Announcing OTOL Blue Ridge Roanoke Excursion (BRRE) 2021
Saturday & Sunday, July 10-11, 2021
OTOL Blue Ridge Roanoke Excursion 2021 (BRRE) will be a 2-day round trip between Northeastern cities and Roanoke, VA on Amtrak's Northeast Regional service. The goal is to visit Roanoke and view the Blue Ridge Mountains. For many, the segment between Lynchburg and Roanoke will be new trackage for them.
This trip will be our group's first travel together since the COVID-19 pandemic struck. As such, this trip will start out small and simple for us, and also take into consideration that some may not yet be comfortable in restaurants together. Furthermore, much rail transit and commuter rail may not yet be back to full frequency, so we will save those longer trips to places that have transit and commuter for a later time. Many have not yet travelled on this particular Amtrak route since its start in November of 2017.
The federal mandate for masking on public transportation due to the pandemic will still be in effect, so you can plan these trips for what is most comfortable for you. Assuming our Northeast Regional trains remain on time, travel between Washington, DC and Roanoke in either direction should be about 5 hours. Travel to or from points north of there will mean a longer time you are required to wear a mask.
This trip will require one night stay at a hotel. Downtown Roanoke within walking distance of the train station only has two hotels. One is a Hampton Inn by Hilton at 27 Church Avenue SE, about 4 blocks to the south on the same side of the tracks as the station platform. The Hotel Roanoke, which is a Curio by Hilton property, requires walking over the nearby Market Street pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks, which brings one to the hotel grounds north of the tracks at 110 Shenandoah Avenue NE. There are many other hotels located a few miles out of town, mostly near the city's airport. The availability of hotel shuttles may be limited by the pandemic, so you would need to rely on a taxi or hired car service. Keep in mind that we're only going to be in town for 11+ hours (arrival after 9:30 PM, departure 8:55 AM) so there would be less worry (and more sleep) being closer to the station. For a list of hotels in the area, see my Roanoke Rails To Rooms page here.
Our itinerary for this journey will include only two trip segments on Amtrak trains. We'll officially all be together for the two 5-hour trips between Washington and Roanoke in either direction as some may be making connections in Washington to #147 or from #156. Others will travel to or from points north of Washington. The itinerary can be adjusted once everyone's origin and destination points are known.
A participant list has also been created, and hopefully your name can be added soon. Simply let me know by e-mail that you will be coming. By nature of this 2-day trip, it's unlikely anyone will participate in only one of the two days of travel.
For those who have not travelled in a while on Amtrak Northeast Regional trains, Business Class is the last car of the train. Seats are now assigned when booking online or via the Amtrak app. From past Fests it is known that most of us prefer Business Class and window seating. We could therefore choose seats in a certain range of rows in order to sit closer together. Since May 23, 2021, Amtrak has resumed selling 100% capacity, so we could get seatmates not part of our group sitting in the aisle seats. When reserving online or by app, the system will arbitrarily assign you a seat, usually working from the front of the train to the back. You can then change your reservation to a chosen seat. Coach Class is still open seating, and it is available throughout the rest of the train, with the Quiet Car being the one just in front of Business. We will discuss the details of our two Amtrak trips here.
As for seeing the mountain range that is the namesake of this journey, you will not see them at all on the Saturday trip, due to the late evening travel. While these are among the longest daylight days of the year, on the Saturday #147 trip it will get dark beyond Lynchburg for the segment of travel new to many of us. However on Sunday morning our travel on #156 will be totally in daylight so you can enjoy the mountain scenery then.
A homepage is also being developed to bring all these links together. However, please keep watching this board and related threads as we get closer to the event to get any updates. Hope to see you aboard the Northeast Regional trains in July!