The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) under Collis Potter Huntington completed the Peninsula Extension to the small town of Newport News in 1881.

This allowed the C&O to transport West Virginia coal to Hampton Roads – the largest warm-water port on the East Coast – and directly compete with the Norfolk and Western Railway.

[3] The new station was constructed on a concrete base 1 foot (0.30 m) above the 1933 Chesapeake–Potomac hurricane flood level, and its pilings were driven 90 feet (27 m) underground to prevent settling.

The company shifted that terminus, by then being for the George Washington and other passenger trains, to Newport News station.

[2] Ferry service had been replaced by buses through the Hampton Roads Bridge–Tunnel upon its 1957 opening, making the waterfront location less desirable for a train station.

[12] A third Northeast Regional weekday round trip is planned, as of 2020, under a major spending initiative by the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation.