Richmond Main Street Station

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

Richmond Main Street Station, officially the Main Street Station and Trainshed, is a historic railroad station and office building in Richmond, Virginia. It was built in 1901, and is served by Amtrak. It is also an intermodal station with Richmond's city transit bus services, which are performed by Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC). The station is colloquially known by residents as The Clock Tower. It was listed to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, and in 1976 was made a U.S. National Historic Landmark. Main Street Station serves as a secondary train station for Richmond providing limited Amtrak service directly to downtown Richmond. Several Amtrak trains serving the Richmond metropolitan area only stop at the area's primary rail station, Staples Mill Road which is located five miles to the north in Henrico County.

Richmond, VA – Main Street
Richmond Main Street Station in 2008
General information
Location	1500 East Main Street Richmond, Virginia United States
Coordinates	37°32′05″N 77°25′45″W
Owned by	City of Richmond
Platforms	1 side platform
Tracks	2 (8 historically, 4 on each side)
Connections	GRTC: Pulse, 14, 95x Megabus RamRide: Sanger Hill Express
Construction
Accessible	Yes
Architect	Wilson, Harris, & Richards
Architectural style	Beaux Arts
Other information
Station code	Amtrak: RVM
IATA code	ZRD
History
Opened	1901
Passengers
FY 2023	121,315[1] (Amtrak)
Services
Preceding station Amtrak Following station Williamsburg toward Newport News Northeast Regional Richmond Staples Mill Road toward Boston South or Springfield Preceding station GRTC Pulse Following station VCU Medical Center toward Willow Lawn GRTC Pulse Shockoe Bottom toward Rocketts Landing
Former services Preceding station Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Following station Chickahominy toward Cincinnati Main Line Fort Lee toward Old Point Comfort Korah toward Clifton Forge Clifton Forge – Richmond via Lynchburg Terminus Preceding station Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad Following station Terminus Main Line Acca toward Washington, D.C. Preceding station Seaboard Air Line Railroad Following station Chester toward Tampa or Miami Main Line Terminus Preceding station Southern Railway Following station Richmond–Hull Street toward Danville Danville – Richmond Until 1920s Terminus Terminus Richmond – West Point Until 1920s Fair Oaks toward West Point
Proposed services Preceding station Amtrak Following station Petersburg toward Norfolk Northeast Regional Richmond Staples Mill Road toward Boston South or Springfield Petersburg toward Miami Silver Star Richmond Staples Mill Road toward New York Silver Meteor Petersburg toward Charlotte Carolinian Petersburg toward Savannah Palmetto
Main Street Station and Trainshed
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Virginia Landmarks Register
Richmond Main Street Station in 1971
NRHP reference No.	70000867
VLR No.	127-0172
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	October 15, 1970[2]
Designated NHL	December 8, 1976[3]
Designated VLR	July 7, 1970[4]
Location

The station is served by three daily Northeast Regional trains, two of which originate or terminate at Newport News. The other train originates/terminates at Richmond Main Street Station. Northbound trains provide direct service to Union Station in Washington, Pennsylvania Station in New York, and South Station in Boston, among other stops.^[5] Since 2018, the station has also been 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 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.^[6] Since its 1901 construction, the building's roof has featured Conosera tile produced by Ludowici.^[7] In 1959, Seaboard shifted its Richmond passenger service to Broad Street Station (now the Science Museum of Virginia), ending service to the north platform and across the James River. The C&O maintained offices in the upper floors, and its passenger service continued at Main Street Station until Amtrak took over in 1971.

Major long distance passenger train services in the mid and late 1960s included:

• Chesapeake and Ohio trains west to Louisville, Cincinnati and Detroit:^[8]
  • Fast Flying Virginian
  • George Washington
  • Sportsman
• Seaboard Air Line (and from 1967 to 1971 Seaboard Coast Line) to Birmingham and Florida:^[9][10]
  • Silver Comet
  • Silver Meteor
  • Silver Star

In 1970, Main Street Station and its trainshed, one of the last surviving trainsheds of its type in the nation, were added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 1976 it was designated a National Historic Landmark.^[3][6]

Amtrak took over most intercity passenger train service in the United States on May 1, 1971, including trains to Main Street Station. In 1972, Hurricane Agnes caused the James River to flood the station. The damage was so severe that in 1975, Amtrak moved its Richmond stops to Richmond Staples Mill Road, a much smaller suburban station in Henrico County, five miles north of downtown. To make matters worse, the station was damaged by fires in 1976 and 1983.^{[11] [12]}

Service restoration

Main Street Station reopened to Amtrak service on December 18, 2003, following renovations.^[13]

In 2018, the station became 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.^[14]

Local officials hoped to increase the number of trains stopping at Main Street Station by extending services that otherwise terminate at Staples Mill station in suburban Henrico County. The completion of a bypass around Acca Yard in March 2019 was a step in this direction, although the first additional service that it enabled—a second Northeast Regional round trip to Norfolk—did not serve Main Street Station.^[15]

On September 27, 2021, two Amtrak trains—one northbound in the morning and the other southbound in the evening—were extended from Staples Mill to Main Street Station as the first part of Virginia's multi-billion dollar rail expansion program.^[16]

Proposed future

The 2017 Draft Environmental Impact Report of the DC2RVA project recommended routing all trains that serve Staples Mill station through Main Street Station, while maintaining full service to Staples Mill. Other considered alternatives had involved closing one of the two stations, or replacing both with a single station at Boulevard or Broad Street.^[17]

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.

See also

• National Register of Historic Places portal
• Buses portal
• Trains portal
• Virginia portal

• Broad Street Station
• Transportation in Richmond, Virginia
• List of National Historic Landmarks in Virginia
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Richmond, Virginia

References

1. "Amtrak Fact Sheet, Fiscal Year 2023: Commonwealth of Virginia" (PDF). Amtrak. March 2024. Retrieved June 30, 2024.
2. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
3. "Main Street Station and Trainshed". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Retrieved June 27, 2008.
4. "Virginia Landmarks Register". Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
5. "Virginia Service" (PDF). Amtrak.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 19, 2017. Retrieved June 8, 2017.
6. Dennis M. Zembala and Eric DeLony (August 2, 1976), National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Seaboard Airline/Chesapeake & Ohio Railroads: Main Street Station & Trainshed / New Union Station (pdf), National Park Service and Accompanying four photos, exterior and interior, from 1971 (32 KB)
7. Campbell, Tom (June 9, 1985). "Station's new roof in good hands". Times-Dispatch. Richmond, Virginia.
8. Official Guide of the Railways October 1967, 'Chesapeake and Ohio Railway'
9. Seaboard Air Line 'Condensed time tables,' April 25, 1954 http://streamlinermemories.info/South/SAL54TT.pdf
10. Official Guide of the Railways June 1963, 'Seaboard Air Line'
11. The History of Main Street Station (Richmond Metropolitan Authority) Archived November 1, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
12. Heidi Schwartz (August 2005). "Richmond's Rail Revival". Today's Facility Manager. Retrieved December 19, 2009.
13. "RICHMOND Main Street Station VIRGINIA (RVM)". TrainWeb. Retrieved June 16, 2010.
14. "GRTC boss John Lewis has big plans for transit system | Richmond Times-Dispatch". www2.timesdispatch.com. Archived from the original on June 8, 2009.
15. Suarez Rojas, C. (March 5, 2019). "State transportation officials announce completion of bypass designed to alleviate Acca Yard bottleneck". Richmond Times-Dispatch.
16. Lazo, Luz (September 27, 2021). "Virginia expands Amtrak Service to downtown Richmond as part of $3.7 billion rail program". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 27, 2021.
17. "Executive Summary". Washington, D.C. to Richmond Southeast High Speed Rail Project (PDF). TIER II DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT. Federal Railroad Administration and Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation. September 2017. pp. 63, 64. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 8, 2017.

External links

Media related to Main Street Station (Richmond) at Wikimedia Commons

• Richmond Main Street – Amtrak
• Richmond Main Street – Station history at Great American Stations (Amtrak)
• 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
• Article in Railway Age (1899) with floor plans