(The following story by Rachana Dixit appeared on The Daily Progress website on October 7, 2010.)
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virg. — Frequently residents will hear trains rolling into Charlottesville’s rail station, but Thursday was a first for guitar playing and a rendition of “Happy Birthday” being sung by officials in honor of the city’s newest Amtrak train.
Several gathered at the train station on West Main Street to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the daily Lynchburg-to-Washington Amtrak train, which stops in Charlottesville.
The local effort to bring the U.S. 29 corridor train was spearheaded by Meredith Richards, chairwoman of the CvilleRail advocacy group and a former city councilor.
“This is the first of its kind that the state of Virginia has ever sponsored and ever paid for,” Richards said.
The service is part of a three-year demonstration project whose operating costs the state agreed to subsidize with $10.6 million. The train started running on Oct. 1, 2009, and is part of the larger Northeast Regional service that continues on to Boston.
For the first 10 months of service — through July 31 of this year — the train saw 103,351 passengers in Virginia, far exceeding the 51,000-passenger ridership goal for the train’s first year. It has also been profitable. Officials had a revenue goal of $2.58 million from the train during its first year, but by the end of July it had gotten $5.23 million, Richards said.
“These kinds of improvements, these kinds of enhancements are vital for our economic security,” Mayor Dave Norris said Thursday. “So while it does add to the quality of life, it adds also to our region’s bottom line.”
Thelma Drake, director of the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, spoke at the event, along with local elected officials and others. Drake said she was surprised at how well that particular train was doing when she became the department’s director in January, but was not sure if the high ridership and revenue figures would sustain themselves.
“We were dead wrong about this train and we’re delighted,” she said.
The train’s birthday party also came on the heels of a new Amtrak report that would make the Cardinal train — which comes through Charlottesville three days per week on its route between Chicago and New York City — a service that runs daily.
The change would mean the Cardinal would stop in Charlottesville 14 times a week, compared with six.
“There seems to be some demand which we’re not able to take because of the train only operating six times a week versus 14,” Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said.
Trying to take the Cardinal out of Charlottesville for holiday trips has been difficult on occasion, Fluvanna County resident Nancy Knight recently said while trying to purchase tickets to Chicago. Knight and her husband use the Cardinal as part of their trips to Montana.
“During the holidays and some other days, the trains are packed,” she said.
Amtrak estimates the increase in trains would cost $2.1 million more in operating costs. The plan was outlined in the Cardinal’s Performance Improvement Plan, an examination required by a federal government mandate. Any change would have to be approved by Amtrak’s Board of Directors, Magliari said.
If it were decided to increase the number of Cardinal trains, implementation of an action plan would not occur before the end of 2011.
“It’s not a light switch you can turn on,” Magliari said.