page_title: Union Station (Petersburg)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Union Station (Petersburg) / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Norfolk and Western GP9 locomotives #504 and #519 haul train #3, the Pocahantas, into Petersburg, Virginia in June 1970
context_page_description: Petersburg Union Station is a former train station in Petersburg, Virginia. It was built in 1909–1910 for the Norfolk and Western Railway, and was later used by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and Amtrak.
context_section_description: The Petersburg Railroad (opened 1833) and Richmond and Petersburg Railroad (opened 1838) ran north-south on a winding route through Petersburg. The two lines merged in 1898 and became part of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL) in 1900. The ACL used a station located at Washington Street and Union Street. The east-west Southside Railroad, predecessor of the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W), opened in the early 1850s. It used a still-extant station at River Street and Rock Street.
  The Seaboard Air Line Railroad (SAL) opened its own north-south line through Petersburg in 1900, crossing the Appomattox River on a high bridge. The SAL had a passenger station at Dunlop Street for through trains, and terminating passenger and freight stations at Market Street on a spur line. The SAL never used Union Station; the Dunlop Street station was replaced with a brick station near Bluefield Street in 1944.
  In 1909-10, the N&W constructed Union Station at the junction with the ACL near Third Street. It allowed riders to transfer between the  Norfolk–Cincinnati trains - the Cavalier, Pocahontas and Powhatan Arrow - and ACL Florida–New York trains. The ACL moved to a new station in Ettrick on a western bypass route in 1955, leaving only the N&W at Union Station.
  When Amtrak took over intercity passenger service on May 1, 1971, east-west service on the N&W was discontinued, while north-south service continued to use the Ettrick station. From 1975 to 1977, Amtrak operated the Norfolk-Cincinnati Mountaineer, with a stop at Union Station The Hilltopper, which replaced the Mountaineer and ran until 1979, used a station located slightly to the west at Fleet Street instead.
  Union Station is part of the Petersburg Old Town Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
caption: The Pocahantas at Petersburg in 1970
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