That bus stop at the Amtrak station has an actual shelter now! Also, that Amtrak station is still the station. The new one at Bland Blvd is still not open!
If you're ever again stranded at Union Station after everything closes, the Dubliner is another solid food option. 5 min walk across the corner, 10/10 pub fare, frequently with live music, but sometimes busy.
Hey, that's my town! Newport News! (And DC used to be my town.) If you ever come down here again (which you should definitely do to go visit Williamsburg sometime), I'd love to buy you lunch to thank you for all the great transit videos. (Also, Comic Sans on the HRT signs is the least of our transit system's problems. The buses literally do not serve the Norfolk Airport. I kid you not. The bus that serves the NN Airport does not have "Airport" in the name so you have no way of knowing it goes there unless you're from here and KNOW. It's ridiculous. Problems with the website, lack of park & ride at one end of The Tide light rail. I could go on all day about improvements that the HRT needs to make. They should hire me.)
It depends on the day & season. I regularly rode the same train b/w Alexandria, Fredericksburg, & Williamsburg for several years. Some days there wouldn't be an empty seat all the way to Main St. Particularly around school breaks, you'd frequently see the train full of students going to or from the various colleges along the line.
I went to college next door to the Mariners Museum. They also have a great hiking trail around the property and adjacent park. If you ever go back, that is also worth it! The new station, which is still under construction, is about two or three miles west of the museum.
Nice to see you coming to my hometown! Hopefully that new transit center will be open soon. Found your channel recently and I really dig the spirit. Keep it up dude
man DC Union Station, while an incredibly beautiful station, is in a pretty unfortunate state as far as businesses that are open. Supposedly Amtrak is working on a total refresh of the station that should really breath some life into the station's concourse, and I think there are tentative plans to build some TOD over top of part of the tracks and in the surrounding neighborhood that should build in a new customer-base. Pretty sure the last station refurb was in the 1980's and it really shows, so much of the station feels like a mall food court besides the entry hall.
Richmond rail has an interesting history. Staples Mill replaced Broad Street in 1975. Broad Street is now the Science Museum, but pays homage to its rail roots very well. Worth a detour next time you come through Richmond!
To whom it may concern: while it was not her idea to specifically visit the Mariner's Museum, it was Ms. Parenti's suggestion to look at any Atlas Obscura entries in Newport News, the sole one of which was indeed the Mariner's Museum. Thus, let the record show that Ms. Parenti indirectly influenced the destinations I visited while in the region.
1:52 I live 3 hours away from Richmond... I've been! I'm also 3 hours away from the Hampton Roads area too... Sadly no train service as I'm in Eastern NC
I don't really care about the monetization, but if there is a way to turn targeted ads off and have it just be genera ads, that would be great! Good video as always!
I don't know if u remember me lol😂we spoke a while ago I was going from Philadelphia to npn u was filming and I was taking pics. I got of in DC for McDonald's and I switched cars I didn't know u was still on. Come out with me Friday my train leaves Philadelphia in the morning to Charlottesville va
Nice trip report. It was good to see that there was local bus service near the station. The ship museum was a nice tip if you wanted to do a day trip like you did. The return bus stop is rather inconvenient and not safe to have to cross that divided highway to access the station. Too bad there was no food stores open in Washington DC station. I guess they feel there are too few people using the station that late in the day. But since Amtrak has such limited food service on the train a good fast food or sandwich/snack store should do reasonably well in the station. I have never ridden this line but my sister who was in the Coast Gard did ride this train to get to here base in Yorktown.
@@GintaPPE1000 All the sources I keep seeing say May or June. Do you have a link where it says Fall? I live here in NN and am chomping at the bit to take the train from the new station!
So, any chance we'll get another Newport News trip since the new station opened? Also, any chance you might make a video about any tips/hacks to get Amtrak Guest Rewards Select status?
I'm wondering where you were staying at. While the business district (K Street, Farragut Square, etc.) can close down early, other parts of the town have decent late night eats. Dupont Circle area, Adams Morgan, U St. Corridor, Chinatown are all good places to check out. (Source: lived in the DC area most of my adult life. (Live in NN now though!))
@CableFlame we stayed in a neighborhood called carver Langston our lyft driver said 30 years ago we couldn't even walk through that neighborhood safely, it was nice though and pretty close to all the tourist stuff
I've been in this area twice: last time was in 2015 when I did a trip to Williamsburg & Norfolk. From Philly I did Megabus to Hampton, VA, then was able to take local transit buses to Williamsburg. On the last day I went from Williamsburg to Norfolk (with a goal of getting to Virginia Beach but it was raining so i decided to spend that last day in Norfolk instead) via transit buses. Very handy that one can travel that distance on just local transit. I enjoyed `The Tide´ light rail train Norfolk had but felt it would be more useful if it was a fully built out system that went to more places. Was this more of a proof of concept or beta?
The Tide story is sad. VA Beach didn’t want ”those people” from Norfolk cluttering up their waterfront. Sooo…Tide runs between two hospitals and no farther.😢
@@raymondmuench3266 'Those people'? Do you mean poor people who can't afford a car (without realising the point of transit is to allow a life without requiring a car)?
@@IvyANguyen Yup, that's pretty much what the VA Beach NIMBYs meant by "those people." It's a VERY conservative "city." (read: glorified suburb with some of the worst sprawl I've ever seen.) I think the person talking about it is actually on your side, simply stating what the naysayers said.
I need to prep for that and figure out what day would be best! The biggest thing is figuring out how many power packs I'll need to buy to livestream the whole ride.
