Passenger Trains > New station for Newport News VA?

http://www.dailypress.com/news/traffic/dp-nws-nn-trans-ctr-091914-20140918,0,1520938.story

- Only 38 million for some strange modernistic building; 125 parking spaces;

- Located right next to a sketchy neighborhood likely to have more decline; Bordered by suburban retail establishments with many vacancies.

- Local and Greyhound bus service at the same location;

- A "turnaround" for trains - one presumes a wye.

The current Newport News station is located in the downtown area, not particularly a bad area and has limited parking. It was originally the C&O "Hampton Roads Transfer Station" (actually just a platform and parking lot) with an Amtrak designed station building built around 1981. There was also a C&O Newport News station located w-a-y downtown next to the C&O coal yards and merchandise piers with a dock for ferryboats. It is currently without tracks and is boarded up not being used since 1980.

For those who keep track of such things, the Lee Hall station stop close to Ft Eustis was eliminated a dozen years ago and the building has been moved for preservation. Williamsburg's C&O station has been nicely maintained and is in daily use.

Michael

emd_mrs1 Wrote:
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> http://www.dailypress.com/news/traffic/dp-nws-nn-t
> rans-ctr-091914-20140918,0,1520938.story
>
> - Only 38 million for some strange modernistic
> building; 125 parking spaces;
>
> - Located right next to a sketchy neighborhood
> likely to have more decline; Bordered by suburban
> retail establishments with many vacancies.
>
>>
> The current Newport News station is located in the
> downtown area, not particularly a bad area and has
> limited parking.

> Michael

Ridership already down 38%. This will not help that trend. Dumb.

Hard to figure why its better to be farther from central Newport News and Hampton and only 18 miles from the very nice Williamsburg station. Must be all about local transit. The only plus- less than mile from the airport but doubt many will ride the train there when Richmond and Norfolk airports are so close. Convenient was the old station on the pier downtown Newport News.

I wonder if the long range plan is to have the current N.News service main market be the greater Williamsburg/Kingsmill plantation area. Add additional Norfolk direct service and there wouldn't be much need for the connecting buses from Newport News to Norfolk. Travel time Richmond to Norfolk is half hour faster on the direct train rather than the Newport News bus connection.

emd_mrs1 Wrote:

> The current Newport News station is located in the
> downtown area, not particularly a bad area and has
> limited parking.

Downtown?

One of the entire region's LARGEST EMPLOYERS is there: the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. It is presumed that they hope to capture some of that business, since thousands of their employees drive and/or car-pool on every weekday from all over the area, including hundreds of neighborhoods closer to the Williamsburg station. The weekday rush hour has almost "gridlock" traffic on I-64 and all inner city streets due to the sheer number of people arriving or departing. Perhaps they will offer said employees some sort of "frequent rider" discount or something as incentive. One can wonder....

Here's where the old, original C&O/Amtrak station was in Newport News, at the corner of Harbor Rd & 23rd St., on the waterfront in Newport News: http://goo.gl/maps/HXNEg "Back in the day" it had ferry service to Norfolk and Portsmouth. The wye to turn trains is just north of it, at the junction with the still-existing line toward Phoebus.

I don't know what year Amtrak and C&O/Chessie agreed to move the station, but here's where it went, 4 miles north-northwest http://goo.gl/maps/Qpr07 It had the advantage to Chessie of being at the northwest end of the expansive Newport News yards. While farther out of "downtown" Newport News, another advantage to this station is that it's close to the US 17 bridge across the James River, which provides easy access to the south side of the James River and the communities on that side, and it's not appreciably worse for those coming on the bus transfer from Norfolk and Virginia Beach. If you look at an aerial map at this location, it looks like there is the remains of a wye just across the yard from the station.

Here's where the proposed station will be: http://goo.gl/maps/BDU56 I don't understand this, since it's 9 miles farther northwest from the existing station and 13 miles from the original Newport News station. There's a wye about 1 mile northwest of the proposed station, on what appears to be the lead to a power plant.

knotch8 Wrote:
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> Here's where the old, original C&O/Amtrak station
> was in Newport News, at the corner of Harbor Rd &
> 23rd St., on the waterfront in Newport News:
> http://goo.gl/maps/HXNEg "Back in the day" it had
> ferry service to Norfolk and Portsmouth. The wye
> to turn trains is just north of it, at the
> junction with the still-existing line toward
> Phoebus.
>
> I don't know what year Amtrak and C&O/Chessie
> agreed to move the station, but here's where it
> went, 4 miles north-northwest
> http://goo.gl/maps/Qpr07 It had the advantage to
> Chessie of being at the northwest end of the
> expansive Newport News yards. While farther out
> of "downtown" Newport News, another advantage to
> this station is that it's close to the US 17
> bridge across the James River, which provides easy
> access to the south side of the James River and
> the communities on that side, and it's not
> appreciably worse for those coming on the bus
> transfer from Norfolk and Virginia Beach. If you
> look at an aerial map at this location, it looks
> like there is the remains of a wye just across the
> yard from the station.
>
> Here's where the proposed station will be:
> http://goo.gl/maps/BDU56 I don't understand this,
> since it's 9 miles farther northwest from the
> existing station and 13 miles from the original
> Newport News station. There's a wye about 1 mile
> northwest of the proposed station, on what appears
> to be the lead to a power plant.

I hadn't read the article before posting the previous response; we are hoping they will KEEP the downtown station that exists now, as a LOT of people who live nearby use that station, and getting to/from a new site way out of town at Bland Ave. is problematic, and could indeed severely hurt ridership. Perhaps that notion will prevail and we'll have BOTH sites, as does Richmond with two stations served by Amtrak (both are well-patroned).

There is STILL a wye track across from the downtown NN Station, and if I'm correct, is still there. That is, unless the new Walmart store now across the yard from the station has necessitated in having the wye removed. I do know that CSX has had Amtrak turning its inbound trains on the DOWNTOWN wye, near the shipyard, so the other wye may have been removed in the last year or two.

emd_mrs1 Wrote:
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> - Located right next to a sketchy neighborhood
> likely to have more decline; Bordered by suburban
> retail establishments with many vacancies.


I get the location complaints, especially if service is cut back to here from NNews, but that seems like a misleading characterization of the adjacent retail. Anyone can go to Google Maps and Streetview and see that the station site is next to a huge retail hub of relatively new construction, including stores like Trader Joes, Kohls, Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart, Sams, and lots of the usual restaurants, banks, grocery anchor, and other retail that typically go with such. An anchor mall and more major retail (Target, Costco) a mile away. Looks to be the retail hub of the area, which means more activity and thus more perceived safety relative to the current NN station, which means more in the region would consider using the station.

The airport terminal is 1 mile away, having it so close can make it easier for local transit routes to serve the station, and serve it more frequently. Pooling destinations to increase demand (and the adjacent retail boosts that much more than the airport does.)

Much easier rental car access being so close to the airport. A big deal with so much of the region's destinations dispersed and not easily reachable by transit.

Probably increases the ease of getting a taxi, since they can serve both the airport and the station.

Many in the region know where the airport is, even more probably know where that mall is, so it makes the station easier to find for first time riders and thus increases the odds they'll ride.

But yeah, it does seem dumb to close the existing NN station instead of simply adding this one.