Virginia: Lynchburg Amtrak passengers to get more rail service next year

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Lynchburg Amtrak passengers to get more rail service next year

Posted: Saturday, June 11, 2016 8:51 pm

By Sherese A. Gore The (Lynchburg) News & Advance

Amtrak riders in Lynchburg can expect to see additional passenger rail service in the city following the opening of an Amtrak station in Roanoke. ... Roanoke is expected to commence Amtrak service in the fall of 2017. Currently, a connector bus service runs from Roanoke to the Lynchburg Amtrak station on Kemper Street.
....

In Lynchburg, the state-funded Northeast Regional train departs in the morning and arrives in the evening and makes stops in Charlottesville, Culpeper and Washington D.C. Lynchburg also is served by the long-distance Crescent train, which departs Lynchburg in the morning and arrives in the evening. The Crescent is funded by Amtrak.

Following the opening of the Roanoke station, Lynchburg will continue to be served by the Northeast Regional and Crescent trains but will gain a new morning southbound train and a new afternoon northbound train. According to Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation spokesman Chris Smith, next year riders will have six times daily to board an Amtrak train in Lynchburg compared with the current four.

Ridership for the Lynchburg train was predicted to be 51,000 passengers per year when the service was announced, but has exceeded that during the first year with 55,000 passengers.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. When I attended Sweet Briar College 40 years ago, there was just one train that left Lynchburg

(Southern Crescent) one time a day. You had to wait in the cold and dark at 4:00 in the morning at Madison Heights and 10 hours later, you descended in Newark Penn Station. And you had to switch trains at Union Station in D.C.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. The Crescent didn't have through coaches to destinations north of Washington?

On the plus side, the southbound Crescent stopped at Sweet Briar on Sunday nights for passengers to alight.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. No, the Crescent stopped at DC. You had to take Amtrak up the Northern Corridor.

In the 70's, the train didn't stop at Sweet Briar. It continued to Madison Heights. You had to reserve a local taxi to wait for your train on Sunday nights.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. Oops. Brain freeze. I forgot that Southern stayed out of Amtrak until

1979 or so. There was a nasty wreck at Elma in which a lot of their equipment was destroyed. Lives were lost too. Elma is between Sweet Briar and Charlottesville. I was working at UVa Hospital at the time.