Passenger rail service to the New River Valley has been pushed back to at least 2028 and potential changes there could impact extending service to Bristol.
The Virginia Passenger Rail Authority notified stakeholders in the New River Valley in late January of the delay. Amtrak service from Roanoke to the greater New River Valley area was originally proposed by 2025 or 2026.
The next step, as it has been for some time, is determining the location of a train station for the New River Valley. This phase of the project is now estimated to cost between $360 million and $950 million, depending on which location is chosen.
The authority is expected to select from one of three options.
- A site on Cinnabar Road, which follows U.S. Route 460 in Christiansburg, is forecast to cost $366 million and allow service to begin as soon as the second quarter of 2028. This site avoids having the train pass through the Merrimac Tunnel, which must undergo substantial safety improvements to facilitate regular passenger service.
- A site near the New River Valley Mall is expected to cost $785 million, which would include connector track and require using the mile-long tunnel. It would delay service starting until the second quarter of 2030.
- The third option includes a temporary platform on Cinnabar Road and a later one built at the mall site. It carries a $951 million price tag with service starting to the platform by mid 2028.
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“There is discussion about the station location in Christiansburg that is ongoing and VPRA is working to solidify that decision. The Cinnabar Road site was included because that location had the adequate funding in the recommended Commonwealth Transportation Board budget,” said Beth Rhinehart, a member of the authority board and the president and CEO of the Bristol Chamber of Commerce.
“I made some statements at our meeting that whatever decisions we [authority] make there not make it difficult for future expansion to Bristol and that we always be mindful of that,” Rhinehart said. “I think the Cinnabar Road site does make it more costly to get it [service] from there to Bristol.
“The questions are about the cost of the Merrimac tunnel. The cost of expanding passenger rail is quite large. We know that,” Rhinehart said. “However billions of dollars have been spent across Virginia for decades and we need to make sure Southwest Virginia gets that same opportunity.”
The authority is expected to select a station site later this year.
“There are a lot of unknowns. We just want to continue to talk about it, to stress the importance of it coming through Southwest Virginia and the importance of that as an economic driver to this region. And how it opens up even more of the eastern seaboard. When you look at the terrible congestion on I-81 there have to be other solutions,” Rhinehart said.
Another study, this one funded through the Federal Rail Administration corridor identification program, is expected to review all aspects of connectivity to Bristol, including costs.
A 2022 study by the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation found extending service to Bristol could cost between $500 million and $1.5 billion and attract about 15,500 annual riders.
Amtrak ridership growing
Amtrak ridership in Virginia, between Roanoke and Washington, D.C., grew 132% over the previous three years – nearly matching the level of statewide ridership growth along Amtrak’s four primary Virginia routes, according to ridership reports compiled by the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority.
Increased train use in Southwest Virginia is essential to local efforts to attract Amtrak service to Bristol in the years ahead. Once the state extends service to the New River Valley, it would bring Amtrak within about 115 miles of the Twin City.
The To and Through Bristol Passenger Rail Coalition continues lobbying state and federal lawmakers to promote expansion to Bristol and eventually into Tennessee.
“We also know that a lot of those Roanoke numbers are our numbers. There are people coming from this region who are driving there to take the train,” Rhinehart said.
Amtrak and the state reestablished service to Roanoke in October 2017. After a better-than-expected response, Amtrak added a second daily train to the state’s westernmost destination in July 2022.
Ridership of the Roanoke corridor grew 88% at that time, from over 143,000 in 2021 to nearly 269,000 in 2022. In 2023, Roanoke ridership grew an additional 23% to nearly 332,000 riders, according to the ridership reports.
Since 2019, which includes two years impacted by travel restrictions and concern over the COVID-19 pandemic, the Roanoke route has carried more than 1.04 million riders, ridership reports show.
For 2023, average monthly ridership through Roanoke’s station was 27,653, compared to about 18,700 in 2019, a roughly 48% increase. Average daily ridership in Roanoke has grown from about 615 to about 865 during that period, figures show.
Altogether more than 1.32 million passengers rode Amtrak trains in Virginia during 2023. Norfolk reported 490,719 riders, Newport News had 363,835 with the Roanoke route ranked third with 331,836.
Trains on the Roanoke line reported an average of 74% on-time performance in 2023, which was better than the 70.8% in 2022 and nearly equaled the Virginia monthly average of 74.3% for all corridors in 2023. For the year, on-time performance ranged from 62.9% in July to 87.3% in February.
Richmond had 139,451 riders but its Staples Mill station ranked busiest in Amtrak’s southeastern market. Virginia state-supported passenger rail service offers 12 daily trains to the Richmond station for service to Washington, D.C., Baltimore, New York and Boston.
Two other Virginia train stations ranked among Amtrak’s five busiest in the southeastern U.S., including Alexandria and Norfolk, Virginia, along with with Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina.