The Virginia Passenger Rail Authority is working to adjust the timetable for Amtrak trains serving the Commonwealth.
“The weather is going to cause complications for any mode of transportation,” Latimer said. “It also just makes us maybe a little more irritable. And so having your expectations set, knowing that when you book your ticket, this is about the time you’re going to arrive. The intent is just to make this a better experience.”
“A lot of force can bend it, move it around,” Latimer said. “And so you just want to go slower to make sure that there’s no falling off the track, that the wheels just bump off.”
In Virginia, “heat orders” are put into place by either Norfolk Southern or CSX, which owns the tracks Amtrak operates on, to limit all train speed. The specific temperature threshold for implementing heat orders differ depending on who owns the tracks according to Latimer — as do the speed limits for the tracks.
Latimer said he has been watching for several years how often the trains are affected by “heat orders.” A majority of them go into place between 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. beginning in late May and continuing through Labor Day.
“It’s often that after noontime when you start to see that happen and we have to slow the trains down,” Latimer said. “So we’ve started adding time into the schedule to mitigate and set passenger expectations. So yes, you might notice that you’re going a little bit slower.”
Amtrak will send direct notifications to a passenger on their day of travel if their departure cities are within the heat advisory area. However Latimer said now, travelers can be prepared months in advance.
(Photo by Joanne Rathe/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
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