NER: Amtrak’s Station has been EXPOSED...

[00:00:00]Welcome to Richmond Main Street Station.

[00:00:02]This beautiful structure was built in 1901 and was designated a national historic landmark in 1976 due to the fact that it has one of the last surviving train sheds of its type in the nation. The station has been through a lot over the years, including Hurricane Agnes in 1972, which caused the James River to flood the station. The damage was so bad that Amtrak decided to pack up their bags and leave in 1975, moving to a suburban station in Henriko County.

[00:00:29]After that, the station would suffer two fires, one actually happening the year it was designated a historical landmark.

[00:00:36]The station wouldn't reopen for Amtrak service until December 18th, 2003, following extensive renovations. The second mainline track to Newport News that initially served the train shed was removed, allowing for a low-level platform to be built on top of it.

[00:00:51]Underneath the train shed where the tracks used to be is now used to host events. And yeah, it's a low-level platform, but there's not really much they can do without replacing the Vioideuct. So, let's talk about the Vioideuct because the Vioideuct has been in the news lately, and not for good reasons. A 200 car CSX train derailed just south of the station on the vioideuct with a couple of the cars that were carrying corn falling into the James River. This obviously required a massive multi-day cleanup and for the entire vioideuct to be shut down. I mean, this could have been way worse. It could have been a coal train or chemicals, which I I don't think I have to describe to you how bad that would actually be. So, this vioideuct should get replaced, especially if we want more frequent service to Newport News.

[00:01:34]Speaking of additional services, the Seabard airline via that's heading across the James River needs to be replaced as well because there are plans to run the Southeast Highspeed rail corridor to Charlotte through this station, diverting every existing Amtrak train except for the auto train through Richmond Main Street and by adding additional Northeast Regional trains that will terminate at this station.

[00:01:56]This would mean hourly Amtrak service for downtown Richmond. So, let's talk about the track improvements south of Richmond Main Street towards Petersburg that would make this possible. Richmond Main Street is the northernmost part of the S-line. The S-line merges with the A-line at Centriia, then diverts away from the A-line south of Petersburg to become the new southeast higher speed rail corridor. All Amtrak services except for the auto train will be shifted away from the A-line to the S-line between Centriia and Richmond.

[00:02:24]Unfortunately, majority of this ride ofway is single tracked. So, there are plans to double track it all the way to the James River with a new single track bridge over the James River next to the existing one. The single track bridge will have space for a second track if required for future capacity. Luckily, there's space for two tracks underneath the Chesapeake and Ohio bridge, which means only the Seabard Airline track needs to be modified at the historic triple railroad crossing. This will allow for the west side of Main Street Station to be double tracked with two low-level side platforms. Both platforms on the west side will be 950 ft long and 15 ft wide with crew walkways that extend past the platforms for long-d distanceance services. The east side of the train shed will have two low-level side platforms that are 850 ft long and 15 ft wide. The platforms are shorter and there's no need for a crew walkway because long-distance services aren't stopping on this side with this side being solely for Northeast Regional Trains terminating in Richmond or going to and from Newport News. Northeast Regional trains terminating at Main Street Station will be serviced at a new layover facility at CSX's Fulton Yard.

[00:03:30]New elevators and stairs will be built for passengers boarding trains on the outside platforms. For the inside platforms, passengers will use the historic train shed. Speaking of history, the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transport's plan to add a third track to the west side of the station was denied by the city of Richmond, but this modification was denied for good reason. Welcome to the truth about the Northeast Regional, episode number five. Episode 4 will be linked in the description and 500 likes for episode 6. Just north of the station, there's an open green field. In 2008, thanks to local nonprofits, the city was made aware that this location was uh labeled as a burial ground for the Negroes by the city in 1809.

[00:04:14]Basically, this was the only location that free and enslaved Africans could be buried in the city of Richmond for about a decade in the 19th century with some enslaved Africans being murdered and buried on site. The state actually took a look at the site and confirmed that yes, the burial ground was not only located on that site, but it actually extended all the way under I95. As a part of this effort, a plot next to the main street station would be excavated by archaeologists as well. This is the existing historic site shown on the environmental impact statement. A site known as Lumpkins Slave Jail, which hell. Thanks to my patrons. Your donations allow me to take a break away from this video for a week.

[00:05:00]I went outside with the guys. Um, made a cool announcement. Um, yeah. Uh, this this this has to be the worst video to come back to. The [clears throat] good news is the state purchased the green field, which at the time was a surface parking lot, and transferred the property to the city. In 2024, Virginia also installed a state highway historical marker for Richmond's first municipal African cemetery. Basically, an apology for killing a bunch of people, forcing them to be buried in a specific spot due to segregation, and then building an eight-lane highway over their dead bodies. Judging by a couple comments on my last martyr video, there's probably three trogodites crying asking why this information is important. Shut your >> Even if we try to take away the human trafficking genocide aspect of this area, the land is still a municipal cemetery. Getting anything built around a cemetery is difficult. This will become even more difficult once the site becomes a national memorial. Trying to build new platforms over this site once it becomes a national memorial will be like trying to build new platforms over the 9/11 memorial. The city is planning to complete the memorial by 2037, which means the new platform should get built before 2037, or else things will get complicated. Let's move away from the Devil's Halfacre, shall we? Coming out of Richmond Main Street, we slowly creep out of the Devil's Halfacre at 20 m an hour. This means it takes Amtrak 32 minutes to go from Richmond Main Street to Richmond Staples Mill. This is one of the reasons why trains going south of Richmond aren't rerided through Richmond Main Street now. It simply takes too long, 32 minutes to go eight miles. But thankfully, there are plans to fix that by building an additional track from Main Street Station to Aka Yard and building two tracks that bypass Aka Yard. Speeds will be increased from 20 mph to 40. Oh, this area is so weird, bro. It's just like it's it's so weird.

[00:06:59]So weird. I hate this video. So they built an interstate and a rail line over a municipal cemetery, not once but twice. Using the bones of enslaved people as fuel for roads and highways is it's psychotic. In 2013, the Virginia Department of Transportation investigated the grounds to clear a path for the proposed widening of Interstate 64. A few shallow test trenches beneath the interstate revealed that there was no remaining evidence of burials. A couple years later, researchers from the DC to Richmond highspeed rail project investigated the site in preparation for plans to widen the rail lines across the burial ground, and they determined that a portion of the hillside might contain intact burials. They formally recorded the burial ground with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources in 2018 as the graveyard for the free people of color and slaves. So, it's actually because of this Richmond to DC rail improvement project that the state decided to formally record this burial ground. Still, I find the level of rigor when doing an environmental impact statement for a rail project versus a road project pretty interesting. VOTE should probably take the environmental impact statements for road projects more seriously. Anyways, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources took a look at both of the projects and confirmed that there wouldn't be any adverse effect to the burial grounds, but there are restrictive limits for how much land can be disturbed when adding the extra track. Three tracks is the maximum amount that can be permitted through this area. I have no clue how, but there were also permitted to grade separate this area as well. The great separation includes realigning the Seventh Street intersection to the west of the existing location with the intersection being on an embankment with retaining walls and Hospital Street crossing over the tracks on a bridge.

[00:08:44]While the damage has already been dealt to this cemetery, I cannot ethically stand by the redevelopment of the cemetery in this manner, especially considering that there's an estimated 22,000 people buried underneath it, many of which were enslaved. This means that hundreds of thousands of people today can trace their ancestors back to under I64 and this rail line. Maybe even me.

[00:09:08]Damn. As always, if I earned your like and subscription, I love you. And if you made it this far in the video, thanks for watching.