More people are travelling by train with a record number stopping in Virginia and North Carolina. The top five stations in the Southeast in 2023 were the Staples Mill Road Station in Richmond, Va., Alexandria, Va., Charlotte, N.C., Norfolk, Va., and Raleigh, N.C.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tremendous growth in ridership is a result of the substantial investments North Carolina and Virginia are making to expand and improve passenger rail,\u201d Amtrak<\/a> Vice President Ray Lang said. \u201cCustomers are taking advantage of a sustainable way to travel to the many destinations our network offers.\u201d<\/p>\n Amtrak<\/a> Virginia, the Virginia state-supported passenger rail service, offers 12 daily trains to the Richmond station for service to Washington, D.C., Baltimore, New York, and Boston. Customers can also access additional Amtrak<\/a> service for travel to Raleigh, Charlotte, Savannah, Ga., and other cities as far south as Miami.<\/p>\n \u201cRichmond is not just the capital of Virginia, it\u2019s the epicentre of the East, connecting the Southeast and the Northeast by rail,\u201d said DJ Stadtler, Executive Director of the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority (VPRA) which oversees the Commonwealth\u2019s Amtrak<\/a> Virginia service. \u201cAll three of these stations \u2013 Richmond-Staples Mill, Alexandria, and Norfolk \u2013 offer Virginians access to rail service connecting the Commonwealth with the rest of the East Coast.\u201d<\/p>\n In\u00a0North Carolina<\/a>, the\u00a0Piedmont\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Carolinian\u00a0<\/em>services offer daily roundtrips for travel between Raleigh, Charlotte, and points in between. The\u00a0Piedmont<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Carolinian<\/em>, which travels daily from New York to Charlotte, and stops at the Staples Mill Road Station in Richmond, Va., and Alexandria, Va., are sponsored by the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT)<\/a> and operated by Amtrak<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe growth we\u2019ve seen in ridership in 2022 and 2023 is unprecedented,\u201d said Jason Orthner, NCDOT\u2019s<\/a> Rail Division Director. \u201cContinuing to work in partnership with Amtrak<\/a> and the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority to increase connections and decrease travel time between destinations in the South and the Northeast is a priority to increase and enhance NC By Train service in North Carolina and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n Virginia and North Carolina received federal grants to help continue pursuing their vision to expand service in the region.<\/p>\n In addition to Richmond, Alexandria, and Norfolk, Amtrak Virginia also serves Newport News, Roanoke, and 12 other Virginia communities. In 2023, the service set a ridership record of more than 1.3 million passengers, making the Commonwealth one of the most popular travel destinations on the Amtrak national network.<\/p>\n Plans are underway to expand Amtrak<\/a> Virginia service through VPRA\u2019s\u00a0Transforming Rail in Virginia initiative, resulting in two additional roundtrips in 2026 and three in 2030.<\/p>\n Amtrak<\/a> is capitalising on ridership growth by advancing historic infrastructure investments that will launch new and expanded services, advance safety and reliability, improve accessibility, drive economic development and enhance the customer experience.<\/p>\n Station<\/strong> Richmond \u2013 Staples Mill Road Additional service to Washington, DC, New York, Charleston, Savannah, and Miami<\/p>\n Alexandria, Va. Additional service to Washington, DC, New York, Indianapolis, Chicago, New Orleans, Charleston, Savannah, and Miami<\/p>\n Charlotte, N.C. Norfolk, Va. Raleigh, N.C. More Like This<\/strong><\/p>\n More people are travelling by train with a record number stopping in Virginia and North Carolina. The top five stations in the Southeast in 2023 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":16438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,47,488],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-opinion","category-rail-news","category-railway-stations"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n2023 Ridership<\/strong>
\nRoutes<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n424,617
\nAmtrak Virginia Service to Washington, DC, New York, and Boston<\/p>\n
\n327,285
\nAmtrak Virginia Service to Washington, DC, New York, and Boston<\/p>\n
\n281,220
\nService to Raleigh, Washington, DC, New York, and New Orleans<\/p>\n
\n232,530
\nAmtrak Virginia Service to Richmond, Washington, DC, New York, and Boston<\/p>\n
\n231,229
\nService to Charlotte, Washington, DC, and New York<\/p>\nNorfolk Southern statement on board of directors nominations<\/a><\/h3>\n
Baltic public opinion survey reveals recognition of Rail Baltica economic impact and prioritises connectivity needs<\/a><\/h3>\n
Amtrak officials issue update on Frederick Douglass Tunnel Program<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"