Dear Editor,
I strongly feel there is a need to push for funding for passenger service to return to Roanoke – a city built on rail service. Looking at traffic and receipts from Lynchburg is a “base start,” but we should also consider NRV/Roanoke traffic traveling to Raleigh. When we travel on business/personal trips by AMTRAK we travel to Raleigh for southern destinations. It’s worth the time and savings to travel to Raleigh rather than from Lynchburg or Hinton. However a short pop to Roanoke would make the extra rail ticket price far more feasible.
Since the huge investment is needed to upgrade the Roanoke “yard,” then the bus “bridge” makes more immediate sense. Let’s stop the debating and “political agenda” and make it happen. We’re living during a time of “the two fake fuel crises” 1974 and now. Let’s get off the hidden agendas and make it work. Period!
– H. Guess, Roanoke
