W.VA: New River Gorge NPP Volunteers are riding the rails on Amtrak's Cardinal

Volunteers with New River Gorge National Park and Preserve (NRGNPP) have been Riding on that New River Train (see classic song by Doc Watson) since early October, keeping the rails hot between Montgomery and Hinton talking with Amtrak passengers from across the United States, many of whom aren't even aware they're about to visit the nation's newest national park.

Jacki Wright is one of those volunteers and says she's having a great time.

"Interacting with the visitors is interesting and fun. You never know who is on the train. Plus, it is fun to see the New River Gorge from the train. There are views you will never see from the road."

Wright is one of 11 other volunteers recently 'initiated' into the program, making her and the others not just a volunteer with NRGNPP, but also with the nationwide Trails&Rails program, a partnership between the National Park Service and Amtrak that started over 25 years ago. The program is mostly volunteer driven and is active in 11 other national park areas throughout the U.S. To become part of the program, Wright and others had to also complete two short online classes on Interpretation and Railroad Safety, learn information about the park, especially park features visible outside the train windows, and ride the train to watch a more experienced volunteer.

NRGNPP Trails&Rails Volunteers hail from as far away as Huntington and Fairmont to as close as Oak Hill and surrounding areas. Some start their day at Glen Jean and get shuttled to Montgomery where they board the Amtrak Cardinal, then ride the roughly two hours to Hinton where they disembark and are taken back to Glen Jean. Others, most of whom are also associated with the Collis P. Huntington Railroad Historical Society, board in Huntington or Charleston and ride to White Sulphur Springs or Clifton Forge, Va., then back to Huntington. It makes for a longer day, six to eight hours with a layover in either White Sulphur Springs, home of the famous Greenbrier Hotel, or Clifton Forge, but doesn't require a shuttle.

Either way works for the NRGNPP Volunteer Coordinator Adrienne Jenkins, in charge of the program and other volunteer activities in the park. Jenkins secured a year-long Community Volunteer Ambassador position, native West Virginian Emma Hicks, through Conservation Legacy, to assist with the creation and implementation of the program.

"Emma has been working to establish this program and accomplished it in a little under 10 months," said Jenkins. "Thanks to Emma's hard work and dedication, we have a fully functional, new volunteer program to offer visitors yet another opportunity to learn about and immerse themselves in the park."

This isn't the first time staff associated with the park have ridden the train to meet visitors. NPS staff started riding the train back in the mid-80s and rode from Huntington to White Sulphur Springs and back. Later they also rode New River Exhibition Train that ran in October from Huntington to Hinton and back.

Railroads have a long history with the National Park Service as many of the earliest park visitors who traveled out West to parks like Yellowstone and Glacier National parks, made that trip by rail. Today, the partnership between Amtrak and the National Park Service is a descendent of that tradition.

And volunteers with New River can now say they're also a part of that tradition.

"It is fun riding the train with visitors who normally might have never visited our park," said Wright, "but are truly excited to see the New River Gorge area."

Thanks to Jacki and others like her, some of those unsuspecting park visitors might just be coming back.

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