This route was previously served by the Baltimore & Ohio's (B&O) train of the same name, and was the first of several services in the state of West Virginia established at the behest of US Representative Harley Orrin Staggers (D-West Virginia), the powerful chair of the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee.

This patronage earned the train the derisive sobriquets "Harley's Hornet" and the "Staggers Special".

[1] On its startup on May 1, 1971, Amtrak did not retain any of the three B&O intercity trains then operating west of Cumberland, Maryland.

[4] On February 7, 1972, Amtrak transferred one of its two UAC TurboTrain trainsets, then on the Turboservice between New York City and Boston, Massachusetts, to the Parkersburg run.

Amtrak's Capitol Limited, a Chicago-Washington service begun in 1981, operates over the Washington-Cumberland, Maryland portion of the line.