The Commonwealth of Virginia and Amtrak have come to an agreement to run four new commuter-oriented trains per day. Two new round trips per day between Lynchburg/New York and Richmond/New York will begin to operate by the end of this year. The new trains are on top of existing Amtrak service in those corridors (currently 7/day to Richmond and just 1/day to Lynchburg). In addition to riders from Richmond and Lynchburg, the new trains will benefit existing riders on both VRE lines as well as commuters up and down the Northeast Corridor. Charlottesville also stands to benefit, with triple its current rail service.

While four new train runs per day is hardly revolutionary, incremental improvements like this are an important part of the restoration of American passenger rail. A few extra slow-speed trains may not make a big difference in DC-to-NY travel, but with three trains instead of one, Charlottesville and Lynchburg just became much more rail accessible.

Update 3/26/09: Commenter RichardAtCourthouse says it will only be one new round trip to each destination instead of two. Can anyone confirm either way?

The Virginia portion of the new service.