Richmond Main Street Station facts for kids

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

Quick facts for kids Richmond – Main Street
Richmond Main Street Station in 2008
Location	1500 East Main Street Richmond, Virginia
Coordinates	37°32′05″N 77°25′45″W
Owned by	City of Richmond
Platforms	1 side platform
Tracks	2
Connections	Megabus: M21, M22, M23, M24, M27 RamRide: Sanger Hill Express GRTC: Pulse, 14, 95x
Construction
Disabled access	Yes
Architect	Wilson, Harris, & Richards
Architectural style	Beaux Arts
Other information
Station code	RVM
History
Opened	1901
Traffic
Passengers (2018)	48,384  4.38%
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 Broad & Main Street Line Shockoe Bottom toward Rocketts Landing
Former and Proposed services Preceding station Seaboard Air Line Railroad Following station Chester toward Tampa or Miami Main Line Terminus Preceding station Amtrak Following station Proposed Services 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
Richmond Main Street Station in 1971
NRHP reference No.	70000867
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	October 15, 1970
Designated NHL	December 8, 1976
Location

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). It is colloquially known by people from the city as The Clock Tower. It is 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.

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. 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.

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

• Chesapeake and Ohio trains west to Louisville, Cincinnati and Detroit:
  • Fast Flying Virginian
  • George Washington
  • Sportsman
• Seaboard Air Line (and from 1967 to 1971 Seaboard Coast Line) to Birmingham and Florida:
  • 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.

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.

Rail service did not return to Main Street Station until 2003, when it was renovated and returned to service on December 18.

Station layout

The station is served by two daily Northeast Regional trains originating or terminating at Newport News. Northbound trains provide direct service to Union Station in Washington, Pennsylvania Station in New York, and South Station in Boston, among other stops.

Ground level	Station building and parking
Platform level	Side platform, doors will open on the left, right
Track 1	←      {{{{{system}}} lines|{{{line}}}}} toward Newport News (Williamsburg) →      {{{{{system}}} lines|{{{line}}}}} toward Boston (Richmond – Staples Mill Road) →

Future services

Local officials hope to increase the number of trains by extending some services which now terminate at the suburban Henrico County station, Richmond Staples Mill Road station. The completion of a bypass around Acca Yard in March 2019 allowed a second Northeast Regional round trip to Norfolk to begin, though it did not immediately increase service to Main Street Station. The 2017 Draft Environmental Impact Report of the DC2RVA project recommended routing all Staples Mill-serving trains 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.

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.

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.