 Williamsburg, VA | Amtrak Virginia: Northeast Regional |
Newport News Airport (excuse me Transportation Center) opened on August 22, 2024, as part of a $53 million project to push Amtrak service to the edge of the City of Newport News. This is part of an unfortunate trend in Newport News of the train station getting pushed farther and farther away from its historic and walkable downtown, which included the 1982 AmStation moving three miles away and this new station 11 miles away!
This station is located on a greenfield site behind a luxury apartments homes one mile from the air terminal of the dying Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport. This airport as of 2024 only has skeletal Regional Jet service from American Airlines exclusively to its Charlotte hub. The airport has promised a shuttle bus with the hope Amtrak will save it and bring more air service to the airport. The airport was doing well starting in the 1980s until AirTran, the dominant carrier, pulled out in 2011 as part of its slow merger with Southwest Airlines which already provided service in the region to Richmond International Airport and Norfolk International airport within 50 miles in each direction – although traffic through the tunnel-bridges into Norfolk can be horrible – of the Newport News Airport.
The distance of this station from anything in Newport News meant that I nearly missed the afternoon train on the station’s first day of operations (the crew had already closed all of the doors that had been opened automatically five minutes before departure but still let me on through a couple of open doors, they had the attitude of “Your lucky we didn’t deny you boarding”). My delays were caused by ride on a local bus from the old station (I wanted to include a daytime visit) which left the old station about 15 minutes late and got later and later has it delt with evening rush hour traffic. This was followed by a speed walk on roads partially without sidewalks (the actual station is connected to the sidewalk network; I just chose to get off a bus stop at a road that wasn’t) up to the station.
The station is parallel to I-64 with an interchange just south of the station. Passengers can approach the station from one of two roads from Aspen Meadows Lane, with no access directly from Bland Blvd that the station’s address at 500 B Bland Boulevard is named for. The siding of the wye used for turning trains after they arrive before their next trips blocks any access from every being added. One of these roads is directly parallel to the wye and leads to the station’s bus loop just north of the station building. The other road leads to the back of the stations large free parking lot.
Continuing up he sidewalk passengers reach a station entrance sign in the modern Amtrak blue on grey text format that says Newport News Transportation Center, and the address 500B. Here the driveway splits again into two different directions. One of these leads to the station’s kiss and ride, taxi, pick-up and drop-off loop, the other out towards the stations very large parking lot. This large plaza contains some benches for passengers to wait for onward transportation. On the streetside of the building 3D lettering in blue reads Newport News Transportation Center.
At the edge of the station’s car loop is the main station building. This building contains a unique roofline that looks like a decorative sail that swoops in both directions. This is an architectural detail in honor of the shipbuilding Newport News is known for. On the eastern end it’s glass on three sides around the station’s main waiting room. This waiting room contains modern seating in lots of different configurations (including bars to sit and work on a laptop at) with little white sails in various areas providing dividers of different nodes between different areas of seating. The seating luckily comes in lots of different configurations, including some conventional sofas and looks high quality (I had about one minute in the station as written above so I couldn’t sit down and do comfort testing). The northern end of the waiting area is where the fully staffed ticket office is. This area of the building contains white cinderblock walls. For food service there are a few vending machines and no provisions for any type of further food service through a concession or cafe.
A sign by the automatic doors to leave the station read Taxis left or Buses right. The station’s bus loop for dedicated Amtrak Thruway Buses meeting all trains to Norfolk (stopping at its Amtrak station), and Virginia Beach is located just north of the modern station building and platform. There are also 3 bays for Hampton Roads Transit Buses (none were rerouted to the station on the first day of operations). Amtrak Thruway Buses also between trains that originate or terminate in Norfolk and Newport News. On the first day of operation the connecting Thruway Bus from Virginia Beach actually missed the train! The train still left on time (with some media on the platform for the first daytime departing train), the dignitaries had met the first new train arrival (based on news reports, nothing happened for the first 5:00am departure except some Morning News crews at the station) and we waited in Williamsburg for it to arrive and catch up. The train left Williamsburg 26 minutes late (after arriving 2 minutes early).
To finally reach Amtrak Trains, passengers go out doors from the station building to the northern end of a single high-level platform. The high-level platform was built as part of new siding work off the CSX mainline for the station that includes the dedicated wye for turning Northeast Regional Trains around (at least until push-pull trains start with the dedicated Aero trainsets) just northwest of the platform and a layover facility with enough space to store two trains just south of the station (but not visible from the station) surrounded by trees. Amtrak’s Virginia overall goal is to have three daily roundtrips to Newport News, instead of the current two (one train runs overnight along the Northeast Corridor and makes a same-day turn at Newport News). I assume this will be done by extending the train that currently terminates and overnights at Richmond-Main Street.
The high-level platform for level boarding doesn’t really feel like a platform since it is located at the same level as the station with grass and trees directly behind it, the tracks have been built in a depressed way to allow it to be high level. Directly outside the station is a platform canopy contains a sail-like cloth. It covers about one and a half cars or the locomotive and one car at the front of a boarding northbound train. The rest of the platform extends south with modern blue text Newport News, VA station signs on white lampposts with LED lights. The station has Amtrak’s modern LED passenger information system including monitors inside the station listing train and thruway bus departures. Continuing south most of the platform just has grass and trees behind it with a couple connecting sidewalks to secondary sidewalks parallel to the station platform.
To give credit where credit is due, the original plans saw the Newport News Transportation Center as part of a two-station approach to Newport News with this new station being built plus a smaller station downtown. This would have been a good approach – similar to the nearby city of Richmond (where there is ongoing work to have all trains stop at Richmond Main Street) and Buffalo – a smaller downtown station without parking for car free travelers to the city, and a park & ride station for travelers from the surrounding area.
Due to the provision of a wye and two train storage tracks being built along with a new high level platform at the new station, I doubt CSX wants to now triple (from 2 round-trips a day, to 6 round-trips a day, because the planned 3 round-trips would have to deadhead back to the layover facility in Newport News) a Newport News Downtown station will ever see the light of day again since trains left the Newport News waterfront in 1981.
Photos 1-24 on opening day: August 22, 2024
