Richmond Main Street Station

For the other Amtrak station in Richmond, see Richmond Staples Mill Road station.

Main Street Station
Richmond Main Street Station in 2008
Location	1500 East Main Street Richmond, VA
Coordinates
Owned by	City of Richmond
Platforms	1 side platform
Tracks	2
Connections	Megabus: M21, M22, M23, M24, M27 RamRide: Sanger Hill Express GRTC: 43, 44, 45, 52, 53, 62, 63, 73
Construction
Disabled access	Yes
Other information
Station code	RVM
History
Opened	1901
Rebuilt	2003
Traffic
Passengers (FY2014)	40,834 annually  6.03%
Services
Preceding station   Amtrak   Following station Williamsburg toward Newport News Northeast Regional Richmond-Staples Mill toward Boston South Station or Springfield   Future service   Preceding station   GRTC BRT   Following station 12th Street toward Willow Lawn Broad & Main Street Line 25th Street toward Rocketts Landing   Proposed service   Preceding station   Transdominion Express   Following station Farmville toward Bristol Richmond-Bristol Line Terminus
Main Street Station and Trainshed
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Virginia Landmarks Register
File:Richmond Main Street Station 1971.jpg
Richmond Main Street Station in 1971
Location	Richmond, Virginia, USA
Architect	Wilson,Harris, & Richards
Architectural style	Beaux Arts, Other
NRHP Reference #	70000867
VLR #	127-0172
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	October 15, 1970
Designated NHL	December 8, 1976
Designated VLR	July 7, 1970
Location

Richmond Main Street Station is a historic railroad station and office building in Richmond, Virginia. Originally built in 1901, it is currently served by Amtrak, and is planned in the future to become the northern terminus of the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor as well as an intermodal station with Richmond's city transit bus services, currently performed by Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC). With uppermost sections located adjacent to the James River Bridge of Interstate 95, it is locally referred to by some passersby as The Clock Tower. The Main Street Station and Trainshed is a U.S. National Historic Landmark.

Starting in 2018, the station will be a stop along the GRTC Pulse bus rapid transit line.

History

Richmond's Main Street Station in the downtown area was built in 1901 by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (SAL) and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O). Seaboard had newly introduced service to Richmond, and C&O had consolidated the former Virginia Central Railroad and the Richmond and Allegheny Railroad, which had previously maintained separate stations.

The ornate Main Street Station was designed by the Philadelphia firm of Wilson, Harris, and Richards in the Second Renaissance Revival style. In the 1950s, Seaboard shifted its Richmond passenger service to Broad Street Station (now the Science Museum of Virginia), but C&O maintained offices in the upper floors, and its passenger service continued at Main Street Station until Amtrak took over in 1971. In 1970, Main Street Station and its trainshed were added to the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1972, Hurricane Agnes caused the James River to flood the station. The damage was so severe that Amtrak moved its Richmond stops to a much smaller suburban station in Henrico County in 1975. To make matters worse, the station was damaged by fires in 1976 and 1983. Rail service did not return to Main Street Station saw no rail passengers until 2003, when it was renovated and returned to service on December 18.

Current routes

• Northeast Regional

Future services

Local officials hope to increase the number of trains by extending some service which currently terminates at the suburban Henrico County station called Richmond Staples Mill Road (Amtrak station). More importantly, Main Street Station is located on the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor (SEHSR), a passenger rail transportation project planned to connect with the existing high speed rail corridor from Boston, Massachusetts to Washington, D.C., known as the Northeast Corridor (served by Amtrak's Acela Express and Northeast Regional services and many commuter railroads) and extend similar high speed passenger rail services south through Richmond and Petersburg in Virginia through Raleigh and Charlotte in North Carolina. Since first established in 1992, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has since extended the corridor to Atlanta and Macon, Georgia; Columbia, South Carolina; Jacksonville, Florida; and Birmingham, Alabama.

Most funding for the SEHSR to date has been by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the states of North Carolina and Virginia. Both states already fund some non-high speed rail service operated by Amtrak on their behalf and own locomotives and passenger cars. The first large section of the SEHSR, from Washington, D.C. through Virginia and North Carolina south to Charlotte, is planned to be in service by 2020 depending on funding availability.

In 2018, the station will be a stop on the GRTC Bus Rapid Transit's Broad and Main Street Line.

There are also plans for Main Street Station to become an intermodal station with Richmond's city bus services operated by GRTC, a public service company owned jointly by the City of Richmond and Chesterfield County.

Main Street Station in fiction

The 1995 X-Files Episode "Soft Light" features some scenes in a fictional "Richmond Train Station." At the time the episode aired, the only train station in Richmond was in the suburbs in Henrico County. The station shown in the show is meant to be in the city limits and has an ornate architectural style closer to that of Main Street Station than the suburban Staples Mill Station.

In 2004 Richmond's Main Street Station served as a backdrop for an episode of the TV series Alias, posing as the British Embassy in Vienna.

See also

• Broad Street Station
• Transportation in Richmond, Virginia

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

• Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) No. VA-848, "Main Street Station, 1520 East Main Street, Richmond, Independent City, VA", 12 photos, 7 data pages, 1 photo caption page
• HABS No. VA-848-A, "Main Street Station, Trainshed", 1 photo
• HABS No. VA-848-B, "Main Street Station, Railroad YMCA", 1 photo
• Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. VA-4, "Union Station Trainshed, Main Street, Richmond, Independent City, VA", 11 photos, 3 measured drawings, 1 data page, 1 photo caption page

• Amtrak – Stations – Richmond Main Street
• Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor
• Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation
• Richmond - Main Street, VA (RVM) (Amtrak's Great American Stations)