Don't blame Amtrak for the mad track dash

August 16, 2007 12:35 am

This is in response to Charles Cooper's letter to the editor ["Amtrak has more excuses than tracks," July 21].

First, Amtrak doesn't determine the track to which a train is assigned at Fredericksburg; the CSX dispatcher in Jacksonville, Fla., does, based on an overall strategy of how best to keep as many trains flowing as smoothly as possible.

Those conditions change constantly, so plans change from moment to moment. Sometimes even the train crew don't know which track they will be using until they approach the last point at which their train can cross from one track to another, little more than a mile or two before arriving in Fredericksburg.

Holding Amtrak up to public ridicule is about as senseless as complaining to the weather bureau because it's too hot.

Amtrak is not the source of the problem.

Doug Riddell Mechanicsville