Photo courtesy Amtrak
One of my favorite family trips as a child was aboard an Amtrak taking us from our hometown of Mobile, Alabama, to my aunt’s house in Boston. My brother and I loved all 36 hours of our journey, watching as the East Coast’s major cities and coastal towns blurred past the window of our sleeper car.
For most of my life, I’ve lived in the Deep South and lacked good opportunities to travel by train. When my family and I moved to Richmond four years ago, I leapt at the chance to introduce my kids to the train, an instantly memorable experience that became a surprisingly easy catalyst for family vacations.
I booked our first departure in 2021 from Main Street Station, where the iconic clock tower and grand hall set the tone. The boys, who were 8 and 10 at the time, stood on the platform brimming with excitement, straining to be the first to see our arriving train. The two hours to Alexandria flew by as we played cards and ate peanut M&Ms in the cafe car. We didn’t have to arrive early to go through long security lines, and my husband didn’t complain about drivers in the left lane. When the boys grew restless, they got up and walked around, and we didn’t stop for a bathroom once.
Since then, we’ve taken the train to Philadelphia and Baltimore, and for spring break we went to New York. The boys made friends with fellow passengers, playing Heads Up and trading solutions for their Rubik’s cubes. Amtrak brought us right into Penn Station at Madison Square Garden, so we emerged from underground into the heart of the city like magic.
The train hasn’t just been for major getaways; we’ve also gone on several day trips to D.C., avoiding Interstate 95 traffic along with expensive hotels and parking. On Father’s Day, we got off the train at Union Station and right onto the Metro for a Washington Nationals game. We were back in Richmond by dinnertime.
Passenger rail in the U.S. turns 200 this year and is long past its peak ridership of the 1940s. And yet for our family, train travel feels new and exciting. I can see why it’s still the preferred mode of transportation in Europe, even though we lack its robust network and high-speed rail. In Austria, which has the same population as Virginia, trains accommodated 328 million passengers last year, compared to the commonwealth’s 2 million passengers.
But Karina Romero, communications manager for the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority, is pleased with our state’s numbers. She says last year set a record for Amtrak Virginia’s four routes between the capital and Richmond, Roanoke, Newport News and Norfolk.
The Virginia Passenger Rail Authority was established in 2020 to promote and expand passenger and commuter rail service. VPRA continues to invest in new infrastructure through the Transforming Rail in Virginia initiative, most notably the construction of a new bridge across the Potomac River into Washington.
“Our goal is to separate passenger and freight rail service to improve on-time performance of both,” Romero says. “We’re also working on extending service down to the New River Valley for the first time since 1979. These are taxpayer dollars hard at work, and new projects help keep cars particularly off I-95 and I-81.”
The Passenger Rail Infrastructure and Investment Act was passed in 2009, requiring states to financially support shorter routes within their borders.
“Ridership that first year from Washington, D.C., down to Lynchburg was expected to be about 30,000 passengers, but at the end of the year, 100,000 people had taken that train,” Romero says. “It was clear that Virginians wanted to ride the train.”
Since then, the number of passengers has been steadily increasing. In fiscal year 2024, Amtrak hit a nationwide ridership record, carrying 32.8 million passengers across their routes, up 15% from the previous year. Locally in the same period, ridership was up a combined 22% on routes through Virginia, and Staples Mill was the Southeast’s most popular station, with more than 460,000 passengers boarding.
With surging ridership and new routes on the horizon, Romero encourages families to give train travel a try this summer to open vacation possibilities now and into the future.
“It’s very affordable — lap kids are free, and those under 12 are half price,” she says. “If you have small kids, try a shorter trip to Ashland or even Fredericksburg — you get right off in the historic district. There are lots of things to see and do, and you can catch an afternoon trip home.”
While train travel can be fun and convenient, families should set realistic expectations and be prepared for travel delays. And there’s always that pesky stop in D.C. when Amtrak swaps out the diesel locomotive for electric before heading up north. Unfortunately, Romero says, Southern routes aren’t replacing their diesel-powered trains.
“Virginia doesn’t have the external infrastructure and space for traditional electric service,” she explains, “but technology is improving all the time — there’s a number of locomotive manufacturers looking into battery power, so you never know what the future might hold.”
