DRPT, VDOT fund expansions of Amtrak parking lots

Jackson Puckey has had his fair share of less-than-perfect visits to the Amtrak station on Staples Mill Road.

“I’ve travelled through the station several times and, without fail, the person dropping me off or picking me up has had great difficulty with the infrastructure,” said Puckey, a University of Richmond student from South Carolina. “The last time I was there, I was picking up a friend who was staying for the weekend. There was absolutely no parking available and the pickup line was confusing and incomprehensible.”

The complaints of customers with similar gripes to Puckey’s did not fall on deaf ears.  On June 28, a much-anticipated and recently-completed expansion project, fully funded by the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, was celebrated with a ribbon-cutting.

The $8.5 million expansion added 299 spaces to the parking lot of the train station — the busiest in the South — bringing the total number of spaces to 587.

“I’m very pleased to declare that the days of scrambling to find a last-minute parking spot, parking illegally on the median, the stress of missing a train, and the dread of having your car towed upon your return are over,” said Jennifer Mitchell, director of the DRPT.

Besides the new parking spaces, the expansion also added new lamp posts as well as bus, taxi and rideshare areas — and even some new plants.

“From an environmental standpoint, we’ve added nearly a thousand trees, shrubs, and plants with two designated reforestation areas,” Robert Cary, chief deputy commissioner of the Virginia Department of Transportation, said.

Although construction did not begin until August 2017, Amtrak has been collaborating with VDOT and DRPT for years to improve customers’ travel experiences at the Staples Mill station, said Kimberly Woods, an Amtrak spokesperson based in Washington.

“We were aware that parking was limited here, and the reason for that is this station is the busiest in Virginia and it’s the busiest in the South,” Woods said. “There are 16 daily trains that come in and out of this station, which means that there are a lot of customers. So there’s a high demand for parking.”

More than 300,000 customers boarded Amtrak trains at the Staples Mill station in fiscal year 2017, Woods said.

Tom Gober, a forensic accountant from Bon Air who said he uses the Staples Mill station about 10 times a year, noticed a stark contrast between trips to the station before and after the expansion.

“Before, everything in the lot was poorly indicated and the process was unclear on how to make sure [parking was paid],” Gober said. “I really think this is a huge improvement. It also didn’t look so nice before.”

Puckey agreed that the expansions to the station would be a huge boon to customers like himself and the region.

“The expansion of the parking lot will be spectacular for the Richmond area,” Puckey said. “As someone who travels home and to D.C. by train relatively often, I am extremely excited for the process to become much easier.”