The New River Valley Passenger Rail Station Authority met on August 29th and received an update from the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority (VPRA) regarding the recent news to relocate the New River Valley station to the Cambria area of Christiansburg. This was welcomed and exciting news as the service with Amtrak is projected to begin sooner at this location (2027) and cost much less. VPRA and Norfolk & Southern (NS) agreed to terms that utilizes existing NS property in Cambria while NS delivers the additional pocket track for boarding, the boarding platform, and a layover facility in Radford for servicing the train overnight. At the August meeting, the Station Authority began conversations about their role in the new location pertaining to evaluating the existing historic depot currently utilized by NS. Now that the final station location is determined, the architecture/engineering team of Wendel and Foresight Design will be under contract soon to commence the station evaluation process.
For more information, contact Kevin Byrd at kbyrd@nrvrc.org.