By Phil Kabler for the Charleston Gazette-Mail
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Despite innumerable delays, organizers of a fall excursion train to replace the now-defunct New River Train insist that the train will run this October, with announcements pending shortly.
“We’re in a really weird spot right now. There’s nothing we can say publicly, except that the train is happening,” Lou Capwell, with Rail Excursion Management Co. (Railexco), said Monday.
That comes nearly seven weeks after Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., first stated in a tweet that an announcement would be “coming soon” on the resumption of fall excursion trains between Huntington and Hinton.
In February, the Collis P. Huntington Railroad Historical Society, which had operated the New River Train along that route for 52 years, announced the train would not run in 2019, blaming higher costs and more restrictive policies for operation of private cars and excursion trains imposed by Amtrak, the national passenger rail service, effective in 2018. …
