Amtrak in Virginia updates (and other transportation)

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Fri Jul 08, 2022 6:57 am
So; apparently the extension of the existing Roanoke train to Christiansburg, and VPI (someone around here is a graduate of that school; can't recall who), will be over the lightly used VGN. Makes sense.

That would be me! I added the Roanoke extension to my list of Amtrak routes traveled last year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFi8r-8QtEw

I will likely make use of the Christiansburg extension at some point. Apparently the plan is to connect the Blacksburg secondary with the VGN route. That spur comes off of the mainline in Christiansburg to serve the Corning plant right behind the New River Valley Mall, which is near the selected site for the new Amtrak station. Once upon a time it was the Huckleberry Branch that went all the way into Blacksburg, but beyond the Corning plant it is now a pedestrian/bike trail.

https://www.wsls.com/news/local/2022/03 ... o-options/

Well Mr. Johnson, your video of riding #66 from Roanoke brought back sixty year ago memories.

At least insofar as former N&W facilities go, the place sure looks like a "ghost town".

Who knows what the General Offices are now used for or if the Hotel Roanoke is still in business. I have boarded and alighted trains at what looks like an abandoned station (no more O. Winston Link nighttime photos of a steam locomotive ready to depart), and the Shops? Don't look like too much going on there. Hardly the case "back in my day".

The Hotel Roanoke is very much in business and is connected to the Amtrak station by a bridge over the railroad.

dgvrengineer wrote: ↑Sat Jul 09, 2022 7:23 pm The Hotel Roanoke is very much in business and is connected to the Amtrak station by a bridge over the railroad.

Indeed, I stayed there and it was quite nice!

https://www.instagram.com/p/COju7LsnFUY ... DJmNzVkMjY

https://www.instagram.com/p/COli3r3nWMv ... DJmNzVkMjY

The Virginia Museum of Transportation is certainly worth a visit!

https://www.instagram.com/p/COlgsknHk83 ... DJmNzVkMjY

dgvrengineer wrote: ↑Sat Jul 09, 2022 7:23 pm The Hotel Roanoke is very much in business and is connected to the Amtrak station by a bridge over the railroad.

Good to know, I've not been there since the NHRS convention in 198?

scratchyX1 wrote: ↑Sat Jul 09, 2022 10:49 pm Good to know, I've not been there since the NHRS convention in 198?

The hotel faced an uncertain future in the 1990s but is now owned by Virginia Tech. This is a great documentary outlining its history: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0iXGn6_KQ4

The adjacent Norfolk & Western General Office Building now houses the Roanoke Higher Education Center and a number of luxury apartments.

And the N&W station is now the O Winston Link museum. They still have an old arrivals and departures board.

I'm very happy to hear the Hotel Roanoke is thriving...I too have happy memories there: Attending the Hollins cotillion with my college buddies and our Hollins College dates, meeting Bob Claytor...

In those days, I had to get up at 5am to meet a 6am northbound Crescent in Lynchburg to return to Connecticut. It's great Amtrak has extended to Roanoke and soon the Blacksburg area, even though I no longer travel those parts.

I decided to roll my post into this one.

This is my second year doing Amtrak to VA for a weekend in Williamsburg, and I'm still struggling with the delays between the First Street Tunnel and Quantico. Both times I've been on the train it feels like a slow crawl with delay after delay after delay.

I understand the slow crawl through Richmond and how that really is a project in itself to resolve, but it is frustrating that they still haven't got the delays out of the RF&P.

This leads to another issue with using Amtrak to visit Williamsburg. The train arrives, if on time, at 7:44pm. The Williamsburg Area Transit Authority's last buses run at 8pm. So the train has very little in the form of delay tolerance or you are stuck using Uber/Lyft/Taxi to get to your hotel.

I will say, credit where credit is due, I had a positive trip back from Williamsburg. Everything was on time, or within 10 minutes of being on time which I'm ok with.

Amtrak’s four state-supported routes in Virginia carried a record 110,256 passengers in July-- 28.9% increase over June, and 19.8% higher than its pre-pandemic ridership numbers from July 2019. Part of this is just high travel demand at a time of high gas prices, but I'm sure that we'll be able to tease out how the new ROA and NFK services are contributing to this:
https://vapassengerrailauthority.org/me ... 06e43a5f27

What I really want to see is next month's report which will post "whole month" August 2022 that can be benchmarked against these numbers.

At a conference in downtown DC this week. Another attendee was from Richmond, complaining about the drive in. I asked "aren't there a bunch of trains that could get you here?" He told me there were only three.

Looking it up, it seems he only knows about the three downtown Richmond trains and not the 9 from Staples Mill.

Depending on where he lives, he may not view Staples Mill as convenient. With all the Norfolk trains, it’s high time to accelerate rebuilding the Bellwood Sub and have all the trains serve Main Street as well as Staples Mill.

What rebuilding needs to be done?

Too bad Richmond Broad St Station saw its last Amtrak train service in '75, the year I was born! It is beautiful in its current role as the Science Museum of Virginia, but aside from this rare appearance back circa 2000, it hasn't hosted any passenger trains since then.