They've been workin' on the railroad
A pair of heavy machines, including a ballast tamper, works near Old Ivy Road March 12, thanks to an $8.59 million, six-year state grant to the Buckingham Branch Railroad, which leases the CSX tracks through Charlottesville, to replace about 116,000 ties, as then state rail boss Kevin Page told a 2007 assemblage of rail promoters at the Boar's Head Inn. Page noted that such improvements will enable the Chicago-to-New York Cardinal passenger train to resume speeds of 60mph (instead of the 40mph limit imposed after a year 2000 audit found gobs of rotten ties west of Charlottesville). On April 13, the repairs caused West Leigh Drive, located about four miles west of this point, to be closed most of the day.
8 comments
If you missed this story in 2004 don't miss it this time --for train lovers everywhere this is terrific "Shorting the C & O-- is this anyway to run a railroad" --linked to this article
http://readthehook.com/Stories/2004/05/13/coverShortingTheCampoIsThi...
Yeah, that's all we need now, trains running 60 mph instead of 40 mph. If they install solid metal ties, maybe we can jump the speed to 100 mph.
This railroad came really close to abandonment in the 90's. Thankfully it is now being properly cared for. Railroads are a precious irreplaceable resource, like farmland. Once they are gone they are gone forever.
I recently made a trip to Waynesboro paid around $1.40 per gallon for regular, unleaded gasoline. Pantops Mountain is still charging around $1.60 per gallon. Charlottesville is still, approximately 20 cents higher! I believe the term of the year and future in this area is "monopoly."
Looking at virginiagasprices.com the 4 lowest stations in W'boro are 1.37, the 4 lowest in C-Ville are 1.55.
I think you are gullible too!
You could just ask the station owners how much gas they sell in a week.
Seems like they should pipe our gas in from Montvale, too.
Thaks for writing, all. I just want to respond to these good points that have been raised.
There is no question that C'ville appears to be one of the higher priced areas of the Commonwealth.
FW - If C'ville is higher because of a monopoly among wholesalers, it ought to be investigated and prosecuted. I just can't believe if it were the case that evidence would be hard to find, or that AG Bob McDonnell, who want to be governor, would not love to be the driving force behind a suit against high gasoline prices that would obviously be extremely popular among voters. But higher prices, in and of themselves, don't actually prove anything, because they are easily explained by other competitive factors.
Brian - I wasn't trying to explain all price differences between here and everywhere else. Plenty goes into determining the price of gasoline, including what the market will bear in any particular place, competition, other fixed costs like rent, other sources of revenue for the station. All I am saying is that Sutton's explanation for price differences between here and Richmond made intuitive sense and the data supports it.
dman - the gas is trucked in, not piped, and I'm not sure that Monvale is any closer to here than Richmond.
Alan, you're either a lying scumbag, or an idiot. Not that the two are mutually exclusive, but if I had to decide which I'd rather be decieved by, the lying scumbag, or the idiot, I would choose the lying scumbag! Why? Because at least I can tell the lying scumbag to GO TO HELL without feeling guilty for doing so.