Commuters who rely on Virginia Railway Express to reach their jobs had a one in five chance of their train arriving late last month even as the railway pushes for improved service.
The commuter trains were delayed 99 times in November, according to agency figures released Monday, up from 56 delays a year earlier.
The commuter rail’s leadership at least twice this year has called on the service to get at least 90 percent of its trains on time. But the system was on time less than 81 percent for November. The Fredericksburg line was even worse, with just 74 percent arriving on schedule.
“We want to do better than that,” the system’s deputy chief executive officer, Jennifer Straub, told The Examiner. “We don’t want there to be a delay.”
Straub said the system has improved overall but the commuter trains faced a confluence of problems last month that were out of its control, including orders to slow the trains amid an unusual number of rail inspections. Each delay caused additional ripples to all subsequent trains.
“Probably it was just bad luck that these happened last month,” she said.
For riders, the average delay of 16 minutes can mean long waits and missed connections. Steve Dunham, chairman of the nonprofit Virginia Association of Railway Patrons, commutes more than two hours each way from Spotsylvania County to his job as an editor in Arlington.
If the train is late, he misses the last bus that takes him home, adding to his already long commute.
Meanwhile, the transit agency raised fares 3 percent in July and plans to raise them again Jan. 5, this time 7 percent. It is the first time the agency raised fares in the middle of a fiscal year. Straub said the agency had to pay a large settlement and didn’t anticipate the summer’s high fuel prices.
“It was disappointing that we had to do it,” she said, “because we really take a lot of time and care to put forth a balanced budget.”
But later this week, she said, VRE officials plan to discuss whether to raise fares another 6 percent in July.
Dunham said the fare increases are outpacing many riders’ pay raises. “We sympathize, but there really is need for a long-term stable funding source in Virginia,” he said.
Still, riders continue to take VRE, reflecting a broader interest in mass transit as the economy sours. Ridership rose 9.2 percent since the same month last year, with an average of 15,769 passengers each day.
