41
Discover Smith Mountain Lake
SUMMER 2016
40
Riding Out of Town
on the Rails?
In 2014, the Virginia Department of Rail and Public
Transportation (DRPT) announced that Amtrak would be
bringing passenger train service to Roanoke, by extending
service from Lynchburg. Since Roanoke has been without
passenger rail service for some 35 or more years, this was
welcome news, with the exception of one major problem:The
train would be going right through the middle of Bedford, but
would not be stopping, not even to let passengers off.
An earlier Roanoke extension plan, unveiled in 2008, had
shown a stop in Bedford, which went missing in the 2014
plan. Town officials and local businesses, as well as many
private residents, were understandably concerned and upset
with the latter plan, as they wanted the Bedford service to be
included.
The State had cited a lack of population and growth as the
reason for eliminating the Bedford train stop in the updated
plan. In light of the growth in the Smith Mountain Lake area
over the past several years, many now question the State’s
numbers.
“They only counted people in a two mile radius of the
(Bedford) train stop,” said Bedford Town Manager Charles
Kolakowski. “They neglected to consider the people in a
much larger usage area. Instead of 6,000 people, it should be
closer to 70,000.”
Kolakowski believes that many residents and businesses in
northern Franklin County and Southern Bedford, up to and
including Smith Mountain Lake, would use train service if it
were as close as Bedford.
A large number of retirees move into this area each year from
the northeast. Those people have left close family members
behind, most notably children and grandchildren, and they
visit them regularly. For older citizens, travel by car can
be wearisome, and has become more dangerous on major
highway arteries where traffic, especially truck traffic, has
increased significantly over the years. Rail service as close as
Bedford would certainly encourage many to travel by train.
A group of local town officials and residents from both
Franklin and Bedford Counties, who call themselves the
Bedford/Franklin Regional Rail Initiative (BFRRI), decided
to unite for the purpose of saving the Bedford station.
Following the advice of DRPT, the group hired the firm of
Wendel Architects and Engineers (Wendel) in January of this
By Kate Hofstetter
