New River Valley (Christiansburg - Roanoke - Lynchburg - Charlottesville - Richmond - Hampton Roads)

[Jeff Smith]

... or Newport News and Norfolk.

Some older news, but I did some digging on this project, too: http://nrvrc.org/nrvpassengerrailstudy/

and: http://www.nrvpassengerrail.org/

Initiated in 2013 by The Blacksburg Partnership, New River Valley Rail 2020 (NRV 2020) is a broad-based community initiative to bring Amtrak passenger rail service to Virginia’s New River Valley. NRV 2020 represents a unique partnership between business, municipal, legislative, and university leaders with support from all corners of our region. With involvement from every municipality in the region and major universities, alongside strong legislative support and business commitments, the effort represents all facets of civic leadership in the region. NRV 2020 seeks to gain funding for extending Amtrak’s Northeast Regional Service to Christiansburg. Currently, Roanoke serves as the southernmost terminus for the Northeast Regional, which provides passenger rail along the nation’s Mid-Atlantic corridor north to Boston. The New River Valley, with more than 180,000 residents, is the state’s fastest growing region west of Richmond. It has ample demographics to support passenger rail usage, particularly more than 40,000 students at Virginia Tech and Radford University.

[Jeff Smith]

An older article: https://ggwash.org/view/74274/commonwea ... s-to-beach

Passenger rail advocates and other groups want to resurrect a long-defunct east-west rail line that would run from the Blue Ridge Mountains to Virginia Beach. In its recent report, Virginians for High Speed Rail (VHSR) envisions a “Commonwealth Corridor” to connect Christiansburg and the New River Valley with Hampton Roads, and would include stops at Roanoke, Lynchburg, Charlottesville, and Richmond.

The Pocahontas, the Mountaineer, and the Hilltopper today sound more like the names of luxury apartment buildings or $15 craft cocktails. In their heyday, however, these three passenger trains served as a vital transportation artery across the country, connecting Virginia with Chicago and the west.
...
“At the Department of Rail and Public Transit, we’re enthusiastic about the long-term prospects of more east-west service in the Commonwealth,” said DRPT Director Jennifer Mitchell. “The [VHSR] report shows the corridor would serve 3.7 million Virginians and connect 45% of our state’s jobs. We would love to see this service in the Commonwealth. It would save people a lot of time and provide people options.”
...
Danny Plaugher, the Executive Director of VHSR, sees east-west expansion as low-hanging fruit. “The state has done a fantastic job improving our north-south rail corridors, but currently there’s no viable option for folks to travel east-west across Virginia. To travel by train from Roanoke to Norfolk today would take 16 hours—including a six-hour layover in Washington, DC. This new corridor would be a game changer.”
...

[west point]

Roanoke - Norfolk may be a good possibility. Road driving is not the best and the 3 trains each way had healthy ridership. It might even be extended all the way to Bristol as Bristol - Norfolk has no air traffic to Roanoke and Bristol and drive from Roanoke is difficult. Rail Equipment could be rotated to national network by interchanging with NERs t Norfolk..

[njtmnrrbuff]

A corridor train running across Virginia from Roanoke or even Bristol to Norfolk is a great idea. That would certainly enable business travel from the western part of the state to the state Capitol and Norfolk.

[Pensyfan19]

A corridor train running across Virginia from Roanoke or even Bristol to Norfolk is a great idea. That would certainly enable business travel from the western part of the state to the state Capitol and Norfolk.

What about Norfolk to Cincinnati? The "Virginia Regional" is a great idea for regional service within the state but the one shown below could be the next step, especially when it could be expanded all the way to Chicago as an LD.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocahontas_(train)

[west point]

Roanoke - Bristol old N&W line that we mentioned is unfortunately slow compared to I-81. 151.1 miles at 3:50 not terribly fast . I-81 2:20