Montgomery, WV (MNG)

The railroad runs through the center of this small community located on the Kanawha River. Platted in 1876, Montgomery was a busy shipping center for more than two dozen coal operations by the early 20th century.

Third Avenue and Washington Street
Montgomery, WV 25136

Annual Ticket Revenue (FY 2023): $15,963
Annual Station Ridership (FY 2023): 266

Ownerships
Routes Served
Contact
Local Community Links

Facility Ownership: CSX Transportation
Parking Lot Ownership: N/A
Platform Ownership: CSX Transportation / City of Montgomery
Track Ownership: CSX Transportation

Cardinal

Derrick James
Regional Contact
governmentaffairschi@amtrak.com
For information about Amtrak fares and schedules, please visit Amtrak.com or call 1-800-USA-RAIL (1-800-872-7245).

The railroad tracks run through the center of Montgomery, which sits on the south bank of the Kanawha River. In fall 2020, Amtrak completed a $1.8 million improvement project at the city’s rail station. The company installed a new concrete platform with tactile edging, access stairs and ramps that ensure the facility is accessible to all customers. New lighting along the platform provides better visibility and safety in the evening, and a resurfaced pedestrian crossing offers improved access to neighborhoods south of the tracks. The community once boasted a brick depot from the early 20th century, but it was torn down by the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O) in the 1970s.

Montgomery is situated on land acquired by Levi Morris, son of the first permanent European American settler in the Great Kanawha Valley, and is 27 miles southeast of Charleston, the state capital. The Coal Valley Company originally platted the town in 1876, changing its name from Montgomery’s Landing – after early settler James Montgomery – to Coal Valley. Until 1890, the C&O stop here was called Cannelton, which was actually the name of the post office across the Kanawha. The community was renamed Montgomery in 1891.

The town’s growth was influenced by the construction of the Kanawha & Michigan Railroad on the opposite side of the river, the erection of a new bridge across the river and the connection of the Virginian Railway with the C&O at Deep Water, a few miles to the southeast. By the early 1910s, Montgomery had become a shipping center for 26 coal operations, and was the largest town in Fayette County.

For more than a century, Montgomery was home to the West Virginia University Institute of Technology. Founded as Montgomery Preparatory School in 1895, it began offering engineering degrees in 1952 as a four-year college. It became part of West Virginia University in 1996, and a full division of that university in 2007, offering bachelor’s degrees in engineering, business, medical sciences and social studies. In 2017, the campus relocated south to Beckley, W. Va.

The New River Excursion trains, which have run since 1966 every fall at peak foliage-viewing season, stop at the Montgomery station to board passengers. This is the last stop by these chartered Amtrak trains before entering the New River Gorge and continuing to Hinton.