By the time of its 1852 incorporation, the town of Big Lick was already established as a transportation hub for western Virginia, thanks to its position on the Great Wagon Road and the Wilderness Trail.

The Virginia and Tennessee became part of the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad in 1870, which itself emerged from bankruptcy and was renamed as the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W) in 1882.

The Shenandoah Valley Railroad was completed to the town (newly renamed Roanoke) from Hagerstown, Maryland, in 1882, and acquired by the N&W in 1890.

[9] Through sleepers were then still operated on the N&W's #1/#2 Shenandoah Valley train between Roanoke and New York (via Hagerstown and Harrisburg) on the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and the N&W.

The N&W also operated the north-south Birmingham-Washington Birmingham Special (unnamed after February 1970 and cut back to Bristol in August 1970) and the Pelican (discontinued, 1970) until April 30, 1971.

From 1996 to 2007, six studies examined the proposed Transdominion Express project, which would have created two intercity rail routes from Bristol to Richmond and Washington, both via Roanoke.

The last of these predicted poor ridership and low farebox recovery, and the state government abandoned the idea.

One daily Northeast Regional round trip was extended to Lynchburg in October 2009, supplementing the Crescent service.