Both Maryland and Virginia’s commuter train services are planning special schedules for Inauguration Day to help shuttle what are expected to be record-breaking crowds into the District for the swearing in of President-elect Barack Obama.
This comes even as MARC trimmed its holiday schedules this fall, and Virginia Railway Express initially hadn’t planned on running trains on Inauguration Day at all.
“It was not on our original calendar,” VRE Deputy Chief Operating Officer Jennifer Straub told The Examiner. “But we are working on it.”
The last time VRE operated on an Inauguration Day, she said, trains carried only 5 percent of their typical ridership. Offering the service from Fredericksburg and Manassas this time around seemed cost-prohibitive, Straub said.
But then the wide interest in Obama’s election made them reconsider. Some estimates for inauguration crowds have reached as high as 5 million, though federal officials expect closer to 1 million people will descend on the city.
MARC, meanwhile, trimmed its holiday operations and other services this fall in an effort to save $25 million amid shrinking tax revenue shortages. It canceled train service on Veterans Day, plus the Fridays after Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Yet the Maryland Transportation Authority that oversees MARC plans to offer a special schedule on Inauguration Day, said authority spokeswoman Cheron Victoria Wicker. For President Bush’s second inauguration in 2005, MARC trains ran on a regular schedule.
Neither service has worked out the details on when the trains will run Jan. 20.
Metro already is viewing the train services as a way to help alleviate pressure on its rails, Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said. Last week, Metro officials said they are preparing to double ridership records with as many as 1.6 million trips taken on Inauguration Day alone. VRE typically has a weekday ridership of 16,000, while MARC averages 34,000.
