Travel Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Amtrak’s Eastern Panhandle Service Changing Name, Destination

Amtrak is combining the Capitol Limited and Silver Star trains temporarily to accommodate a tunnel reconstruction project in New York.

Starting Sunday, Nov. 10, Amtrak passengers in Cumberland, Maryland, Martinsburg and Harpers Ferry will board the Floridian instead of the Capitol Limited.

And instead of ending in Washington, D.C., the train will continue on to Miami.

Amtrak is combining the Capitol Limited and Silver Star trains temporarily to accommodate a tunnel reconstruction project in New York.

The trains will continue to originate and terminate in Chicago.

They will be numbered 40 eastbound and 41 westbound. Functionally, not much will change. The trains will operate on a similar schedule at the same stops.

Passengers will, however, be able to get a one-seat ride to Florida.

Travelers Reminded To Buckle Up During Holiday Travel

As the Memorial Day holiday approaches, state officials are advising travelers on state roads to keep safety in mind.

Around 600,000 vehicles are expected to travel on the West Virginia Turnpike Thursday through Monday.

The West Virginia Governor’s Highway Safety Program reminds drivers and passengers to buckle their seat belt during the Click It or Ticket high visibility enforcement campaign and every day of the year.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s national seat belt enforcement mobilization runs through June 4.

In 2021, 280 people lost their lives on West Virginia roads. Passenger vehicle fatalities totaled 184 people, with 74 of them confirmed as being unbuckled/unrestrained.

West Virginia’s seat belt use rate climbed to 92.5 percent in 2022, the highest use rate recorded in West Virginia.

At the current seat belt use rate, preliminary data shows unbuckled West Virginians are 18.21 times more likely to die in a crash than those who are properly restrained.

West Virginian Discusses Trip To Cuba On This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, earlier this year, a young West Virginian member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation traveled to Cuba on a humanitarian mission. Reporter Chris Schulz sat down with Jack Tensley to talk about his trip.

On this West Virginia Morning, since the 1960s, the U.S. embargo on Cuba has prevented American businesses from conducting trade with Cuban interests. Travel by U.S. citizens to the island has also been significantly limited.

Earlier this year, a young West Virginian member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation traveled to Cuba on a humanitarian mission. Reporter Chris Schulz sat down with Jack Tensley to talk about his trip.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Concord University and Shepherd University.

Caroline MacGregor is our assistant news director and produced this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

Adventure Travel Day At The Capitol Includes E-bikes

On Adventure Travel Day at the West Virginia Legislature, on and off road enthusiasts touted some mean machines on two wheels and four – and some, not so mean.

West Virginia adventure travel displays were not limited to inside the capitol rotunda. Outside the governor’s office, a row of high end road warrior vehicles formed a formidable, impromptu parking lot. A few came complete with attachable camping gear.

Inside, adventure travel outfits included a variety of Hatfield-McCoy and other ATV trail runs, rides and accessories. The New River Jet Boats drew interest, as did the Court Roads Jeep Club and the 132-mile Hellbender Motorsports roadway run.

McDowell County’s “Head of the Dragon” motorcycle and sports car ride was organized to help bring economic development to the coalfields.

And the veteran driven Mission 22 display offered a road or trail ride to any former or current serviceman or woman who wants to hit the hills.

But the wheels getting the most traction running through state legislation right now come with the smallest engine here, and it’s not even gas powered. We’re talking about electric bikes, or e-bikes.

Joseph Overbaugh is the chief operating officer of Fission Cycles just outside Parkersburg. He is also the author of House Bill 2062, which just passed the House and is now in the Senate. It’s meant to align state e-bike laws with federal laws. The measure allows the most popular e-bikes made to be ridden in all of West Virginia’s state parks.

Overbaugh said over the past five years, electric-bike popularity has skyrocketed.

“One of the main drivers was actually COVID-19,” Overbaugh said. “After the lockdown and everyone got stuck at home, people started to look for ways to get out and do outdoor activities and social distance. The e-bike market just exploded as an opportunity for people to get out to exercise and social distance.”

State parks representatives who were set up at Adventure Travel Day said they were all in favor of opening up the parks to e-bikes.

West Virginia Turnpike Travel Plazas To Be Updated

The West Virginia Parkways Authority will spend $152 million over the next three years to revamp the West Virginia Turnpike’s travel plazas.

In announcing the project on Friday, Parkways Authority Executive Director Jeff Miller said it was past time for the plazas to reflect the changes happening in the state.

“The West Virginia Turnpike in many ways serves as a goodwill ambassador for the state of West Virginia,” he said. “With the boom that West Virginia has experienced as a tourism destination as well as the volume of travel that we experience on an annual basis, the time is now to redevelop these sites.”

Gov. Jim Justice echoed Miller’s comments, emphasizing the number of travelers that interact with the travel plazas.

“3.3 million people, double the population of West Virginia, come through here every year,” he said. “They pull into places that Jeff said are antiquated, they should have been bulldozed years and years ago. We didn’t have the money to do it. If we want to show off and be the frogs that are proud of their own pond, we got to show us off.”

Justice also reminisced about travel plazas being a destination when he was a child, recalling the “Glass House” design of the 1950s.

The Beckley and Bluestone travel plazas will be rebuilt from the ground up starting in February 2023, and are expected to be completed by the end of 2024. The planned renovation of the Morton travel plaza is set for 2025.

Legislative Interim Meetings Go Back On The Road

The West Virginia Legislature’s Joint Committee on Government and Finance meeting schedule is set for the year. Two of the eight scheduled meetings are on the road.

House Communications Director Ann Ali says no bills are acted upon during the interim meetings. Ali said the joint committee of Senators and Delegates often hear presentations on issues and discuss how legislation is working, or not working. She said the interim process also provides a way for bills that die in regular session to be overhauled and come back stronger.

“The lawmakers can really pick some of those bills that they really liked or really wanted or really needed that maybe did not complete the legislative process,” Ali said. “They can look at what it needs and what they can do to make it a better product.”

This is the committee that controls the purse strings for the full legislature, so its membership includes the Senate President and Speaker of the House.

This is the first year since 2013 the legislature has taken interim meetings on the road. The schedule includes meetings at the Capitol on April 24-26, June 12-14, July 24-26, September 11-13, December 5-6 and January 8-10, 2023. The two traveling meetings are set for May 22-24 at WVU/Morgantown and November 13-15 at Cacapon State Park/Berkeley Springs.