Amtrak said last year was one for the books for train travel around Virginia and the Alexandria station had the state’s second-highest ridership in the southeastern United States.
Just behind Richmond at 424,617 riders, Alexandria Union Station had 327,285 riders in 2023.
“The tremendous growth in ridership is a result of the substantial investments North Carolina and Virginia are making to expand and improve passenger rail,” Amtrak Vice President Ray Lang said in a release. “Customers are taking advantage of a sustainable way to travel to the many destinations our network offers.”
The third-highest ridership in the region was in Charlotte, North Carolina, with 281,220 riders. The next highest in Virginia was the Norfolk station at 232,530 riders.
“Richmond is not just the capital of Virginia, it’s the epicenter of the East, connecting the Southeast and the Northeast by rail,” DJ Stadtler, Executive Director of the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority (VPRA), said in the release. “All three of these stations — Richmond-Staples Mill, Alexandria, and Norfolk — offer Virginians access to rail service connecting the Commonwealth with the rest of the east coast.”
