Richmond, VA Times-Dispatch, 9/24/15:
Tobacco panel gives Bristol grant for passenger rail study
The city of Bristol has received a $250,000 grant to study the feasibility of extending Amtrak service from Roanoke to other sites.
Story here. Good to see the pre-planning, but on the other side of the coin let's get to Roanoke!
Bristol, VA is about 150 miles past Roanoke, so assuming 79 mph speeds it would be under 2 hours after the Roanoke stop. Bristol is a twin city with Bristol, TN, which shares a border right down the middle of the main drag even though the two cities have separate governments. So by extension a city in Tennessee would also be served.