NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Ridership in Virginia hit an all-time high in Amtrak’s fiscal year 2023, with big increases on the Norfolk and Newport News routes.
The Virginia Passenger Rail Authority announced that 1,256,123 passengers rode from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023, easily beating the previous record of 894,065 set during fiscal year 2015.
That included a record high number of 111,212 passengers in June of this year.
Newport News had the greatest increase in ridership of the commonwealth’s four routes in June 2023 compared to June 2022, with 10,883 more passengers (a 57.4% increase). Norfolk had a 26.6% increase in that span.
“These record-setting ridership numbers reflect the need for more investment in passenger rail in the Commonwealth,” said DJ Stadtler, VPRA’s executive director. “With planned infrastructure improvements from Northern Virginia into Washington, DC including a new bridge across the Potomac River, new investment will benefit not only Virginians but also, those traveling to and from our nation’s capital and along the east coast. It’s vital we continue to secure necessary funding for these projects to ensure rail is a viable transportation option in Virginia and beyond.”
The improvements in the past year included added two new routes (one to Roanoke and one to Norfolk) and the resumption of another to Newport News that was canceled during the pandemic — bringing the total number of daily roundtrips to eight.
You can read more about the vapassengerrailauthority.org.