New Newport News Station

(Setting some kinda record for how many "News" we can work into a subject line.)

A promotional email alerted many of us that Virginia is opening the intermodal Newport News Transportation Center. See blurb at https://www.amtrak.com/virginia/newport-news-station-opening. It'll be the new southern terminus of the Virginia peninsula branch of the Northeast Regional, and will provide twice-daily service to Richmond, Alexandria, Washington, and points northeast.

Apparently it's "intermodal" in the sense that it has a shuttle to the airport, one mile away (presumably with rental cars available, sigh) and Thruway service to Norfolk and Virginia Beach.

I don't see a mention of any connection to downtown Newport News but then I've only looked superficially.

Like any lazy researcher, I turned to WIkipedia for a history of the Newport News station. This gem (scanned from a postcard) opened in 1892, on the waterfront, with a pier so that passengers could step directly between trains and ferries. (Now that's what I call intermodal!) It was demolished and replaced in 1940 with a charming-looking little station, also on the waterfront. The opening of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel in 1957 apparently rendered ferry service obsolete, and a waterfront location less valuable, so Amtrak moved inland to a location along the CSX line in 1981. The 1940 station has apparently been repurposed as a restaurant. The 1981 station, which looks like an Amshack, is now closed and superseded by the new "intermodal" hub.

I don't expect ever to travel to Newport News but my Uncle Rudy did. His 100th ("Century") Infantry Division, which had bloodily battled from the Riviera to the Rhine, returned to the US via the Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation on 10 January 1946, and was released from active duty at Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia that day. I don't know the details, but somehow he traveled from Newport News to Washington or Baltimore to Pittsburgh and ended up in his mother's kitchen in little Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, a day or two later.

If there was any forward thinking, a bridge/tunnel to Norfolk would have been completed a long time ago as well as a station in Virginia Beach. Maps show track from Norfold to Virginia Beach, but I don't know if they, or the right of way, is still there.

JWM said:

If there was any forward thinking, a bridge/tunnel to Norfolk would have been completed a long time ago as well as a station in Virginia Beach. Maps show track from Norfold to Virginia Beach, but I don't know if they, or the right of way, is still there.

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The Tide light rail in Norfolk stops at the Virginia Beach city line, because there was a narrow referendum vote in VB against extending it. The right-of-way you mention is what the Tide uses, and it is still mostly clear to the oceanfront, but maybe has been obstructed some since the vote. A re-vote has been considered. Meanwhile the Tide extension talk has turned another direction, north-south. The musician Pharrell has a deal to redevelop a dead mall into something live, mixed use, which could work. Even though it's a dead mall, the retail is strong there, big boxes and car dealerships, etc., as well as the U.S. office headquarters of French shipping giant CMA CGM.

Trollopian said:

(Setting some kinda record for how many "News" we can work into a subject line.)

A promotional email alerted many of us that Virginia is opening the intermodal Newport News Transportation Center. See blurb at https://www.amtrak.com/virginia/newport-news-station-opening. It'll be the new southern terminus of the Virginia peninsula branch of the Northeast Regional, and will provide twice-daily service to Richmond, Alexandria, Washington, and points northeast.

Apparently it's "intermodal" in the sense that it has a shuttle to the airport, one mile away (presumably with rental cars available, sigh) and Thruway service to Norfolk and Virginia Beach.

I don't see a mention of any connection to downtown Newport News but then I've only looked superficially.

Like any lazy researcher, I turned to WIkipedia for a history of the Newport News station. This gem (scanned from a postcard) opened in 1892, on the waterfront, with a pier so that passengers could step directly between trains and ferries. (Now that's what I call intermodal!) It was demolished and replaced in 1940 with a charming-looking little station, also on the waterfront. The opening of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel in 1957 apparently rendered ferry service obsolete, and a waterfront location less valuable, so Amtrak moved inland to a location along the CSX line in 1981. The 1940 station has apparently been repurposed as a restaurant. The 1981 station, which looks like an Amshack, is now closed and superseded by the new "intermodal" hub.

I don't expect ever to travel to Newport News but my Uncle Rudy did. His 100th ("Century") Infantry Division, which had bloodily battled from the Riviera to the Rhine, returned to the US via the Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation on 10 January 1946, and was released from active duty at Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia that day. I don't know the details, but somehow he traveled from Newport News to Washington or Baltimore to Pittsburgh and ended up in his mother's kitchen in little Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, a day or two later.

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Click to expand...

Troops returning from the First World War marched a couple of miles to go under the Victory Arch, a smaller replica of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. It's near the original station.

WIlliam Styron wrote about how industrial and smoky and dusty with coal the station was in the Great Depression in the 1930s, when Newport News was going full bore in shipbuilding as well as coal. NN Shipbuilding is at 25,000 workers now, and growing. It has a trade school with college sports including football, and may soon run commuter buses to North Carolina. (Styron also describes shipyard workers from rural N.C.)

The new NPN is the fourth NN station, each progressively further from the piers, which is better for Chessie/CSX. The longstanding Amshack was not what I would call an Amshack, but most people do. A variant on the Amtrak Standard Stations Program, 1978-1990, RIP.

The new station looks great and has many features, but like you say it's not clear how multimodal it will be. The bus route goes to more than just the airport, it runs ten miles from Christopher Newport University to near Fort Eustis, but is only hourly. Confusingly, the new NPN is the Amtrak Newport News Transportation Center, as opposed to the Newport News Transit Center downtown. The airport has declined since all this was planned, is between Norfolk and RIC on the close side of Richmond, and now only has American Airlines. Overall for transportation in Hampton Roads, there is a large regional bus system, but highways rule most spending, such as for the new tubes at the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel. Regional planning goes back to the consolidation of the Seven Cities back in the 1950s, eliminating all counties. The chief of NN Shipbuilding was one of the leaders..

The station is more suburban than the previous Amtrak NPN (Amshack), by seven miles. It has a high platform, a wye, new maintenance yard, etc. Trader Joe's is across the interstate.

I recently visited the new Newport News Station (on its opening day) and had a horrible 20 minute late (just traffic and the bus schedule not having enough padding) ride that almost made me miss the train from Downtown Newport News with a quick stop at the old Amtrak Stations.

Photos are on my website: https://subwaynut.com/amtrak/newport_news/index.php

This new transit YouTuber made a good trip report leaving from the old station and arriving at the new one with reviews.