Amtrak in SE VA

Adam Garrett
Jan 4
4 min read

Newport News Transportation Center - Image by Adam

Below I'll be sharing about the options with Amtrak departing from or arriving at stations in SE VA.

Here's a map of the Amtrak options in SE VA complete with the station codes:

Info for SE VA:

Travel Times

Here are some examples of the lowest amount of time I've seen to get to various places from SE VA:

To DC:

Richmond RVR to Washington WAS: 2 hours 16 minutes

Richmond RVM to Washington WAS: 2 hours 47 minutes

Williamsburg WBG to Washington WAS: 3 hours 43 minutes

Newport News NPN to Washington WAS: 3 hours 59 minutes

To other locations:

Newport News NPN to Williamsburg WBG: 13 minutes

Newport News NPN to Richmond RVM: 1 hour 6 minutes

Petersburg PTB to Rocky Mount NC RMT: 1 hour 27 minutes

Petersburg PTB to Raleigh RGH: 2 hours 58 minutes

Richmond RVR to Raleigh RGH: 3 hours 34 minutes

Petersburg PTB to Durham DNC: 3 hours 48 minutes

Petersburg PTB to Charleston CHS: 6 hours 25 minutes

Here's a time comparison on a number of Amtrak routes, including stating if you can get there directly or indirectly by flying a commercial airline (far right), times it takes on trains, & comparative drive time, though keep in mind that all Newport News times are now faster than at the time I composed the below due to the new train station bypassing a lot of old track:

Cost Varies Substantially Based on Demand & Class

January & February will tend to have the lowest Amtrak costs, especially when booking early, but in some cases even if booking under a week ahead. In some cases there are discounted fares as well, such as a January promo going at the time of this publication for round trips.

Cost tends to go up substantially over time in SE VA tourism high season & around big holidays, but even last-minute fares can be very low in low season. The actual demand is determined by multiple locations even if departing from another since nearby locations will be using the same train often. Per Google hotels, here are the times when Newport News tends to have people staying here:

Lowest: January, February, & April
Below Average: March, November, December
Above Average: May, July, September, October
Highest: June, August

Here are those times for Williamsburg:

Lowest: January, February
Below Average: March, May
Above Average(ish): April, June, July, August, September, November, December
Highest: October

Here are those times for Richmond:

Lowest: April
Below Average: January, February, May, June, July, December
Above Average: March, November
Highest: August, September, October

Here are those times for DC:

Lowest: January, February
Below Average: April, May, November, December
Above Average(ish): March, June, July, September, October
Highest: August

Parking

Parking costs vary substantially by station.

Parking at Newport News Transportation Center & the Williamsburg Amtrak station is free.

Parking at that RVR Amtrak station is around $11/24 hrs.

Parking at RVM is $6/day max depending on the lot.

General Information Not Specific to SE VA:

Discounts

Amtrak Deals Per Amtrak

While certain restrictions apply, the following are true:

Those 65+: 10% off $ rates

Students: up to 15% off $ rates

Veterans: 10% off $ rates

Active US Military: 10% off $ rates often including when location isn't mentioned on the deals page even when other locations are mentioned for active US military.

For points & $ fares, lap infants under 2 years old without their own seat can go for free.

Newborns to those up to 12 years old can get half fares off per occupied seat for the child (i.e. if wanting a car seat for a newborn) as long as there's at least 1 adult accompanying them, while in a situation where there is more than 1 child per adult, the discount for the additional children beyond 1 per adult wouldn't apply. For instance, here'sj an example of the cost to get 1 adult and 6 kids from Newport News to Washington at the moment in 9 days:

Here's that same cost in $ ($116) for a refundable fare (which is a slightly higher cost than 25% penalty for a refund fare):

Groups can get up to 60% off, with the % increasing from 3 to 8 people, though while that ongoing promo applies to $ fares, it doesn't reflect on points fares.

Passenger 1 – full price (or lowest available fare)