|
|
||
VRE's Crossroads Yard in Spotsylvania improves maintenance, cleaning operations Date published: 1/24/2009
By KELLY HANNON When passengers step off a train, odds are they don't think about it again until the next boarding. But Virginia Railway Express trains are busy during the hours passengers go home, eat dinner and sleep. Locomotives and passenger cars spend the night at the Crossroads Yard in Spotsylvania County, near the intersection of U.S. 17 and Route 2. There, workers spend an overnight shift cleaning trains, making repairs, testing the brakes and preparing to make another run. "When [customers] get on the train, we want them to feel as if they are in their living room," said Louis Woolner, manager of quality assurance for Virginia Railway Express. Doing the cleaning, maintenance work and repairs recently became easier. VRE opened a $7.2 million service building in November at Crossroads Yard. Next door, a train wash--similar to a drive-through car wash--is almost ready. An identical facility is planned for the Manassas Line in Broad Run. Building a maintenance facility at the end of the line lets VRE conduct repairs and inspections on its own schedule, rather than waiting for open slots in Washington, where Amtrak runs a busy facility, Woolner said. Quicker service means a train can be put back into service faster, he said. This spring, VRE plans to invite companies to bid on train maintenance work. Amtrak has operated and maintained VRE trains since the commuter train began running in 1992. Amtrak may bid again for the work, but it might have competition. Whichever company gets the contract will work in the new service building. Before the facility opened, all work at the Crossroads Yard was done outdoors, without shelter from the weather. Now, a 10-foot pit in the floor of the facility allows VRE to move a car or locomotive inside, and workers can inspect and fix the train from below. Air compressors and air storage tanks in the building will power tools used on the engine and brakes, eliminating the need to have trains idle during inspections, saving fuel.
1. Be respectful. No personal attacks.
|
|
|||||||||||||
