Huntington, WV (HUN)

Ticket Revenue

FY 2011

$620,568

Station Ridership

FY 2011

11,721

Note: Fiscal year is from
October through September.

The modern brick, flat-roofed Huntington station was built in 1983, with a waiting room and ticket office. Amtrak recently updated its signage at this station, which is also a base for train crews.

Huntington began as a railroad town and absorbed other surrounding settlements as it grew. Guyandotte, which dated back to the late 18th century, and which is now part of Huntington, was the county seat for Cabell County from 1809 to 1813. The village of Barboursville, a mile or so to the east, at the junction of the Mud and Guyandotte Rivers, was founded in 1813 and became the county seat until 1888, when it was moved to the new city of Huntington. Throughout this early period, this location on the Ohio River was a natural resting point for settlers moving westward toward Lexington from Virginia.

However, it was Halderby’s Landing on the Ohio River where Collis P. Huntington, President of the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Railway (now CSX), chose to put the westernmost terminal of the C&O in 1869. And, in 1871, the city of Huntington was thus incorporated. In 1873, the first C&O locomotive steamed into Huntington, completing a connection from the Atlantic Seaboard to the Ohio River which served to turn Huntington into a bustling city. The C&O remained the city’s largest employer for the next century, with its large rail yards. Much of the city’s fine architecture dates from this period of railroad dominance.

Just prior to the American Civil War, while most of the county and the state wanted to remain part of the Union, the town of Guyandotte voted to secede along with the rest of Virginia. At the Battle of Barboursville in 1861, the Union forces prevailed, returning later to burn Guyandotte to the ground as punishment for harboring secessionists.

While the burning of Guyandotte, the area’s population center, struck a blow to the region, after the coming of the C&O it recovered completely and Huntington grew into an industrial hub. Rail car construction, steel production, and coal shipment were supplemented with glass-making, pigmentation production, and nickel production in the early 20th century.

In 1837 several of the wealthier families in Barboursville formed the Marshall Academy, named for Chief Justice John Marshall, a friend of one of the founders; it was incorporated by the state of Virginia in the next year. After the formation of the new state of West Virginia, the school became the Normal School of Marshall College to train teachers. In 1961, it gained the status of a university, and continues to play an important roll in Huntington life.

Once a coal town, Huntington’s fortunes have in some part mirrored that of energy prices in the 20th century. Today, the city is in the process of reinventing its economy, as are many other cities in the Ohio River Valley.

Amtrak provides both ticketing and help with baggage at the staffed Huntington station.

Huntington is served by tri-weekly train service.