The Paoli line gets reverse commuters who study at Bryn Mawr U and at Villanova and live in Philly.
VRE has clarified the situation at L’Enfant Plaza. They do intend that passengers detraining at L’Enfant would transfer to the next VRE train (within ten minutes):
"Our intent is for riders wishing to go to Union Station to be able to connect with another VRE train, likely on the other line of service, within 10 minutes of detraining at L’Enfant (i.e., Manassas Line riders would take the following train which would be a Fredericksburg Line train). We think that this will be quicker than Metro. As a result, we will not make arrangements with Metro to cover Metro costs. "
Per this link: http://www.vre.org/service/proposed_changes/faq.html
The proposal has been withdrawn. The latest update is on Facebook. Just one express train to be added on the Fredericksburg line only. The trains will possibly be lengthened. The trains will not be terminating at L’Enfant which 45% of survey respondents had objected to. Still looking for more storage at Union Station (this problem continues to perplex me; I guess Ivy City is too far or not available).
http://www.facebook.com/#!/notes/virginia-railway-express/service-changes/436211724147
My understanding is that storage tracks at Ivy City were reduced sometime in the past. Can someone elaborate on how and why and is the land still vacant? WASH US platforms were also shortened sometime in the past and some tracks (1- ?) were lost to Washington Metro.
When Union Station was redeveloped in the early Eighties as a combo station/shopping center, the waiting room became a shopping concourse with Amtrak ticket offices also relocated there from the vaulted-ceiling “head house” out front. The waiting room and its gates were moved into the contemporary structure behind the former waiting room; the space frame ceiling is a give-away to its more recent construction as compared to Daniel Burnham’s original magnificent classical spaces. This explains the truncation of the platform lengths. Gates 1 through 6 were removed for Metro station approach ramps; the remaining space nearest the station has been assigned to commissary and crew facilities. Curiously, an unused spur into the National Postal Museum remains from the days when that building was the main post office of Washington DC.
Wow, that totally explains the awkward-looking “new” waiting area. It’s not functional and I hear it’s being redesigned for better crowd control. Thanks for the information.
Speaking of the old waiting area roof, it appears to be suspended from a support structure built back when parts of the roof were in danger of immediate collapse. None of the windows above the “shopping mall” area seem to let through any natural light, but in the “new” waiting area you can see the sky. I never knew that about truncating the platforms. For that matter I didn’t know there were two levels. The tracks all seemed to be on the same level to me, but I’m just a tourist at WAS.
Most of the tracks stub end against a bumping post. They are the upper level and are on the west side of the station fronting the main concourse without any stairways. These include the tracks with high-lvevel platforms installed for the Metroliners and used now for Acela… About six tracks or less are the lower level and they are through tracks, all with low platforms. They are reachable by stairs, excalators, and one elevator per platform from the eastern extension of the concourse. They merge under the concourse extension and station building into the two track tunnel that leads to the viaduct or elevated structure at L’Enfanc ePlaza and then two the two-track bridge crossing the Polotmac River. At the north end of the station tracks, all are on the same level. The B&O and PRR trains used the upper level. RF&P (RF&P-ACL and RF&P-SAL), Southern, and C&O trains used the lower level, including those that the PRR handled north of Washington, with change of power, both in the pure steam days and after the PRR electrification. The PRR electrificaiton reached the double-track bridge across the Potomic, and then to the large multi-RR Potomic Yard south of Alexandria, via a freight branch and not via Washington Union, with the electrificaiton extending into the tunnel just long enough to have a “motor” pull ahead and run around its train. Today Amtrak uses both levels, Virginia Express the lower leve, and Maryland’s commuter trains only the upper level.
May I chime in with an interesting reverse-commute situation?
The Shaker Heights (Ohio) Rapid Transit Lines for years had a two-way rush hour on weekdays as the westbound morning runs were full of professional men on their way to their downtown Cleveland offices, while the women (“maids” years ago and “cleaners” today) filled many seats on the eastbound morning runs from their poorer neighborhoods just east of downtown. In the afternoon the situation reversed perfectly. The Shaker Rapid (as Clevelanders called it) benefited for decades from this travel pattern. Today, not quite so much, but it’s still observable.
I’m sure this situation must have been common on other, similar transit lines.
That effect was most pronounced on the CNW Kenosha Sub serving the North Shore after the Chicago, North Shore & Milweaukee service was discontinued.
Commuting to suburban jobs is becoming a significant market in the western and northern quadrants.
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Shaker’s rush hour load was not balanced, however. Shaker emloyed part-time conductors, not authorized to operate cars, but simply sat in the operator’s seat of the second and third cars (mostly PCC’s at the time) to control doors and collect fares. These were actually executives who had office jobs in downtown Cleveland and worked on their morning and evening commuter trips! (Darn nice work if you can get it!) On the return trip one or two cars would have passengers with the third and sometimes the second car closed and empty.
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According CERA’s ROUTE OF THE ELECTROLINER, a charter bus company was organized by the household help specifically to provide low cost and conveninet transportation when the CNS&M Shore Line quit, since the Skokie stations were too far away, and the C&NW did not run trains as often nor have station stops as close together as the CNS&M Shore LIne. Southern terminus of the bus route was a CTA station in Evanston, unclear which one. This morphed into a regular bus service and then into the bus operation that exist today. Some of this business did switch to the C&NW trains, where stations were convenient to places of employment.
In the early '50’s I had a 4th grade teacher in Denville, NJ who lived in Jersey City and reverse commuted on the DL&W. She took a Boonton Line train (or Steam Train in the vernacular) which was the first westbound out of Hoboken in the morning arriving in Denville at 8:15AM. She then walked the quarter mile to the Main St. School. I don’t know what she did when that train was discontinued by the mid 50’s, I think she learned to drive as there was no other westbound train that would have gotten her to Denville before the 8:30AM start of school
Ah, I’ll have to check that out. I’ve railfanned and excursioned on VRE only but I should probably grab a ticket into WAS to see the lower level. Thanks!!