To those passengers who were affected directly or indirectly by the delays yesterday afternoon, we’d like to apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

Yesterday, on November 1, Train 532 fatally struck a trespasser west of the Richmond station, at the Cutting Blvd. grade crossing. The ensuing investigation shut down both mainline tracks of the railroad for 4.5 hours. Cutting Blvd. was also closed. Capitol Corridor and other passenger trains, as well as freight trains, could not pass on either side of the incident for hours, due to the investigation. Many Capitol Corridor passengers were caught in this mess and were unable to get to their destination station for quite some time.

I want to extend my apologies to each of you who may have been impacted by yesterday’s events. Unfortunately, the protocol and investigation procedures for such trespasser/pedestrian/crossing incidents were not followed for some reason(s), which we are currently investigating. 

Normally, when a trespasser fatality occurs, it takes approximately 1-2 hours before trains can start moving again. However, in yesterday’s incident, the deviation from protocol led to a prolonged track closure that resulted in delays double the typical length of time.

Without a doubt, trespasser-related incidents wreak havoc on your travel plans and directly impact the lives of our train crews.

Believe me, we are doing a ‘lessons learned’ session to see how we can improve our communications with the local authorities and with our passengers to limit the length of delays after such incidents like yesterday’s.

Please accept my apologies for the disruption in service yesterday. This afternoon (November 2, 2016), passengers will each receive a $3.00 Café Car coupon, as well as free snack packs.

Once again, please accept our apologies. We do appreciate your patronage, and you can always contact us at www.capitolcorridor.org.