Webinar: Passenger Rail Service Development Best Practices

RAILTARGET brings you updates from the AASHTO Rail Management webinar on passenger rail service development. Speakers explain how rail simulation, infrastructure planning, and operational modelling help expand passenger rail services while balancing growing freight traffic across the U.S. network.

10:00  The webinar opens with a point that a proposed service in the US often has to fit onto infrastructure owned and operated by a freight railroad. The session, Passenger Rail Service Development Best Practices, will focus less on designing an ideal passenger timetable and more on proving that it can work within an existing, mixed-traffic network.

Jeremy Latimer, Senior Director of Rail Services at the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority, is first to speak. He is followed by Nick Gibbon and Sridar Padmanabhan of Quandel Consultants, who take participants through the rail operations modelling process from the first data request to the final infrastructure recommendation.

10:10 Latimer introduces Transforming Rail in Virginia, a multi-phase programme to expand and improve passenger rail across the state.

Virginia is currently in a five-year construction period, which means the authority must protect existing services while new infrastructure is built. It must also deal with summer heat restrictions, maintenance work, freight movements and congestion around Washington, D.C.

VPRA created service performance committees involving Amtrak, CSX, Norfolk Southern, Virginia Railway Express and the authority’s engineering teams. Consultants support the group with operational modelling and analysis.

Latimer says the meetings are not intended to revisit every isolated delay. A storm that blocks one train may not justify a planning response, but a recurring pattern of slow orders, station delays or train interference does.

10:20 Latimer presents the monthly performance reports used by VPRA. The authority tracks punctuality by corridor, compares results year-on-year and identifies the most frequent causes of delay.

Recent reports showed a rise in slow orders and speed restrictions around Alexandria, Quantico and Fredericksburg. Even if the trend seems negative, the timing was partly deliberate. Virginia had asked CSX to move more maintenance work into the spring shoulder season, before summer heat orders and major construction pressures arrived at the same time.

He mentions that the increase in restrictions during April and May showed that some planned work had been brought forward, saying that this is why people shouldn't read operational figures without knowing what was happening on the railway behind them.

10:30 Latimer says that passengers and public officials often assume that freight interference is the main reason for poor performance, but for several years, one of the biggest problems for Virginia services was Washington Union Station. When a southbound train left Washington late, it entered the congested section towards Alexandria outside its planned slot and had little opportunity to recover.

VPRA repeatedly raised the issue with Amtrak, using its own operational data. Monthly delays attributed to Washington Union Station had at one point reached about 4,500 minutes. Amtrak eventually introduced a plan that matched staffing and other resources more closely with the timetable. By May 2026, the corresponding delay figure had fallen to 463 minutes. It was a timely change because a large-scale construction had already begun in Virginia, and the network would have struggled to absorb both the earlier station delays and the new work restrictions.

10:40 Latimer then mentions Long Bridge project, under which the two-track Potomac River crossing is being expanded to four tracks. He says work on the Washington side is particularly difficult. The railway passes through a dense urban area, while noise and vibration rules limit what can be done overnight, which is why contractors need a daytime period during which no train crosses the bridge.

After several timetable studies, planners settled on a work window beginning shortly after 08:00 and continuing until approximately 13:00. Creating that gap affected Virginia Railway Express commuter trains, Amtrak’s state-supported services, CSX freight and long-distance trains linking destinations including Chicago, Florida, Boston and New Orleans.

Virginia’s daily Amtrak round trips were reduced from eight to six. Other trains were retimed, some services began terminating at Alexandria, and express buses were introduced. Latimer describes the result as "musical trains": even services that remained in operation had to be moved.

10:50 Latimer says that a technically workable train plan is only the beginning. At Richmond Staples Mill, the remaining morning northbound service is heavily used because it must pass through before the construction window. At Alexandria, some Virginia Railway Express passengers transfer between trains or continue by Metro because not every service can reach Washington Union Station.

Construction has also changed where trains stop and how passengers reach platforms. One temporary platform was built beside a track that had previously been used mainly by freight trains. Crews needed instructions on train positioning and door operation, while Amtrak suspended checked baggage because luggage carts could not move safely through the reduced space. These details affect dwell times, accessibility and staff workload, even when the construction team initially expects little impact on railway operations.

Despite the disruption, Latimer says ridership has remained relatively stable. The replacement express buses have also performed better than expected, particularly because they use managed road lanes and can reach Washington reliably.

11:00 Nick Gibbon of Quandel Consultants then explains how agencies test future services before committing to construction. He says that the first stage is to define the problem. The sponsor may want to launch a completely new route, add frequencies to an existing service or improve reliability. Consultants then build a "base case", a virtual version of the railway as it operates today. Quandel uses Rail Traffic Controller, commonly known as RTC.

The model includes tracks, sidings, switches, signals, gradients, curves, speed limits, stations, junctions and level crossings. Much of the information comes from the host freight railroad’s track charts and is normally provided under a confidentiality agreement.

11:10 The infrastructure model must then be filled with trains. For freight services, consultants need information on priorities, departure patterns, train lengths, weights, locomotives and operational stops. They also need to know where trains change crews, refuel, undergo inspection or collect and detach wagons.

Unlike passenger services, freight trains may depart several hours away from their nominal schedule. RTC therefore applies randomisation. A high-priority intermodal train may run within a relatively narrow window, while a coal or grain train can vary much more widely. The model is normally run across five to seven days, with additional time at either end so trains enter an already active network rather than an unrealistically empty railway.

Results are then compared with real performance. Gibbon says freight speed and passenger punctuality are common calibration measures. The model will never reproduce reality perfectly, but it must come close enough for the host railroad and project sponsor to trust the scenarios built from it.

11:20 Sridar Padmanabhan explains how planners move from the base case to proposed services. Software first calculates the fastest possible running time based on the train, infrastructure, gradients and speed limits. Station dwell time and an operating margin are then added to create a realistic timetable.

The proposed trains are inserted into the full network model which shows where they meet opposing services, where a freight movement blocks the main line and where a single-track section lacks enough capacity.

Padmanabhan gives the example of a long freight train switching wagons at a yard. Without additional infrastructure, it can occupy the main line and prevent an hourly passenger service from passing. A possible solution is a second track with crossovers, allowing the passenger train to continue while freight work remains underway. The model then tests whether that investment actually reduces delays.

11:30 Proposed scenarios are compared using average speed, delay minutes and passenger on-time performance. A successful option should perform at least as well as the current railway, and preferably better.

Host freight railroads often appoint their own consultants to review the work, with the project sponsor expected to cover the cost. They may also negotiate for infrastructure or operating changes that benefit their freight business.

Latimer says Virginia is becoming more precise about what it wants from future studies. A siding may increase theoretical capacity, but it may also force passenger trains through a slower diverging route. An investment that helps the host railroad is not automatically the best passenger rail investment.

This concludes the Passenger Rail Service Development Best Practices webinar. Thank you for tuning in with RAILTARGET for the updates.