South Ready for Passenger Rail Renaissance

Ridership Records in Virginia, North Carolina Support New and Increased Service Across Region

Southern Railway Train 4, the Asheville Special en route to Salisbury, approaches Old Fort in June 1975, two months before it was discontinued. North Carolina is studying restoration of passenger service on the route.

Last week the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority (VPRA) announced record ridership on its four state-supported Amtrak routes for FY 2023 and June 2023. A total of 1,256,123 passengers rode these trains in FY 2023. The previous record was 894,065, set during FY 2015. In June the trains on the four corridors carried 111,212 passengers, besting the previous high of 85,833 riders for June 2022.

Amtrak runs three daily roundtrips between Norfolk and Washington, two round trips between Roanoke and Washington and Newport News and Washington, and one roundtrip between Richmond’s Main Street Station and Washington, all supported by Virginia. Most of these runs continue on to New York, Boston, or Springfield, MA.

More service is in the pipeline. VPRA’s Transforming Rail in Virginia program will increase Amtrak service on all four routes and extend the service to Roanoke to Christiansburg, VA, in the New River Valley. The goal, according to VPRA, is to make Amtrak an “even more practical transportation alternative for thousands of Virginians.”

Infrastructure projects to support this expansion are on the drawing board. Most critical is a new two-track railroad bridge across the Potomac River that will augment the existing crossing, Long Bridge, which is more than 100 years old and is a major bottleneck. Amtrak and Virginia Railway Express will use the new bridge and CSX the old. In addition, Amtrak has submitted to the Federal Railroad Administration a funding request for a new station at Crystal City, VA, which would serve Arlington.

Virginia and North Carolina have acquired right-of-way from CSX for a higher-speed rail line linking Richmond and Raleigh that would be part of the Southeast Rail Corridor, which extends from Washington to Atlanta and Jacksonville. Trains would run over CSX’s out-of-service S-Line, the former Seaboard Air Line mainline, and attain top speeds of 110 mph. Because it is more direct route than Amtrak’s current route it will shave at least 1 ½ hours off current schedules between the two cities.

The Federal Railroad Administration record of decision for the line’s Tier II Environmental Impact Statement was issued in 2016. Right now, the project is awaiting funding for engineering and construction, which could be provided through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act enacted in 2021.

The Old Dominion is leading a passenger rail revolution in the Southeast. Until Virginia and neighbor North Carolina started to fund state-supported Amtrak routes passenger service in the region consisted almost entirely of north-south long-distance runs, e.g., New York – Florida, Chicago – New Orleans.

In North Carolina, the state transportation department modernized the Raleigh – Charlotte route through the Piedmont Improvement Program, which was completed in 2018. Aimed at making rail travel safer and more reliable, the program included new bridges over highways, new sections of double track, additional passing sidings, railroad crossing closings, improved curves, high-speed switches, renovated train stations, and an expanded and refurbished passenger car fleet.

Last year, North Carolina reported the highest ridership calendar year in the 32-year history of sponsoring passenger rail – more than 552,000 passenger. On July 10, it began a fifth round trip between Raleigh and Charlotte. Concurrently, it introduced a limited stop express run that makes the trip between the state’s two largest cities in under three hours. The state is in early stages of developing two new routes: Raleigh – Wilmington and Salisbury – Asheville. North Carolina and Virginia are key participants in efforts to create high-speed services to Washington and Atlanta.

The Georgia Department of Transportation is spearheading the Atlanta – Charlotte HSR initiative, known as the Atlanta to Charlotte Passenger Rail Corridor Investment Plan. In 2021 this extension of the Southeast Corridor completed its Tier One Environmental Impact Statement. Its preferred alternative is a greenfield rail line, which would allow trains to run at higher speeds than on the existing Norfolk Southern route and would be less expensive than building alongside I-85.

Amtrak’s Vision 2035 program would turn Atlanta, Georgia’s largest city and state capital, into a regional rail hub. In addition to the Crescent, which runs between New York and New Orleans, the city would see service to Savannah, Nashville, and Montgomery with additional frequencies to Charlotte and Birmingham.

In Florida, Brightline, a privately owned carrier, is about to commence passenger service over its newly completed extension to Orlando. This line runs over the Florida East Coast Railway from Miami to Cocoa where it branches off and parallels state highway 528 to Orlando International Airport. Hourly service will be offered with trains reaching 125 mph on the Cocoa – Orlando leg. The railroad is currently surveying potential routes for a planned extension to Tampa.

Tennessee is also eyeing passenger rail. A report released in June by the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TAGIR) calls on the Tennessee Department of Transportation to determine the cost, engineering, and other requirements to implement passenger rail service on five corridors: Nashville – Chattanooga – Atlanta; Memphis – Nashville; Chattanooga – Knoxville – Bristol; Memphis – Carbondale, IL – Chicago, and Nashville – Louisville. Currently the City of New Orleans, which runs from Chicago to the Crescent City, is the state’s only intercity passenger rail line.

While it could take decades to implement services proposed in Tennessee, a new Amtrak route between New Orleans and Mobile, AL, could enter service by the end of this year. Two round trips are planned to make the 145-mile run in 3:18.

Louisiana is also working toward reestablishing passenger service between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, the state capital. In 2022 the state began work on an environmental impact statement and applied for federal aid to replace the Bonnet Carré bridge. The cities of Baton Rouge and Gonzalez received $20 million from Uncle Sam to acquire land and design and build stations.

The proposed I-20 corridor, which would stretch from Meridian, MS, to Fort Worth, TX, would transect the northern part of the Bayou State. Amtrak is leading a federal-state partnership program to submit the I-20 corridor to the Federal Railroad Administration’s Corridor Identification and Development Program. If implemented, this would become Amtrak’s first new long-distance passenger service in 25 years. Through service to Atlanta and New York could be provided as a section of the Crescent.

It would be fair to criticize Amtrak for missing the opportunity for decades to better serve southern states while their populations were exploding. There are large gaps in its network that make it difficult, if not impossible, to travel by train between such city pairs as Atlanta and Memphis, Miami and New Orleans, and Charlotte and Nashville.

This hopefully will change as Amtrak implements Amtrak Connects Us and privately owned services like Brightline and Texas Central come on line. The opportunities for passenger rail in the South that existed in the 1970s and 1980s have only grown larger. Virginia and North Carolina are showing the way and the rest of the southern states are slowly getting in line. As populations and traffic congestion grow and highway construction becomes prohibitive they will have no choice.

Next Rail Odyssey Goes to Atlantic City

I have mapped out and scheduled my next rail odyssey. I will go to Atlantic City, NJ, via the Long Island Rail Road, NJ Transit, PATCO, and SEPTA, Wednesday, August 23, 2023. If you’d like to join me for all or part of the journey send me a private message, ellisbobsimon@gmail.com, and I will share my itinerary.