The ''Hilltopper'' was a passenger train operated by

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It ran daily from

South Station South Station, officially The Governor Michael S. Dukakis Transportation Center at South Station, is the largest railroad station and intercity bus terminal in Greater Boston and New England's second-largest transportation center after Logan In ...

in Boston, Massachusetts to

Catlettsburg station Catlettsburg is a former Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad station located in downtown Catlettsburg, Kentucky. Opened between 1897 and 1890 to replace an older wooden station, it served trains until 1958. Amtrak trains began stopping at Tri-State Stati ...

Catlettsburg, Kentucky Catlettsburg is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Boyd County, Kentucky, United States. The city population was 1,856 at the 2010 census. Catlettsburg is a part of the Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH, Metropolitan Statistical Area ...

. The run made 34 stops in 11 states and the

District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

History

The Chicago-Norfolk ''

Mountaineer Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, an ...

'', introduced in 1975, suffered from low ridership and high costs. Despite its failings, West Virginia senator Robert Byrd demanded that Amtrak replace it with another train on the

Norfolk and Western Railway The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisio ...

(N&W) to serve his rural constituents - and that the new train would use new Amfleet equipment and serve Washington, D.C. The Washington-Catlettsburg ''Hilltopper'' replaced the ''Mountaineer'' on June 1, 1977. The Hilltopper retained all ''Mountaineer'' stops between Catlettsburg and Petersburg, Virginia, while the ''

James Whitcomb Riley James Whitcomb Riley (October 7, 1849 – July 22, 1916) was an American writer, poet, and best-selling author. During his lifetime he was known as the "Hoosier Poet" and "Children's Poet" for his dialect works and his children's poetry. His ...

'' (which had run combined with the ''Mountaineer'' west of Catlettsburg) continued to provide a Chicago connection. Only Norfolk and

Suffolk, Virginia Suffolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and as such has no county. As of the 2020 census, the population was 94,324. It is the 9th most populous city in Virginia and the largest city in Virginia by boundary land area as ...

lost train service; a bus connection to Petersburg was provided. The ''Hilltopper'' had warm supporters in Byrd and West Virginian congressman Harley Staggers but it was "cited by critics as an example of everything that was wrong with Amtrak". Beginning on January 8, 1978, the ''Hilltopper'' was combined with the '' Night Owl'', creating through service from Boston to

. Even with this effort to improve its farebox recovery ratio, the train averaged 33 passengers per trip in 1978, dropping to between 2 and 15 per trip in 1979. Its average speed of was the lowest on the long-distance system. Farebox recovery was a dismal 25%, with the train losing $200,000 per year. The ''Hilltopper'' was one of five routes cut on October 1, 1979 as part of a reorganization by the

Carter Administration Jimmy Carter's tenure as the 39th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 1977, and ended on January 20, 1981. A Democrat from Georgia, Carter took office after defeating incumbent Republican President ...

, and the only of the five where no federal injunctions were obtained to keep service running. Many of the train's riders were former N&W employees with lifetime passes. The ''Night Owl'' continued to be run after the cut. The end of the ''Hilltopper'' spelled the end of intercity rail service along much of its route in Southwest Virginia and

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

. However, one daily ''

Northeast Regional The ''Northeast Regional'' is an intercity rail service operated by Amtrak in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic United States. In the past it has been known as the ''NortheastDirect'', ''Acela Regional'', or ''Regional''. It is Amtrak's busies ...

'' round trip was extended from Lynchburg to Roanoke on October 31, 2017.

Proposed restored service

As recently as October 2019, passenger rail advocates are pushing for restoration of east-west service from Christiansburg and the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Hampton Roads area, via Roanoke, Lynchburg, Charlottesville, and Richmond with a "Commonwealth Corridor." This would be the first cross-Virginia passenger train since the ''Hilltopper.''Virginians for High Speed Rail, Southern Environmental Law Center, "EXPANDING VIRGINIA'S PASSENGER RAIL, CONNECTING THE BLUE RIDGE TO THE BEACH WITH THE COMMONWEALTH CORRIDOR" http://www.vhsr.com/sites/default/files/2019-09/VCC%20Report%20Final.pdf

References

External links