Finally, the location should contribute to RVA’s efforts for economic development, with a particular focus on recruiting and retaining young professionals to live and work in our area. A two-station determination will undermine the ability of the city and region to benefit economically from the critical mass provided by a single station.

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Currently, there are more than 400,000 passengers annually who use the Main Street and Staples Mill stations, with about 85 percent using Staples Mill. There are four trains a day, to and from Newport News that stop at Main Street Station, using the so called “S line.” All the rest of the trains, using the “A line,” bypass the city of Richmond, much like I-295 does, and stop at Staples Mill, where a total of 18 trains, largely from south of Richmond, stop.

Of the four possible single-station options under consideration, the Broad Street location is the current Science Museum and would be very difficult to re-engineer as a train station. It would also force the relocation of an attraction that has 350,000 visitors a year.