Virginia Railway Express soon will offer an express train in the mornings to rush commuters to work and help alleviate crowding on other trains, but it will be a shorter train than planned after thousands of riders sounded off.
Starting in mid-July, the train will carry commuters from Fredericksburg to D.C.’s Union Station weekday mornings 20 minutes quicker than the regular trains.
“That puts the trip definitively faster than a car,” said VRE spokesman Mark Roeber.
The idea for an express train has been talked about for some four years, Roeber said. The existing trains on the commuter rail service, which connects Fredericksburg and Manassas with the District, were getting increasingly crowded with standing room only in some rail cars. Meanwhile, Roeber said, the agency was given an additional scheduling slot from CSX, the freight company that owns the tracks.
VRE Chairman Paul Milde, a Stafford County supervisor, called the express train the “next obvious step in our growth.”
Initially, the agency hoped to run a six-car express train, but that would have forced it or as many as four trains a day to terminate at L’Enfant Plaza instead of Union Station. The agency had enough storage space only for four new rail cars, not six, at the Union hub.
But riders spoke out. They completed more than 2,700 online surveys, 68 attended public hearings and nearly 500 submitted written comments, according to the agency. Of those, 45 percent voiced concern about the trains terminating at L’Enfant station.
» What: VRE will run a new express train each morning from Fredericksburg to Union Station, with additional stops at Leeland, Brooke, Woodbridge, Alexandria, Crystal City, L’Enfant.
» When: The train will leave Fredericksburg at 5:05 a.m., starting on July 19.
» How: The new train will cost an estimated $386,000.
» Why: The train will save riders about 20 minutes, said VRE spokesman Mark Roeber, and help relieve some crowding on other trains that now have only standing room available.
“Ending trains at L’Enfant is a terrible solution from my point of view,” one rider said. “It means fewer trains that I can take to get to and from work.”
So the agency modified the proposal to add the express train but keep it short enough that it wouldn’t cause a domino effect for additional storage.
“It should provide us with additional capacity without interfering with other commuters,” said VRE Vice Chairwoman Sharon Bulova, who is chairwoman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.
The agency expects the new train to cost about $386,000, which it says will be covered by riders’ fares if it can attract 200 new riders.
