Image: 2011-02-01 22:26:48
A new service, the Bus to Rail Smart Way Inter-City Connector, may soon link Roanoke to the Lynchburg train station daily and Blacksburg to Lynchburg on weekends, providing a new way to get to Northern Virginia.
While the train tracks from Roanoke to Lynchburg are being improved, it will link residents to Washington, D.C. and the northeastern corridor, said Mark McCaskill of the Roanoke Valley Alleghany Regional Commission and Leon Alder of the Roanoke Valley Area Metropolitan Planning Organization.
“There has been, starting in the 1990s, various studies about how extending a passenger rail, not only through Lynchburg like it is now, but also to Roanoke and all the way down to Bristol,” McCaskill said. “The bus connector is in the context of the greater discussion.”
The tentative cost is $4 for a one-way ticket but is subject to change, according to Alder. The goal is for ticket prices to be cheap rather than to raise a profit.
The passenger price, subject to approval by the Greater Roanoke Transportation Company board, depends on the amount of grant money received by federal, state and local governments as well as local partners.
“Depending upon the grant, when they approve the grant, we’re not sure of the effective date (to begin the service), but it could be as early as this summer, July 1, but we’ll have to wait and see what the state and Federal Transportation Administration approve,” Alder said.
The name, Bus to Rail Smart Way Inter-City Connector, is used officially for grant applications. A shorter name will be used when the service begins, he said.
A version of this article appeared in the Feb 2 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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The privately operated Megabus is only $5 from Christiansburg to Northern Virginia. I'm not sure that the Bus to Rail line being proposed between Blacksburg and Lynchburg would be able to compete. It takes about 2 hours to get between the NRV and Lynchburg on a bus. Amtrak from Lynchburg to DC runs anywhere between $29 and $77 depending on how far in advance you reserve. That takes 3 3/4 hours minimum on the train trip assuming no freight related delays.
I am not down on passenger rail travel, but I just can't see the economics of this wooing riders to use this over Megabus.
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Thanks for doing this timely article on the "Bus to Rail Smart Way Inter-City Connector" (I prefer "Lynchburg Train Bus"), a link for the entire VA Tech Community and New River Valley to the wider world. This bus link and eventual rail link will be a hot topic for years to come. It might even spark a student club to promote both the bus and rail link.
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