Newport News station is an

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 ...

intercity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...

train station in

Newport News, Virginia Newport News () is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the 5th most populous city in Virginia and 140th most populous city in the Uni ...

. The station is the southern terminus of two 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 trips. It has a single

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms ...

adjacent to a large

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

rail yard. An

Amtrak Thruway Amtrak Thruway is a system of through-ticketed transportation services to connect passengers with areas not served by Amtrak trains. In most cases these are dedicated motorcoach routes, but can also be non-dedicated intercity bus services, transit ...

motorcoach connection to Norfolk station effectively doubles the frequency between each station and Washington.

History

Chesapeake & Ohio

The

Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond ...

(C&O) under

Collis Potter Huntington Collis Potter Huntington (October 22, 1821 – August 13, 1900) was an American industrialist and railway magnate. He was one of the Big Four of western railroading (along with Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker) who invested i ...

completed the

Peninsula Extension The Peninsula Extension which created the Peninsula Subdivision of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) was the new railroad line on the Virginia Peninsula from Richmond to southeastern Warwick County. Its principal purpose was to provide an ...

to the small town of

Newport News Newport News () is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the 5th most populous city in Virginia and 140th most populous city in the Uni ...

in 1881. This allowed the C&O to transport West Virginia coal to Hampton Roads – the largest

warm-water port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ha ...

on the East Coast – and directly compete with 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 ...

. Between the coal exports and Huntington's

Newport News Shipbuilding Company Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, is the largest industrial employer in Virginia, and sole designer, builder and refueler of United States Navy aircraft carriers and one of two providers of U.S. Navy ...

, Newport News soon became a major shipping and industrial area. Ferry service between

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

and Newport News began in 1883, though the first passenger train station at Newport News was not built until 1892. The multi-story brick structure, Victorian with a large clock tower, was built on the waterfront at 23rd Street. A

train shed A train shed is a building adjacent to a station building where the tracks and platforms of a railway station are covered by a roof. It is also known as an overall roof. Its primary purpose is to store and protect from the elements train car ...

stretched onto a pier so that passengers could transfer directly between trains and ferries. By the 1930s, the station was in poor shape, having settled significantly due to the soft soil. It was demolished in 1940 and replaced with a smaller two-story brick station. The new station was constructed on a concrete base above the

1933 Chesapeake–Potomac hurricane The 1933 Chesapeake–Potomac hurricane was among the most damaging hurricanes in the Mid-Atlantic states in the eastern United States. The sixth storm and third hurricane of the very active 1933 Atlantic hurricane season, it formed in the east ...

flood level, and its pilings were driven underground to prevent settling. Between 1953 and 1954, the C&O stopped using

Phoebus, Virginia Phoebus (known as Chesapeake City from 1871-1899) is a formerly incorporated town located in Elizabeth City County on the Virginia Peninsula in eastern Virginia. Upon incorporation in 1900, it was named in honor of local businessman Harrison Phoebu ...

to the east as the terminus of its Norfolk/Hampton Roads area passenger trains. The company shifted that terminus, by then being for the ''

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

'' and other passenger trains, to Newport News station. When

took over intercity passenger service in the United States on May 1, 1971, the C&O had served Newport News with three daily round trips: the Newport News sections of the ''George Washington'' and ''

Fast Flying Virginian The ''Fast Flying Virginian'' (''FFV'') was a named passenger train of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway. The ''FFV'' was inaugurated on May 11, 1889, and ran until May 12, 1968; this was the longest running C&O named passenger train. The train oper ...

''/'' Sportsman'', plus a Newport News-

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

trip.

Amtrak

Amtrak kept only one daily round trip to Newport News – a section of the Newport News-

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

''George Washington''. It was combined with 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 ...

'' on July 12, 1971, to provide through service to Chicago. The ''George Washington'' name was used for the eastbound section until May 19, 1974. On June 14, 1976, the Newport News section of the ''Riley'' was replaced with the Washington-Newport News ''

Colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 au ...

''. Ferry service had been replaced by buses through the

Hampton Roads Bridge–Tunnel The Hampton Roads Bridge–Tunnel (HRBT) is a -long Hampton Roads crossing for Interstate 64 and U.S. Route 60. It is a four-lane facility comprising bridges, trestles, man-made islands, and tunnels under the main shipping channels for Hampton ...

upon its 1957 opening, making the waterfront location less desirable for a train station. The station was moved to its current location along the CSX line in October 1981. The 1940-built station remains standing and now serves as a restaurant. Service was reduced to one daily round trip from 2020 to July 11, 2022.

Future

The current facility was planned to be replaced with two new stations—a large intermodal station near the

Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport is in Newport News, Virginia, United States, and serves the Hampton Roads area along with Norfolk International Airport in Norfolk. The airport is owned and operated by the Peninsula Airport Commi ...

and a smaller station in downtown Newport News. The city planned to begin design work for the larger station in the summer of 2011, for an opening sometime before 2016. As of 2011, the cost was estimated at $24 million. As of 2019, the project was further delayed, until 2021, with plans for a new downtown station dropped and the intermodal station to serve as the new terminus. Construction for the new intermodal station near the airport began in July 2020. The project will cost $47 million and was originally expected to be completed by the summer of 2022. However, the city of Newport News announced in October 2022 that the new station would not be open until the fall of 2023, citing unexpected construction delays. A third ''Northeast Regional'' weekday round trip is planned, as of 2020, under a major spending initiative by the

Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (VDRPT) is an agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. According to its web site, the state agency's mission is "to improve the mobility of people and goods while expanding ...

References

External links

Newport News Amtrak Station (USA Rail Guide – Train Web)The Train Station
{{Transportation in the Hampton Roads Region, state=collapsed Transportation in Newport News, Virginia Amtrak stations in Virginia Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach stations in Virginia Buildings and structures in Newport News, Virginia