Richmond Main Street Station

Richmond Main Street Station, officially the Main Street Station and Trainshed, is a historic railroad station and office building in Richmond, Virginia. It was built in 1901, and is served by Amtrak. It is also an intermodal station with Richmond's city transit bus services, which are performed by Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC). It is colloquially known by residents as The Clock Tower. It is a U.S. National Historic Landmark. Main Street Station serves as a secondary train station for Richmond providing limited Amtrak service directly to downtown Richmond. Several Amtrak trains serving the Richmond metropolitan area only stop at the area's primary rail station, Staples Mill Road which is located five miles to the north in Henrico County.

For the other Amtrak station in Richmond, see Richmond Staples Mill Road station.

Richmond, VA – Main Street
Richmond Main Street Station in 2008
General information
Location1500 East Main Street
Richmond, Virginia
United States
Coordinates37°32′05″N 77°25′45″W
Owned byCity of Richmond
Platforms1 side platform
Tracks2 (8 historically, 4 on each side)
ConnectionsShuttle Bus GRTC: Pulse, 14, 95x
Intercity Bus Megabus
Shuttle Bus RamRide: Sanger Hill Express
Construction
AccessibleYes
ArchitectWilson, Harris, & Richards
Architectural styleBeaux Arts
Other information
Station codeAmtrak: RVM
History
Opened1901
Passengers
FY 202274,794[1] (Amtrak)
Services
Preceding station Amtrak Following station
Williamsburg
toward Newport News
 Northeast Regional Richmond Staples Mill Road
toward Boston South or Springfield
Preceding station GRTC Pulse Following station
VCU Medical Center
toward Willow Lawn
 Broad & Main Street Line Shockoe Bottom
toward Rocketts Landing
Former services
Preceding station Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Following station
Chickahominy
toward Cincinnati
 Main Line Fort Lee
toward Old Point Comfort
Korah
toward Clifton Forge
 Clifton Forge – Richmond via Lynchburg Terminus
Preceding station Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad Following station
Terminus Main Line Acca
toward Washington, D.C.
Preceding station Seaboard Air Line Railroad Following station
Chester
toward Tampa or Miami
 Main Line Terminus
Preceding station Southern Railway Following station
Richmond–Hull Street
toward Danville
 Danville – Richmond
Until 1920s
 Terminus
Terminus Richmond – West Point
Until 1920s
 Fair Oaks
toward West Point
Proposed services
Preceding station Amtrak Following station
Petersburg
toward Norfolk
 Northeast Regional Richmond Staples Mill Road
toward Boston South or Springfield
Petersburg
toward Miami
 Silver Star Richmond Staples Mill Road
toward New York
Silver Meteor
Petersburg
toward Charlotte
 Carolinian
Petersburg
toward Savannah
 Palmetto
Main Street Station and Trainshed
Richmond Main Street Station in 1971
NRHP reference No.70000867
VLR No.127-0172
Significant dates
Added to NRHPOctober 15, 1970[2]
Designated NHLDecember 8, 1976[3]
Designated VLRJuly 7, 1970[4]
Location
Richmond, VA – Main Street is located in Virginia
Richmond, VA – Main Street
Richmond, VA – Main Street
Location within Virginia

Since 2018, the station has also been a stop along the GRTC Pulse bus rapid transit line.

History

Richmond's Main Street Station in the downtown area was built in 1901 by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (SAL) and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O). Seaboard had introduced service to Richmond, and C&O had consolidated the former Virginia Central Railroad and the Richmond and Allegheny Railroad, which had previously maintained separate stations.

The ornate Main Street Station was designed by the Philadelphia firm of Wilson, Harris, and Richards in the Second Renaissance Revival style.[5] In the 1950s, Seaboard shifted its Richmond passenger service to Broad Street Station (now the Science Museum of Virginia), but C&O maintained offices in the upper floors, and its passenger service continued at Main Street Station until Amtrak took over in 1971.

Major long distance passenger train services in the mid and late 1960s included:

In 1970, Main Street Station and its trainshed, one of the last surviving trainsheds of its type in the nation, were added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 1976 it was designated a National Historic Landmark.[3][5]

Amtrak took over most intercity passenger train service in the United States on May 1, 1971, including trains to Main Street Station. In 1972, Hurricane Agnes caused the James River to flood the station. The damage was so severe that in 1975, Amtrak moved its Richmond stops to Richmond Staples Mill Road, a much smaller suburban station in Henrico County, five miles north of downtown. To make matters worse, the station was damaged by fires in 1976 and 1983.[9] [10]

Service restoration

Main Street Station reopened to Amtrak service on December 18, 2003, following renovations.[11]

In 2018, the station became a stop on the GRTC Bus Rapid Transit's Broad and Main Street Line. There are also plans for Main Street Station to become an intermodal station with Richmond's city bus services operated by GRTC, a public service company owned jointly by the City of Richmond and Chesterfield County.[12]

Local officials hoped to increase the number of trains stopping at Main Street Station by extending services that otherwise terminate at Staples Mill station in suburban Henrico County. The completion of a bypass around Acca Yard in March 2019 was a step in this direction, although the first additional service that it enabled—a second Northeast Regional round trip to Norfolk—did not serve Main Street Station.[13]

On September 27, 2021, two Amtrak trains—one northbound in the morning and the other southbound in the evening—were extended from Staples Mill to Main Street Station as the first part of Virginia's multi-billion dollar rail expansion program.[14]

Proposed future

The 2017 Draft Environmental Impact Report of the DC2RVA project recommended routing all trains that serve Staples Mill station through Main Street Station, while maintaining full service to Staples Mill. Other considered alternatives had involved closing one of the two stations, or replacing both with a single station at Boulevard or Broad Street.[15]

Main Street Station is located on the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor (SEHSR), a passenger rail transportation project planned to connect with the existing high speed rail corridor from Boston, Massachusetts to Washington, D.C., known as the Northeast Corridor (served by Amtrak's Acela Express and Northeast Regional services and many commuter railroads) and extend similar high speed passenger rail services south through Richmond and Petersburg in Virginia through Raleigh and Charlotte in North Carolina. Since first established in 1992, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has since extended the corridor to Atlanta and Macon, Georgia; Columbia, South Carolina; Jacksonville, Florida; and Birmingham, Alabama.

Station layout

The station is served by three daily Northeast Regional trains, two of which originate or terminate at Newport News. The other train originates/terminates at Richmond Main Street Station. Northbound trains provide direct service to Union Station in Washington, Pennsylvania Station in New York, and South Station in Boston, among other stops.[16]

Ground level Station building and parking
Side platform, doors will open on the right
Westbound ←      Broad & Main Street Line toward Willow Lawn (Convention Center)
Eastbound →      Broad & Main Street Line toward Rocketts Landing (Convention Center) →
Side platform, doors will open on the right
Platform level Side platform
Track 1 ←      Northeast Regional toward Newport News (Williamsburg)
→      Northeast Regional toward Boston (Richmond – Staples Mill Road) →

See also

References
  1. "Amtrak Fact Sheet, Fiscal Year 2022: Commonwealth of Virginia" (PDF). Amtrak. June 2023. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
  2. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  3. "Main Street Station and Trainshed". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Retrieved June 27, 2008.
  4. "Virginia Landmarks Register". Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
  5. Dennis M. Zembala and Eric DeLony (August 2, 1976). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Seaboard Airline/Chesapeake & Ohio Railroads: Main Street Station & Trainshed / New Union Station" (pdf). National Park Service. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help) and Accompanying four photos, exterior and interior, from 1971 (32 KB)
  6. Official Guide of the Railways October 1967, 'Chesapeake and Ohio Railway'
  7. Seaboard Air Line 'Condensed time tables,' April 25, 1954 http://streamlinermemories.info/South/SAL54TT.pdf
  8. Official Guide of the Railways June 1963, 'Seaboard Air Line'
  9. The History of Main Street Station (Richmond Metropolitan Authority) Archived 2011-11-01 at the Wayback Machine
  10. Heidi Schwartz (August 2005). "Richmond's Rail Revival". Today's Facility Manager. Retrieved December 19, 2009.
  11. "RICHMOND Main Street Station VIRGINIA (RVM)". TrainWeb. Retrieved June 16, 2010.
  12. "GRTC boss John Lewis has big plans for transit system | Richmond Times-Dispatch". www2.timesdispatch.com. Archived from the original on June 8, 2009.
  13. Suarez Rojas, C. (March 5, 2019). "State transportation officials announce completion of bypass designed to alleviate Acca Yard bottleneck". Richmond Times-Dispatch.
  14. Lazo, Luz (September 27, 2021). "Virginia expands Amtrak Service to downtown Richmond as part of $3.7 billion rail program". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 27, 2021.
  15. "Executive Summary". TIER II DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT (PDF). September 2017. pp. 63, 64. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  16. "Virginia Service" (PDF). Amtrak.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 19, 2017. Retrieved June 8, 2017.

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