Petersburg station (also known asEttrick station) is anAmtrak railroad station located inEttrick, Virginia, just outside the city ofPetersburg. The station, adjacent to the campus ofVirginia State University, is served by fiveAmtrak routes: theCarolinian,Floridian,Northeast Regional,Palmetto, andSilver Meteor. It has a brick station building and a singleside platform adjacent to the two-trackNorth End Subdivision.
Predecessors of theAtlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL) originally had a station on West Washington Street in downtown Petersburg. The ACL built a new station a block west in 1903. Some ACL trains began using the newUnion Station when it opened in 1910, and the West Washington Street station closed around 1918. In 1942, the ACL opened a new station in Ettrick on a line that bypassed downtown Petersburg. It was replaced at the same site in 1955 by the current structure.
Service passed to theSeaboard Coast Line Railroad in 1967. FormerSeaboard Air Line Railroad trains began using the station in 1970.Amtrak took over service in 1971; service varied in the 1970s and gradually increased thereafter. Relocation of the station to nearbyColonial Heights was proposed in 2017 as part of theSoutheast High Speed Rail project. The move was shelved in 2019 in favor of a renovation of the existing station.
Petersburg station is located in Ettrick, about 1.6 miles (2.6 km) northwest of downtown Petersburg.[2]: 49 The one-story brick station building is 260 feet (79 m) long and 60 feet (18 m) wide.[3][4] The passenger waiting room is located in the southern part of the station; the northern part is unoccupied.[3] A single 1,200-foot (370 m)-longside platform serves the eastern track of the two-trackCSXNorth End Subdivision.[5][6]: 12 Awheelchair lift providesaccessibility.[3]
As of 2024[update], Petersburg station is served by fiveAmtrak routes with a total of six to seven daily round trips. TheCarolinian,Floridian,Palmetto, andSilver Meteor each have one daily round trip. TheNortheast Regional has three weekday round trips and two weekend round trips.[7]
ThePetersburg Railroad (opened 1833) andRichmond and Petersburg Railroad (opened 1838) ran north–south on a winding route through Petersburg. The two lines merged in 1898 and became part of theAtlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL) in 1900.[8] By the 1890s, the ACL station was located on West Washington Street on the east side of Union Street in downtown Petersburg.[9] In 1894–95, the ACL built a "belt line" west of downtown Petersburg.[10][11] It was straighter and largely double-tracked, allowing through freight and passenger trains (those not stopping in Petersburg) to bypass the congested main line, which hadstreet running on West Washington Street.[12]
In 1902–03, the ACL built a larger freight depot; a new passenger station was built on the west side of Union Street.[13][14] TheNorfolk and Western Railway (N&W) opened itsUnion Station near the junction with the ACL in May 1910.[15] It included a platform for ACL trains.[16][17] The ACL referred to it as "Appomattox station" to distinguish it from the West Washington Street station.[18]
Around 1918, under the control of the wartimeUnited States Railroad Administration, the West Washington Street station was closed to passengers and all trains used Union Station.[19][20] By 1938, ACL service at Union Station included four daily Richmond–Petersburg round trips and three to four long distance trains in each direction (including theHavana Special and the southboundNew Palmetto Limited). Four long-distance trains in each direction bypassed Petersburg via the belt line.[21]
In the late 1930s, city officials and the chamber of commerce began agitating for the ACL to remove its tracks from Washington Street and to build a new station on the belt line.[22] Construction of a new union station for the ACL, N&W, andSeaboard Air Line Railroad (SAL) west of downtown Petersburg was considered in 1940 after flooding of theAppomattox River affected Union Station.[23]
In November 1941, the ACL began construction of a new brick station at Ettrick on the belt line.[24][25] That station opened on March 15, 1942, removing passenger trains from Washington Street, though the Richmond–Petersburg trains continued to terminate at Union Station until at least 1958.[26][27]
In mid-1954, the ACL began construction of a combination passenger and freight station in Ettrick, just north of the 1942-built station. The structure cost $125,000 to build, with most of the interior space for freight.[4] Freight service was temporarily moved to the former West Washington Street station on June 1, 1954, allowing the freight house and station to be demolished for new development.[28][a]
Freight service was moved to the new combination station around April 1955, removing trains from the West Washington Street tracks; the belt line became the mainline. Passenger service moved to the new station on May 16, 1955; the older station there was converted to a warehouse.[30] It remained extant until at least 2012.[31] In 2010, a bus station forPetersburg Area Transit and intercity buses opened where the West Washington Street station once stood.[32]
The ACL and SAL merged in 1967 to become theSeaboard Coast Line Railroad.[33] All former SAL passenger service was rerouted over the ACL through Petersburg on June 1, 1970.[34] By December 1970, Petersburg was served by six daily round trips – theChampion,Everglades,Gulf Coast Special,Palmland,Silver Meteor, andSilver Star – and bypassed only by theFlorida Special.[35]
Amtrak took over intercity passenger rail service in the United States on May 1, 1971. It retained three Seaboard Coast Line trains through Petersburg – theChampion,Silver Meteor, andSilver Star.[36] TheSilver Meteor only served Petersburg intermittently from 1971 to 1976, but regularly thereafter.[37]: 73 Amtrak also operated several seasonal trains in its first decade. Winter trains serving Florida[b] did not stop at Petersburg, but theCarolina Coast (summer 1972) andCarolina Special (summer 1973) did.[38][39]
ThePalmetto was introduced on June 15, 1976, giving Petersburg three year-round daily trains.[40][37]: 80 After being combined during the off-season with theSilver Meteor for much of the decade, theChampion was fully merged into theSilver Meteor in 1979.[37]: 78 Some interior renovations, including expansion of the waiting room, took place in the late 1980s.[3] TheCarolinian was added on May 12, 1990, giving Petersburg a fourth daily round trip.[37]: 89
Passenger service on the N&W, which had been discontinued in 1971, resumed on March 24, 1975, with theMountaineer.[41] It stopped in Petersburg at Union Station.[42] On June 1, 1977, it was replaced with theHilltopper, which stopped at Fleet Street west of downtown and used the ex-ACL route north of Union Station.[41][43] TheHilltopper was discontinued on September 30, 1979, again leaving Petersburg with a single train station.[41][37]: 254
On December 12, 2012, one dailyNortheast Regional round trip was extended from Richmond to Norfolk, stopping at Petersburg.[44] A new connecting track was built south of Petersburg to allow the train to switch from the ex-ACL main line (now theNorth End Subdivision) to an ex-N&W line (theNorfolk District).[31][45][c] A second weekdayNortheast Regional round trip was added on March 4, 2019, and an additional daily round trip on July 11, 2022.[47][48] Petersburg Area Transit began local bus service to the station in 2019.[49] On November 10, 2024, theSilver Star was merged with theCapitol Limited as theFloridian.[50]
TheSoutheast High Speed Rail Corridor (SEHSR) project is planned to reactivate theex-SAL mainline (Norlina Subdivision) between Petersburg andRaleigh, North Carolina, for passenger service.[51] Planning for the project considered reactivation of portions of the ex-SAL route or the original ACL route through Petersburg, but they were deemed inferior to the existing route.[2]: 41–45 [52] The Burgess Connector, a connecting line south of Petersburg (originally built after the ACL/SAL merger) will be reopened to allow trains to reach the ex-SAL line.[53]: 2–22 [2]: 1 As of 2023[update], the Virginia portion of the reactivated line is expected to open after 2030.[54]
The 2010 Tier 2 Draft Environmental Impact Statement noted four potential sites for a station to serve theTri-Cities (Petersburg,Colonial Heights, andHopewell): Colonial Heights, the existing Ettrick station, Washington Street west of downtown Petersburg, and Collier south of downtown Petersburg.[2]: 49 That report, a 2012 recommendation report, and the 2015 Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) all deferred selection of the station site to a locally-focused study.[2]: 49 [55][53]: 2–19 The FEIS called for a third track to be built through Petersburg.[5]
In 2017, theFederal Railroad Administration study recommended a site at Boulevard (U.S. Route 1/301) in Colonial Heights.[56][6]: ES-12 The decision proved controversial; in 2019, the agency suspended environmental work on the station project due to a "lack of consensus" about the site.[57] That July, the state announced plans to spend $5.7 million to modernize the station and make it fullyaccessible.[58] In June 2022, theVirginia Passenger Rail Authority (VPRA) was awarded a $6.4 million federal grant for the $10.6 million renovation project. It will include a new 850 feet (260 m)-long platform with a new canopy, interior renovations, and modifications to the parking lot.[59] As of August 2024[update], construction is expected to start in 2025. The VPRA was awarded $1 million in 2024 for a study to determine longer-term plans for the station.[60]
Media related toPetersburg station at Wikimedia Commons
