Charlottesville
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Charlottesville station in July 2009
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Location | 810 West Main Street Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S. |
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Coordinates | 38°01′53″N 78°29′31″W / 38.03139°N 78.49194°WCoordinates: 38°01′53″N 78°29′31″W / 38.03139°N 78.49194°W | |||||||||||||||||||
Owned by | Union Station Partners LLC | |||||||||||||||||||
Platforms | 2 side platforms | |||||||||||||||||||
Tracks | 4 | |||||||||||||||||||
Construction | ||||||||||||||||||||
Parking | 10 short-term and 165 long-term parking spaces available | |||||||||||||||||||
Disabled access | Yes | |||||||||||||||||||
Other information | ||||||||||||||||||||
Station code | CVS | |||||||||||||||||||
History | ||||||||||||||||||||
Opened | 1885 | |||||||||||||||||||
Rebuilt | 1915, mid–1990s | |||||||||||||||||||
Traffic | ||||||||||||||||||||
Passengers (FY2015) | 134,485 annually 1.57% (Amtrak) | |||||||||||||||||||
Services | ||||||||||||||||||||
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The Charlottesville Union Station, located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, is served by Amtrak's Cardinal, Crescent, and daily Northeast Regional passenger trains. It is Amtrak's third-busiest station in Virginia, aside from its all-auto Auto Train station in Lorton. The east-west line is owned by CSX Transportation and the north-south line by Norfolk Southern Railway. The station is within walking distance of the University of Virginia, which is the major employer in the area.
The original Union Station was built in 1885 to jointly serve the Charlottesville and Rapidan Railroad, the Virginia Midland Railway, and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. Major renovations in 1915 included the construction of a baggage handling facility.
When Amtrak took over most intercity passenger rail service in 1971, the Southern Railway opted to continue running the Southern Crescent itself. The Southern Crescent continued to use Union Station, while the James Whitcomb Riley (later the Cardinal) used Main Street Station to the east. Afflicted with rising costs, the Southern Railway relented and turned the Southern Crescent over to Amtrak on February 1, 1979. Amtrak renamed it as the Crescent and made Union Station the Charlottesville stop for the Cardinal as well.
Since 1999, the former baggage handling facility is home to the Amtrak ticket office and waiting area. The main facility has been privately developed into the commercial restaurant, Wild Wing Cafe. Plans coincident with the redevelopment to create a transportation hub at Union Station were not realized. Instead, in 2007 Charlottesville completed the Downtown Transit Center one mile across town.