W.Va. Tourist Railroad Cancels Polar Express Trips

West Virginia tourist railroad Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Railroad has cancelled its Polar Express holiday trains for the second consecutive year.

D&GV president John Smith cited a surge of cases in the COVID-19 pandemic for the action.

“The Polar Express is very up close and personal with children and it would be a disaster to try and put 280 people on that train for an hour and a half with the coronavirus going out of control again,” he said. “We would be remiss if we were the cause of an increase of those getting infected, especially among young people.”

The Randolph County Commission said that in 2019 that since the Polar Express debut in 2011, it had attracted 80,000 visitors, including 16,000 in 2018.

Tags: Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Railroad, Polar Express trains, West Virginia tourist railroads