Amtrak has helped Culpeper economy
One day before a tragic accident involving an Amtrak passenger train claimed the life of a 19-year-old Culpeper teen, Amtrak and town officials sang the praises of the company’s involvement with the town.
"They have done a terrific job here, it's a beautiful facility," said Joe McHugh, Vice President of Goverment Affairs and Corporate Communications for Amtrak.
McHugh was meeting with Sen. Tim Kaine and town officials Wednesday, talking about how the federal government can help Amtrak and how success stories like Culpeper are more frequent.
In 2008, the Amtrak ridership in Culpeper was at 5,000 and last year reached 12,000 passengers.
McHugh said that Amtrak has had nine years of record breaking ridership and featured more than a million and a half passengers in Virginia.
"The heart and sole is in these communities," McHugh said.
McHugh said Amtrak bought $100 million in goods and services from Va. businesses last year.
"We think it's a good return on the investment, and we're very proud to be in Culpeper," McHugh said.
"Talk to me what Amtrak has meant to the town," Kaine asked.
Culpeper director of tourism Lori Sorrentino said that Culpeper has benefited from having an Amtrak station.
"From a tourism standpoint, we really try to capitalize on having this here and drawing visitors down," Sorrentino said.
Sorrentino said that Culpeper has been running ads in Amtrak’s travel magazine in an attempt to have tourists from throughout the East Coast stop by.
"We've been trying to draw them here," Sorrentino said. "It's been a little challenging with the infrastructure because we don't have an ongoing taxi service. Thankfully everything is within walking distance of downtown."
Part of the attraction for Culpeper is that the station doesn’t look like the usual metro station.
"People walk into our train station and ask 'where is the train station?'" Sorrentino said. "Because I just think it doesn't compute that it's this quaint and this small town. There's not a giant platform. We're very fortunate, that sets us apart."
The Depot dates to 1904, and is the second depot built after the Civil War.
Sorrentino explained to Kaine about how the town recently voted to move the Museum of Culpeper History to the Depot to help increase its visitor numbers.
"We think it's going to be a really great fit in terms of visitation to the museum," Sorrentino said.
On Thursday, just one day removed from the meeting, Elijiah Rivera was struck by the Amtrak passenger train the Crescent and was killed. Culpeper police are still investigating the incident.
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