(The following story by Melodie N. Martin appeared on the Richmond Times-Dispatch website on May 27.)
RICHMOND, Va. — To visit her daughter and newborn grandchild in Manhattan over the holiday weekend, Henrico County resident Millie Hill chose to take the train.
“I think it’s a lot less difficult than flying,” Hill said while waiting to board at the Staples Mill Road Amtrak station Thursday.
Hill, a state government employee, said many of her co-workers frequently catch the train at the Amtrak stations in Henrico and Ashland to attend meetings in Washington.
But to improve passenger rail service through the Richmond area, state rail officials are considering an option that would make the Amtrak stations in Henrico and Ashland obsolete.
Both localities, which are among those meeting today with state rail officials, have been pleading to keep passenger rail service where it is.
“It’s easy for a lot of people to say that it’s an emotional want for us to have continued passenger rail service because of the history of the town, but it’s truly a much more serious issue than that,” said Ashland Town Manager Charles Hartgrove. “Losing passenger rail would be a large blow to our local economy.”
Henrico has sent state rail officials several alternatives — in both the county and the city — for a multi-modal transportation center, which would incorporate rail, automobile and bus transit in one location. They include improvements to the existing Staples Mill Road station; a site east of the Acca rail yard near Laburnum and Westwood avenues; and a site in the northeast quadrant of Staples Mill and East Parham roads.
Henrico Supervisor Richard W. Glover, whose Brookland District includes the Staples Mill Road station, said passenger train service should be offered where the most people will use it.
“I don’t think we’re looking to say, ‘Put it in Henrico,’ as much as we are saying, ‘Put it within the area that would be the most convenient for the entire region,’ where it would be close to where I-95, the Powhite Parkway and I-64 come together from all directions of the region,” Glover said.
The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation is leading a study that is looking at the relocation of Amtrak passenger rail service between Doswell in Hanover County and Richmond’s Main Street Station from the CSX rail line west of Interstate 95 to the Buckingham Branch rail line to the east.
One reason for moving passenger service would be to bypass CSX’s congested Acca Yard between the Staples Mill Road station and Main Street Station. Freight train operations in the yard are frequently suspended to let passenger trains through.
Henrico Supervisor Patricia O’Bannon said Richmond, which connects to Atlanta and Washington, is on the short list for getting high-speed rail. But that would not be possible on the curvy Buckingham Branch rail line, she said.
“It would mean slow rail, not fast rail,” O’Bannon said.
The historic Main Street Station resumed passenger service in late 2003 after a 28-year hiatus and a $51.6 million renovation, but it has limited passenger service with two trains in each direction a day.
Richmond and state officials are reviewing plans for Main Street Station that would add an additional two round trips, relocate train-storage areas and ultimately allow Amtrak trains to serve it to and from the south. But improving rail operations and train speed through Acca Yard also need to be addressed.
The Staples Mill Road station remains the busiest in the state, with 234,670 passengers getting on and off there last year and 118 Amtrak trains a week. Last year, the Ashland station had about 12,909 passengers and Main Street Station had 12,757.
The state rail agency plans to hold a public meeting in September before completing the study next summer.