axiom for it like: “the time between scheduled departures in each direction should be less than the average journey time”
This makes sense because while nobody would ride a daily train that only travels somewhere 30 minutes away, people will ride a daily overnight train.
So if the average journey time on the Piedmont is 90 minutes, the Piedmont frequency should be hourly.
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Virginia’s purchase of the S-Line and additional ROW on the A-Line from CSX is being signed by Governor Northam at 11:00a today. We’re inching closer to a better connection to the Northeast!
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Soooo this map has been making the rounds on my social media tonight:
http://media.amtrak.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Amtrak-Connects-Us-Fact-Sheet-for-Statement.pdf
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I feel like for a first draft plan it’s not ambitious enough. For example there’s no reason why Atlanta and Chicago shouldn’t have a direct connection.
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I believe nearly all of these projects are already on the table in some form… could be an EIS or even just a line in a state comprehensive rail plan. I think they avoided putting anything on there that isn’t officially planned (such as the southern Montana route that’s rapidly gaining popularity).
The nice thing about that is that several of these are probably ready to build. If we can just get Biden’s new infrastructure bill through Congress in one piece…
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Agreed. And crazy the only way to go from east coast to out west, you route through Chicago or New Orleans. Imagine if the interstates were designed like that. The line from Nashville needs to at least go to St. Louis. And maybe 1-2 more east west connections.
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If that route to Asheville happens before I’m too old to travel, that would be awesome! I can’t think of a more fun, walkable destination in NC, and that drive out there is something I dread.
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I am liking the Raleigh to Wilmington line.
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