Bedford lays tracks for possible Amtrak stop

Leigh Ann Ellis is all aboard for Amtrak to begin stopping in the town of Bedford.

In the past, Ellis, a journalism teacher at Bedford County’s Staunton River High School, had her students board the train in Lynchburg for field trips to New York or Washington, D.C.

For students who live in Goodview, on the Roanoke side of Bedford County, that meant at least an hour’s trek. Bedford, which is equidistant from Lynchburg and Roanoke, “would be a much more central location,” Ellis says.

A study released in October by the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) examining the feasibility of providing an Amtrak stop in Bedford left supporters optimistic. “I feel quite confident we’ll have a station there,” says state Del. Terry Austin, R-Botetourt.

Mary Zirkle, the town’s economic development coordinator, is happy to see some forward momentum for the proposed train stop. “It’s getting closer than it was before when we were on some kind of strange horizon of never,” she says.

That said, it’s too early in the process to establish a timeline for when Amtrak might begin stopping in Bedford, says Emily Stock, DRPT’s manager of rail planning.

The DRPT study included a ridership analysis that predicted a Bedford Amtrak stop might draw more than 10,000 new riders per year. Zirkle believes a stop would be popular with folks traveling to Washington, D.C., or New York.

DRPT’s preferred site for the proposed stop is on a piece of property on Macon Street owned by Norfolk Southern Corp. It ticks all the right boxes, Stock says, including the fact that it offers an adequate amount of space for a station and parking. Also, Norfolk Southern does not believe a stop there will cause delays to the company’s freight operations.

The project, including a station, is estimated to cost $10.9 million, not including the cost of acquiring the land. Without a station, the cost would be 15% less.

Specifics about which entity will pay for what part of the project, Zirkle writes in an email, “are what needs to be worked out among the state and localities and Norfolk Southern.” 

The next step, according to Stock, will be to conduct a National Environmental Policy Act study to make sure the stop will not cause adverse effects to natural or cultural resources.