‘I want those Yankee dollars’

7/29/09 * Culpeper-Star Exponent [ full story ]

A new Amtrak coming to Culpeper Oct. 1 is not intended to serve commuters.

But the addition of a second, shorter-running daily passenger train is expected to improve reliability, free up seats on the other daily Amtrak and attract tourists from the north.

Though the time schedule isn’t exactly what some working people may have wanted, local officials are supporting the pilot rail initiative made possible with a three-year, $17.8 million subsidy from the state.

“This is not a commuter train,” Jay McArthur, principal officer with Amtrak, told the Culpeper Chamber of Commerce at its board meeting Tuesday morning in the Depot. “The bread and butter of this train is not the business traveler, it’s the leisure traveler — 60 percent of riders are going north of D.C.”