(The following story by Ray Reed appeared on the News & Advance website on August 11, 2010.)
LYNCHBURG, Va. — Lynchburg can build on its success as a rail destination if it can persuade other cities, such as Roanoke and Bristol, to renew their efforts to lure rail service to their communities.
That was the message Amtrak officials delivered to the Lynchburg Regional Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, as they also lauded the Hill City for providing 2½ times more passengers than Amtrak expected for the new Northeast Regional train.
Ridership since October has totaled 103,000 passengers in Lynchburg.
In a presentation that the chamber described as Amtrak’s “progress and plans,” Michael Jerew of Amtrak told a breakfast crowd of about 50 people that any new service would depend on how much support Virginians can give.
More-frequent service to Lynchburg “in large part is up to you folks,” said Jerew, who manages Amtrak stations in Virginia and North Carolina.
Community leaders in Lynchburg and other cities need to make the proper requests to the state Department of Rail and Public Transportation, Jerew said.
That involves “going through proper channels, dealing with state partners and local municipalities and letting us know what you want,” Jerew said.
Mark Peake, a Lynchburg lawyer, assured the Amtrak officials that the chamber is working with Roanoke, Bristol and officials in Tennessee to line up support for an east-west train.
Rex Hammond, president of the Lynchburg Chamber, said their goal is a passenger route that would connect Lynchburg to Bristol, Chattanooga and Atlanta.
Jeff Mann, a marketing vice president with Amtrak, said Lynchburg could be “a key building block” in success for an east-west route like one to Bristol.
“A large step in making an east-west corridor work in North Carolina or in Virginia is connectivity to the Northeast Corridor,” Mann said.
Virginia’s rail agency studied the Lynchburg-to-Bristol corridor several years ago, but Mann said Amtrak would need to do a new study before it could analyze the route’s potential.
Train ridership is increasing across the country, and particularly in the Northeast corridor from Washington, D.C., to Boston, Mann said.
For people who board Amtrak’s two daily trains in Lynchburg, the most popular destinations are Washington and New York, Mann said.
Mann provided some numbers to impress the audience. “Ridership on the Lynchburg train, from October through July, was 103,000 riders,” he said. “That is 163 percent above Amtrak projections.”
Ticket revenue has totaled $6.3 million. “That’s just huge,” Mann said.
Jerew added, “I don’t know that we could possibly have expected the outcome the way it has presented itself.”
Jerew acknowledged that despite success, a few problems exist. He didn’t list them.
People in the audience, however, raised questions about parking issues.
Mann and Jerew said parking at Amtrak stations is a problem in many cities, and only a few spaces are available on the platform level in Lynchburg for people to pick up passengers.
Another person asked whether having a train station and Greyhound station close together caused problems for Amtrak.
Mann hesitated, then said “connectivity is good” when it means that two modes of transportation are located within walking distance of each other.