Date: 202001
Local time of day: 0001-0600
Location: RIC.Airport, VA
Flight conditions: IMC
Weather elements / visibility: 0.5
Light: Night
Aircraft: Commercial Fixed Wing
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Flight plan: IFR
Flight phase: Parked
ATC / advisory: Ground ZZZ
Reporter organization: Air Carrier
Reporter function: Captain; Pilot Flying
Reporter qualification: Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument
Human factors: Communication Breakdown; Confusion; Situational Awareness; Distraction
Anomaly: ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Detector: Person Flight Crew
When detected: Pre-flight
Result: General None Reported / Taken
Contributing factors: Environment - Non Weather Related; Staffing; Procedure; ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings
Primary problem: ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings

Narrative: Contract stations always perform well and usually have the flight ready to depart early (up to 10 minutes). This pushes the Crew into an expectation to hustle with the potential for errors. RIC Airport is still living in the analog world which is not understandable in my mind. This is not some backwater airport in an underfunded area. This is the capital of VA for goodness sake. Without digital ATIS inbound flights can not properly plan or brief the arrival; landing and taxi as soon as possible if they were to join the digital world. There are numerous runways and the option for RNP approaches to be utilized as RIC can be accommodating in our requests.For Departures; my biggest area of concern in the under-staffing in the Tower for early morning originators. The many times I have worked the RIC-ZZZ (X:00) AM flight it has been ready to push 10 minutes early and even leaving the maximum of five minutes early places you into a busy 'ATC' induced environment. This is caused by many factors; first with only one Controller on duty who has to make an analog ATIS; give clearances by voice (lack of PDC or CPDLC) call for release to ZZZ and ZZZ1 airports; provide and monitor taxi instructions; provide and monitor local instructions. Each time I have experienced one (other carrier X) flight taxiing while the lone Controller must be giving out clearances to two (carrier Y) flights; calling for release on one of them. A new ATIS should be produced but not possible due to the workload. Then our flight is caught up in the fray by needing its normal services. Many flights request a preferred runway which is not always the same.This last week with the visibility low ground position reports were required as we had to cross two runways on the way to the active. One of which other flights were using. Clearly this is going to result in an incident or accident because one individual can not possibly wear that many hats. Staff the Tower properly; and get into the digital world. There are several airports still not utilizing digital ATIS; PDC and CPDLC. Unacceptable! Having the Controller combine Ground and Tower on one frequency while using clearance in another is troublesome. There is no way to know when they are issuing or hearing a readback while trying to call for taxi or takeoff. Any interruption to them leads to potential errors many of which could be catastrophic. As for me; I will never push early again. So allowing an ontime push; the other three flights will be on their way and the Controller can give us full and their undivided attention. Each time our flight has arrived in ZZZ up to 20 minutes early so leaving on time will still allow for an acceptable arrival time. I would expect an immediate Safety Alerts to all Pilots; many of which do not get to RIC frequently enough to be aware of this issue and second immediately explain the danger to the RIC contract staff to really push on time and not early. I'm sure they feel the pressure from XXX to perform or be replaced.




Synopsis: Air Carrier Captain reported problems associated with staffing at RIC Tower and that the Tower is still analog in a digital world.