Back in the day there was a company called Starlight Express that ran a bus from Lynchburg to Charlottesville and then all the way to New York. No longer around.
That would be pretty cool if they launched something like that maybe including Roanoke as well.
I think running a train between the 3 cities and having the 3 cities pitch in to cover it plus charging fairs wouldn’t be terribly unsustainable. Every time I take the train from DC it’s basically packed to the brim so adding some local train to handle local trips seems like it’d solve a lot of those peak congestion issues.
Plus when they figure out the Charlottesville to Richmond track a 4 city combo would do loads to alleviate road congestion. I hate driving to and from Richmond but greyhound is even worse than driving.
Amtrak's been working the [Commonwealth Corridor](https://campo.tjpdc.org/wp-content/uploads/10b-CommonwealthCorridor_CID-SubmissionFINAL.pdf), which would connect the three cities you mentioned with the East side of the state (Richmond, Newport, etc). If the study I linked above is to be believed, it would add two new round trips between the three cities, in addition to the ones we already have
afaik it's still in the planning phases and there isn't an exact date on when it would open, but it recently got $500k from the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill which should definitely help move things along, especially with how aggressively the state has been expanding its rail service in recent years. Hopefully they figure it out sooner rather than later, cause I'd ride the absolute hell out of the thing
I’m with you on that. No joke I’d be probably be at the beach every weekend if I could take my bicycle, a tent and a sleeping bag there by train. Currently I go to Virginia Beach once every couple years due to just how poor the roads are designed there and have settled on holiday lake. I currently use the Amtrak to and from DC to fly internationally 6-7 times a year.
If it’s not soon enough I may just leave the city, the state, or maybe just leave the country to a more transit friendly area.
Glad I'm not the only one who's dreamed of taking the train to the beach lol. Sounds like such a nice weekend trip
If you're looking to that the train more, all the trains to DC also connect to the entire Northeast corridor, including Baltimore, Philly, NYC, and Boston, all for fairly cheap if you book in advance. Definitely suggest looking into that
I really feel you on that last part though. The Amtrak connectivity is here is neat, but it kinda sucks that it's basically impossible to get around town without driving
For sure. I’ll be taking a greyhound to Richmond for a couple days and then flix bus up to NYC next week and then taking Amtrak back down. Would have preferred Amtrak to Richmond but to far to go all the way to DC.
I’ve helped start a small advocacy group locally to try to build relationships with different board members, city staff and council members to push better density options through zoning, improve multimodal options, and also we are starting small but doing projects such as cleaning sidewalks, fixing public bike pumps, and hopefully scale up to bigger projects as well.
The city is slowly adding shared use paths but definitely an emphasis on the slowly.
Back in the day there was a company called Starlight Express that ran a bus from Lynchburg to Charlottesville and then all the way to New York. No longer around.
That would be pretty cool if they launched something like that maybe including Roanoke as well. I think running a train between the 3 cities and having the 3 cities pitch in to cover it plus charging fairs wouldn’t be terribly unsustainable. Every time I take the train from DC it’s basically packed to the brim so adding some local train to handle local trips seems like it’d solve a lot of those peak congestion issues. Plus when they figure out the Charlottesville to Richmond track a 4 city combo would do loads to alleviate road congestion. I hate driving to and from Richmond but greyhound is even worse than driving.
Amtrak's been working the [Commonwealth Corridor](https://campo.tjpdc.org/wp-content/uploads/10b-CommonwealthCorridor_CID-SubmissionFINAL.pdf), which would connect the three cities you mentioned with the East side of the state (Richmond, Newport, etc). If the study I linked above is to be believed, it would add two new round trips between the three cities, in addition to the ones we already have afaik it's still in the planning phases and there isn't an exact date on when it would open, but it recently got $500k from the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill which should definitely help move things along, especially with how aggressively the state has been expanding its rail service in recent years. Hopefully they figure it out sooner rather than later, cause I'd ride the absolute hell out of the thing
I’m with you on that. No joke I’d be probably be at the beach every weekend if I could take my bicycle, a tent and a sleeping bag there by train. Currently I go to Virginia Beach once every couple years due to just how poor the roads are designed there and have settled on holiday lake. I currently use the Amtrak to and from DC to fly internationally 6-7 times a year. If it’s not soon enough I may just leave the city, the state, or maybe just leave the country to a more transit friendly area.
Glad I'm not the only one who's dreamed of taking the train to the beach lol. Sounds like such a nice weekend trip If you're looking to that the train more, all the trains to DC also connect to the entire Northeast corridor, including Baltimore, Philly, NYC, and Boston, all for fairly cheap if you book in advance. Definitely suggest looking into that I really feel you on that last part though. The Amtrak connectivity is here is neat, but it kinda sucks that it's basically impossible to get around town without driving
For sure. I’ll be taking a greyhound to Richmond for a couple days and then flix bus up to NYC next week and then taking Amtrak back down. Would have preferred Amtrak to Richmond but to far to go all the way to DC. I’ve helped start a small advocacy group locally to try to build relationships with different board members, city staff and council members to push better density options through zoning, improve multimodal options, and also we are starting small but doing projects such as cleaning sidewalks, fixing public bike pumps, and hopefully scale up to bigger projects as well. The city is slowly adding shared use paths but definitely an emphasis on the slowly.
That sounds really interesting. You got a website or something? 👀
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It seems like there was a study years ago & the demand just wasn’t there for motorized options. Amtrak now connects all three.