(rshsdepot) Richmond, VA

[Bernie Wagenblast <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

Amtrak Chief Questions Strength of Supports at Richmond, Va., Station

Richmond Times - Dispatch...12/17/2002

By Chip Jones

Amtrak President David Gunn was nearing the end of a guided tour of
Richmond's Main Street Station yesterday when something caught his eye.
He pointed out two support beams with badly corroded metal at the base of
the railroad viaduct near the station's entrance.

Someone had scrawled notes in chalk on the scarred metal, including a note
that a piece was "broken in half."

That stopped Gunn, a veteran rail and mass-transit official. The rail
viaduct through Shockoe Bottom carries freight, but it also carries plenty
of people on the twice-a-day Amtrak trains to and from Newport News.

"This is serious," he said. "If that were my bridge, I'd be worried about
it."

In his first tour of Richmond, Gunn, 65, lived up to his reputation as the
plain-spoken leader of Amtrak.

He was touring the city-owned train station that is undergoing a $ 48.2
million renovation.

He praised the quality of the interior work -- with marble floors and
careful craftsmanship to bring back some of the original look of the
101-year-old facility.

Main Street Station has been closed to rail service since 1975. It is slated
to reopen in March with eight or nine passenger trains per day.

Asked later about his safety concerns, Gunn said he was not calling into
question the structural integrity of the viaduct owned by Richmond-based CSX
Corp.

"No, those bridges have a lot of extra meat built into them," he said. "But
eventually you come to a point you have to fix them. You'd rather not see
it."

CSX spokesman Robert Sullivan said the span is "absolutely structurally
sound. It poses no danger to the public or to employees or train crews or
anyone else."

CSX crews regularly perform repairs and maintenance on the track around the
station.

"But nothing that has to be done is critical to the integrity of that
structure," Sullivan said.

He conceded the cracks in the beam "don't look good."

Amtrak's Gunn said such signs of decay reflect a broader public-policy
problem. Only a concerted national effort will save the nation's railroads,
both passenger and freight, he said.

Gunn compared Amtrak to the canaries that British miners once used to ensure
they had enough oxygen to breathe.

"Amtrak is sort of the canary of the railroad industry," said Gunn, 65. "We
suffer from deferred maintenance, deferred investment and lack of government
support."

There are some bright spots, he said, including Virginia's work to improve
train speeds and track conditions from Richmond to Washington.

"Richmond to Washington is a logical corridor," he said. "You have a great
rail line. It has the capacity to run a lot of trains."

Since taking over Amtrak in May, Gunn has been likened to the captain of the
Titanic. He has experienced service meltdowns, costly derailments and a
fight for federal funding.

With no budget passed by Congress, Amtrak is operating on the basis of its
last $ 1.2 billion annual budget, he said.

Will Amtrak survive? "If I knew, I'd tell you," Gunn said with a laugh.

Its fate should be decided by spring, when Congress passes its next budget.

"If you want my best guess -- we'll survive, because it's totally illogical
to push us off the cliff."


=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

------------------------------