 Ashland, VA | Amtrak Virginia: Northeast Regional | Richmond Main St, VA  |
Petersburg, VA  | ||
| Fredericksburg, VA | Carolinian | |
| Silver Meteor | ||
| Alexandria, VA | Palmetto | |
| Floridian |
Richmond-Staples Mill Road is the suburban station for Richmond, Virginia, although it is located in the suburban town of Henrico. It is the only station stop in Virginia's Capital on the Palmetto, Silver Meteor, Floridan, Carolinian, and three daily round-trip Northeast Regional trains to and from Norfolk. Onward transit connections from the station into Richmond are poor with bus service stopping at the station on weekdays only every 40 minutes from only about 7:00am to 7:00pm.
The only three daily trains that stop at Richmond-Main Street station in Downtown are the two daily round-trips to and from Newport News, Virginia, along with one additional round-trip that terminates and originates at Richmond-Main Street (overnighting). This train originated and terminated at Richmond-Staple Mill Road until it was extended the one stop to Richmond-Main Street on September 27, 2021.
For most of the 2010s (particuarly until a third daily round-trip was extended to Norfolk, VA) two Northeast Regional trainsets per day from New York and other points North had overnight layovers at Richmond Staple Mill Road laying over on Tracks 4 and 5 after being wyed, with these two tracks containing troughs for the locmotives to help catch any leaks and other equipment on the platform for laying over trains.
Travel times to and from Richmond Main Street are abysmal on these trains as the trains must navigate the Acca Yard with trains taking approximately 30 minutes to go 7 miles (average speed 14 mph). Building a yard bypass and improving the track connections to allow all trains to stop at Main Street as well is a long-term project of the Commonwealth of Virginia's Passenger Rail Authority.
Unlike Buffalo, NY a similar sized City with a similar dual-Amtrak station situation, a suburban station (Depew) that is the Lake Shore Limited's only stop, along with a downtown station (Exchange St) that have both always been open, Richmond-Staples Mill Road station was the only station serving the city (and simply called the Richmond, VA station) from November 1975 when the neoclassical Broad Street Station was closed until the Richmond-Main Street station was reopened in 2003.
The station is basically an AmStation but not quite because it opened before AmStation architecture plans were finalized. The station consists of a single-story building with a blue flat roof with slight overhanging angles from this roof outside the building.
The station is surrounded by lots of paid surface parking. The station has its own driveway entrance at its own traffic light at Staples Mill Road. This leads to a pick-up and drop-off area complete with a Porte cochere with an attached blue corrugated looking metal roof.
All access to the platforms is through the station, with fencing surrounding the tracks and platforms. Here a pedestrian grade crossing leads out five tracks with just three of the tracks (3, 4 and 5) having two island platforms between them. The track closest to the building, track 5 isn't normally used with its narrow exposed platform with tactile warning strips beginning at the grade-crossing out from the station building. It immediately ends just north of this crossing at a switch onto one of the two main tracks.
The two main tracks that platform, Tracks 3 and 4 have a platform begin about two train car lengths north of the station, and run south, spanning a whopping 20 cars long! (trains in winter in particular to and from Florida were still that long in the 1970s). A canopy covers close to the most northern 11 cars. This canopy is a simple brown structure with a flat roof dating from the station's opening. There is a wheelchair lift enclosure just beyond the northern end of the canopy.
Trains normally stop (and always on the middle track) with the rear of the train beyond the crossing to allow passengers to be able to enter and leave the station while trains complete their station work (the stop can be a fresh air stop on some of the long-distance trains). When I stepped off the Carolinian in 2014 there was even a $1.00 only SmarteCarte machine (with carts in it on the platform).
Photos 1-13: December 13, 2013; 14-35: July 15, 2014;
