I live in Roanoke and I just made Amtrak reservations for $78!!! ROUND TRIP from Lynchburg to Washington DC. (You only picked the highest fare to make your poor argument). I will take the DC Metro from Union Station to my hotel on M Street followed by the Metro to an event that evening. The following day I will Metro to Union Station and return to Lynchburg. My feet will not touch the inside of an automobile thank God. While on the train I will read my books and work on my laptop

Other reasons for rail include the following:
Roanoke auto repair rates are approaching $100 an hour.
A family cannot afford a vehicle for every family member any longer.
Our front yards are full of vehicles parking and more dead ones in the back yard.
18% of teenagers are are now choosing not to drive. (Google Roanoke Times article)
Parking tickets in DC are $150 and God forbid you get towed $300+150= $450.
The distance across Valley View parking lot must be at least 5 blocks. Why complain about walking two blocks from your vehicle downtown?
Come on Chris…throw your support behind rail solutions! We need your help!

Train travel needs to come to Roanoke for lots of reasons.

Parking for more than 2 hours in a parking garage in DC will cost you $20.00. Do this just 3 times in one trip and you’re already up to $60.00. If you have to take a cab to/from someplace, that’s going to vary, of course, but generally a 10 -20 minute cab ride is anywhere from $10-$25. However, most people visiting DC are coming with friends, or to see friends, etc. Another factor here is travel time. Yes, you can get to Northern Virginia in about 3.5 hours by car. But to go all the way into DC?? You’re looking at 4.5 to 5 hours, depending on what’s under construction at the time, traffic volume, what time of week (weekday vs. weekend), time of day, whether it’s a holiday, delays due to accidents, etc. The traffic is definately “special”, and that alone could be all the diffence in the decision to take the train or drive yourself (this could be played up in marketing campaigns as well, which would further drive ridership).

But DC is only half the story. Many people using this service would not be coming to DC, rather, they would be traveling to/from Northern Virginia, and most likely using the Amtrak stop in Manassas, VA. Since they are coming for friends and/or family, cabs don’t really factor into the equation as the friends/family would most often provide the ride for them.

I think that if this service is instituded, it should not only run to Roanoke, but down to Blacksburg as well. There are a TON of kids from the DC metro area who go to school at Tech and Radford (let alone other colledges along the way in Lynchburg and Roanoke). A lot of users of this line would be students and their parents. I can totally see a coupel students hopping on the train with some of their friends to come to DC for the weekend–whether they are from the area, or just to sight-see and experience night life in the closest “big city”. It would be massively used during break periods as well. A “college town” line would see a ton of service, if given the chance and marketed correctly.

Taking the train isn’t as glamorous as it used to be (same for other modes of transportation as well), but it is still so CONVENIENT over driving. You can sleep, read a book, work, surf the net, chat, etc., all without burning your own gas, putting wear and tear on your car, worrying about fighting the 18 wheelers on I-81, or having your blood pressure go through the roof while you fight traffic.

On top of this, they wouldn’t necessarily have to run a line every day. They could start out with, say, twice a week. I think you would see substantial numbers on that type of line with a limited schedule like that.

Just a thought from a guy and his family who wishes they could “take the train” instead.

Your biggest misstep is not calculating the total cost of auto maintenance. To say that “most people don’t think of that” is beside the point. Those are actual costs. So, to apply the 58.5 cents per mile from Lynchburg (about 180 miles), an auto trip comes to $105 each way. You might very well have to pay for parking at $20 per day, and let’s say Metro expenses come to $15. Even if you only pay for one day of parking, that will come to $245 — more than double the cost of the train.

That doesn’t factor in the traffic jam part of it. If you get stuck on I-66 for an hour, that’s wasted gas and time. The train will cut right through all that traffic congestion. Speaking of time, time on the train isn’t necessarily wasted as it is when you drive. You can do work or whatnot on the train.

Finally, the second train will be leaving Lynchburg sometime around 8 a.m., much better than the first train’s arrival time. So all in all, the train is superior if a single person is driving to DC.

Would you mind letting us know exactly what you don’t believe? Is there something wrong with my facts or reasoning, or just the conclusion?