History of Passenger Rail in Virginia
Virginia has been a part of Amtrak’s national system since the railroad’s creation in 1971. With its crucial location just south of the nation’s capital, station stops in the Commonwealth are some of Amtrak’s busiest in the southeast. Passenger rail service in the state includes Amtrak long distance services – the Cardinal, Crescent, Palmetto, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, and the Auto Train, the longest passenger train in the world, as well as the state-supported service, Amtrak Virginia.
In 2008 Congress passed the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act, also known as PRIIA. This legislation called for states to fund passenger rail service for routes of 750 miles or less. In line with this, Virginia launched its first state-supported train, Amtrak Virginia, in 2009. This roundtrip, between Washington, DC and Lynchburg, beat all expectations.
Ridership that first year was predicted to be 30,000 passengers. However, when more than 100,000 passengers traveled, it was clear that passenger rail was something Virginians wanted and needed. Over the next decade, Virginia added more state-funded service with roundtrips from Washington, DC to Newport News, Norfolk, Richmond, and an extension of the Lynchburg service to Roanoke. The service grew to include eight roundtrips daily with stops at 17 stations along four corridors.
As ridership continued to grow, Virginia’s leaders, seeking some relief from what had become an “all day rush hour,” looked to rail to provide an alternative to expanding I-95 which would cost billions and be obsolete before it was even completed. Those efforts resulted in the creation of the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority (VPRA) in 2020 and the development of our groundbreaking initiative, Transforming Rail in Virginia (TRV).
TRV is an innovative and forward-looking plan to give Virginians an alternative to driving along our congested highways and interstates. The initiative calls for moving Virginians by using an existing rail corridor and building new infrastructure, eventually separating freight and passenger rail services. TRV will increase state-supported Amtrak Virginia and Virginia Railway Express (VRE) service over the next decade. Learn more about Transforming Rail in Virginia.
In December 2019, then-Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced a landmark rail agreement between the Commonwealth and CSX Transportation (CSXT), based on the execution of a legally binding term sheet. This announcement became the catalyst for what we know today as Transforming Rail in Virginia.
Between December 2019 and March 2021, Virginia and CSXT refined the term sheet into legally-definitive agreements. Through the agreement with CSXT, Virginia acquired 384 miles of CSXT right-of-way and 223 miles of track in rail corridors paralleling I-95, I-64, and I-85. The definitive agreement was announced at an event on March 30, 2021, with Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. The agreement includes approximately:
- Half of the CSXT-owned railroad right-of-way between Washington, DC, and Petersburg
- All of the CSXT-owned (but out of service) right-of-way between Petersburg and Ridgeway, NC
- Nearly all of the CSXT-owned right-of-way between Doswell and Clifton Forge
- Track within the right-of-way purchased by Virginia also becomes Virginia property
In 2020, the Virginia General Assembly created the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority (VPRA)—a new, independent authority dedicated to managing, funding, and growing passenger rail services. In 2021, Governor Northam announced that the Commonwealth would build on Transforming Rail with an agreement with Norfolk Southern to expand passenger rail to southwestern Virginia.
In 2024, VPRA and Norfolk Southern reached a new agreement on the purchase of the Manassas Line. The purchase of the Manassas Line will aid VPRA in expanding the Virginia Railway Express (VRE) service with evening and weekend frequencies. Combined with the 2021 agreement with CSX, which provides for greater options on VRE’s Fredericksburg Line, VPRA can now support VRE as it moves from a commuter rail service with limited morning and evening trains during the weekdays to a regional rail service with trains throughout the weekday and into the weekends.
With access to the N-Line, Virginians in the New River Valley will have state-supported Amtrak Virginia service much sooner that previously planned and at a lower cost. By expanding service from Roanoke to Christiansburg on the N-Line, VPRA will use existing infrastructure with a focus on developing a station stop at the Cambria site which previously served the community from 1904 to 1979.