CSX Transportation is teaming up with Virginia Railway Express and the Commonwealth of Virginia, to add eleven more miles of triple track mainline between Washington, DC and Richmond, VA.

VRE has already agreed to fund the engineering work for a third mainline between Powell's Creek, Prince William County, and Arkendale Road in Stafford County on the RF&P Subdivision. A third track already exists between Crystal City in Arlington and a junction in Alexandria--about five miles. Construction of another seven miles from the Alexandria junction south toward Springfield was funded by Virginia in 2000, but construction has not yet begun.

The present Quantico Creek bridge is the only single-track stretch on the line, and the new double-track bridge will allow a three-track crossing of the creek.

Triple track from Powell's Creek in Prince William to Arkendale in Stafford is ideal for the next step, said Westbrook, because that segment has only one major water crossing: Quantico Creek, where the new bridge is already under construction and is expected to open in 2007. Getting started on the third track soon would be more efficient than the current plan, which calls for a double-track crossing of the creek, leaving part of the new bridge unused and later reconfiguring it to three tracks.

Combined with the other projects, it would make about 24 miles into triple track, out of 54 miles between Washington's Union Station and Fredericksburg.

VRE operates thirteen passenger trains and one deadhead trip on weekdays, Amtrak runs eighteen trains on a typical day, and CSXT runs dozens of freights. The trains seem to continually be in one another's way, partly because they operate at various speeds.