CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. (WDBJ) – The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors has unanimously voted to reaffirm its support of working to bring Amtrak service to the New River Valley as one of its legislative priorities for 2021.
It comes as Amtrak continues to struggle financially due to COVID-19.
Amtrak has been an option for transportation in Roanoke for about three years. Late last week, the rail service announced it is requesting nearly $5 billion from Congress, as ridership has been a quarter of pre-COVID levels.
“Our view is someday at some point this country is going to have COVID in its rear-view mirrors, and at that point things will be back to normal and hopefully we’ll have rail service in the New River Valley,” said New River Valley Passenger Rail spokesperson Larry Hincker.
Hincker has been working for years with other groups to bring service to Christiansburg.
The gravel parking lot across from the Aquatic Center sits empty waiting for its arrival.
“There’s strong demand for this service, particularly in our area, but a strong demand for passenger rail around the country,” Hincker said.
Pre-COVID, Hincker says 6,500 people used Amtrak in December of 2019 in Roanoke. He says legislators are on board to talk at January’s General Assembly about creating an authority for the NRV to help build the station and platform and run the operation.
“Everyone in the region wants this, everybody’s behind it and it’s really just a matter of getting the mechanics to move forward,” he said. “We’re hopeful we can show that we’ll be just as good as Roanoke.”
After that, the legislators take care of getting the state and Norfolk Southern on board. It’ll just be some more time before it’s a reality.
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Source: https://www.wdbj7.com/2020/10/14/plans-to-expand-amtrak-service-in-the-nrv/