A Chance for Expanded Train Service

The News & Advance
Published: April 28, 2008

If elected officials in the region are serious about adding an Amtrak daily passenger train from Lynchburg to Washington, D.C., they need to let the state know — and soon.
That was the message last week from a meeting involving an Amtrak representative and state and local officials. Communities along the U.S. 29 corridor have less than a 30-day “window of opportunity” to persuade state officials and Amtrak to start planning for a second daily passenger train between Lynchburg and Washington.
A second daily train would be a pleasant alternative for regional travelers.
Lynchburg Vice Mayor Bert Dodson said the Amtrak representative at the meeting in Culpeper was enthusiastic about the chances of the region getting a second passenger train to run to and from Washington. Amtrak already has one passenger train running through Lynchburg on a daily basis. Although it arrives early in the morning, several rail advocates at the meeting said it is hard to get a ticket on that one train.
Dodson said he planned to present the information he gathered at the meeting to other members of City Council with the hope that the council would support the additional train. One good reason for the second daily train, he said, is it could allow people who work in Northern Virginia and Washington to live in smaller cities along the U.S. 29 corridor and commute by train a couple of days a week while working from home on other days.
Amtrak wants to start the second train daily and predicts it would have 33,000 riders the first year. The passenger service would need financial assistance from the state amounting to about $1.8 million per year.
The state’s Department of Rail and Public Transportation has shown strong support for the proposal. Thomas Stennis, the Amtrak representative at the meeting, estimated the train could be operating within two years because of that support.
But, John J. Davies, the Culpeper area’s representative on the Commonwealth Transportation Board that oversees the rail department, told the community leaders that getting their letters and comments into the Transportation Board’s record in the next month is vital.
The rail department is expected to produce a statewide rail plan in June. Davies said the U.S. 29 corridor could fare well in that plan if community leaders support the concept of the second daily passenger train to Washington.
The biggest competition for the line, on a statewide basis, is the other north-south route along the Interstate 95 corridor between Richmond and Washington. That route, of course, has a larger population and more potential riders.
Davies pointed out, however, among conditions favoring the U.S. 29 corridor are Norfolk Southern tracks that are in excellent shape for passenger service and a comparatively low cost to Amtrak for starting up the service. He said the route’s potential for economic development more than justified the state money required to support the service.
Let’s face it. With the price of gasoline rising out of sight, taking the train to Washington and back would be a far more efficient use of existing energy supplies. It would also take some traffic off U.S. 29, stretching the life of that roadway in these money-short times the state faces maintaining its thousands of miles of highways.
The next step is up to City Council and the boards of supervisors in Amherst, Bedford and Campbell counties. They need to get their letters of support to the Commonwealth Transportation Board in the next couple of weeks. Those letters could make a second daily passenger train to Washington possible. And that would add substantially to the transportation options for those living in Central Virginia.