Virginia is on track for more trains, VCU students are all aboard

Andrew Kerley, Audience Editor

The U.S. Department of Transportation is putting over $1.7 billion into Virginia’s trains and rail services, a move that will increase daily trips and further connect Southern states to Washington, D.C., according to their website.

Over $1 billion will support the construction of a high-speed rail line between Richmond and Raleigh, North Carolina, according to the North Carolina Department of Transportation.The project will restore miles of abandoned track along the S-Line Corridor, a rail line running through the Southeast that connects Richmond to Tampa, Florida. Portions of the currently closed line between Richmond, Virginia, Petersburg, Virginia and Raleigh, North Carolina have been under development for decades, according to Amtrak.

The rail line once saw the daily passage of dozens of trains carrying passengers and cargo, serving as a “lifeline for its surrounding communities,” as described by NCDOT. 

The current active rail line from Raleigh to Richmond runs southeast to Selma, North Carolina before turning toward Petersburg, Virginia. Booking websites like Wanderu only list about four daily trips between the two capitals. 

A map by NCDOT shows the reconstructed S-Line will go straight north, cutting down on travel time on top of adding more daily trips. 

While construction won’t begin until the latter half of the decade, NCDOT says preliminary design on the S-Line will wrap up between 2024 and 2027.

The money for the S-Line is coming from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, more commonly known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which was signed into law by President Biden in 2021, as shown on DOT’s website.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin, gubernatorial hopeful Rep. Abigail Spanberger, Rep. Jennifer McClellan and Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner were all present when it was announced that $729 million in federal funds would go toward upgrading Northern Virginia rail corridors. The upgrade includes plans to build a new bridge across the Potomac River between Washington, D.C. and Virginia, according to the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority. 

The two-track Long Bridge is the only railway bridge across the Potomac, hosting every train traveling between the two territories. The Long Bridge Project seeks to add a second bridge and two more tracks, doubling service to a near-hourly rate. The bridge is expected to be constructed by 2030, according to VPRA.

From the coast to the mountains, two other rail service projects are also being considered for funding through the federal Corridor Identification and Development Program. One would boost services between Virginia cities Newport News, Richmond and Charlottesville. The other would extend the line running from Washington to Roanoke further southwest, hitting Bedford, Blacksburg and Bristol on the way to Tennessee, documents show. 

Saturn Reynolds, a VCU alum, said they use Amtrak so they don’t have to worry about “merging on I-95.” They said they want more trains running through Appalachia.

“I think trains are a great way to connect more rural areas outside of interstates,” Reynolds said. “Being able to put focus on smaller areas that don’t necessarily have as much access to train lines.”

Raj Frattare, a VCU chemical engineering student, takes the Amtrak between Northern Virginia and Richmond to visit his family during the holidays.

“This is the only way I travel because most of my family is like, ‘Oh, I don’t really have time to come pick you up when you’re two hours away,’” Frattare said. “You can just use the Amtrak, and it’s cheap.”

Frattare said his biggest gripe with the train system is how “pricey” the tickets can get when you don’t order them ahead of time.

“I can end up spending $70 on a ticket, when if I planned a week in advance, I’d only spend $15 on the ticket,” Frattare said.

Wyatt Gordon, who covers transit and infrastructure for Greater Greater Washington and the Virginia Mercury, is teaching a class about active and sustainable transit at VCU this semester. He said trains are important because “mobility is access.”

“It’s job access,” Gordon said. “A lot of the time people think of Virginia as being anchored into the mid-Atlantic. But, this gives us a lot of opportunities to better connect ourselves with growing powerhouses. The Research Triangle, which Raleigh is a part of, is a huge hub of innovation.”

Gordon said that a disproportionate number of students don’t have access to cars.

“You know, people just don’t have money for that with housing costs the way they are, student tuition, loans and all of that,” Gordon said.

Gordon said the number one advantage trains have over cars is their safety. 

Over 19 thousand people died in motor vehicle accidents in just the first half of 2023, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

“Clearly the system of having everyone pilot their own two-ton plus vehicle has collateral damage,” Gordon said. “If we can allow people to get to and from big cities without having to drive, we’re giving people back a lot of time. Whenever I ride Amtrak up to D.C., that’s time that I can do emails, be on a call or write a document.”

Gordon also said he believes it is “paramount” that the new route between Richmond and Raleigh is electrified to open up the use of far faster trains that have a smaller environmental impact.

VPRA has not yet made the necessary environmental evaluations to convert to electric, but the rail’s design won’t prevent the possibility of doing so in the future, according to their report. The documents also reveal a commitment to adhere to the Virginia Scenic Rivers Act for a possible new railroad bridge over the James River.

1.26 million passengers traveled using Amtrak between July 2022 and July 2023, setting a new all-time record for ridership, according to the VPRA.

“You don’t have to look far to see the success of trains and transit,” Gordon said.