You are correct; the traffic is NOT daily commuter traffic. But it IS heavy. There is an existing, new Amtrak train extension from Lynchburg to DC which greatly exceeded ridership projections. But it leaves prepostrously early in the morning from Lynchburg.
Roanoke is TWICE the size of Harrisburg. Blacksburg is also the size of Harrisburg, and would provide transportation between Virginia Tech and Liberty on one side, and the DC metro area from which so many of their students come from, on the other. Bristol would connect the DC area to the Eastern Tennessee area, where Eastern Tennessee is where almost 2 million people live.
Didn’t that train recently get extended to Roanoke?