VRE Chairman on newfound riders: ‘I hope they stay’

Ridership on Virginia’s only commuter rail service, Virginia Railway Express, is up thanks to the work to rebuild Washington’s Metro system. 

From Virginia Railway Express (VRE): 

During a time of year when ridership typically drops due to summer vacations and flexible schedules, the Virginia Railway Express (VRE) is instead carrying more passengers than ever before. Last Tuesday, July 12, VRE experienced its highest single-day ridership with 23,309 individual trips.

The uptick in single-day trips continued through the week, as the following day, (Wednesday, July 13) saw 21,935 trips, which is the system’s second highest single-day total and Thursday (July 14) boasted the third highest single- day ridership at 21,196 trips. Another record was shattered in regards to weekly ridership, as VRE topped 100,000 trips last week, the first time VRE has hit that number.

This ridership surge can be linked to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) SafeTrack program. Beginning July 5, WMATA’s SafeTrack Surges #3 and #4 closed sections of Metrorail’s Blue and Yellow lines in Northern Virginia. Those Metrorail lines generally parallel VRE’s rail lines and serve many of the same destinations, allowing Metro riders to easily transition to VRE.

The recent boom in ridership comes at a time when the 24-year-old commuter rail service is looking ahead to 2040, with plans to more than double it’s current daily average ridership from 19,000 to 40,000, add service to Haymarket and Gainesville, and create a midday reverse transit service between Alexandria and Manassas. 

VRE Board Chairman Gary Skinner, of Spotsylvania, said commuters who were used to riding Metro and now switched to VRE had uncovered a best-kept secret. 

“Because of the shutdown of Metro in certain areas, people have found that it is just as easy to get to Union Station and other places in D.C … they’ve liked it, and we’ve seen ridership increase, ” said Skinner. “I hope [the newfound riders] stay, think they’ll find riding VRE is a little more comfortable, VRE is a nicer ride, so I do hope they stay.”  

VRE was already crowded on its weekday trips to and from Fredericksburg and Washington, and Manassas and Washington. The system was able to add additional rail cars to ease the crowding. 

“We don’t use every rail car we have in our rolling stock every day, so we’re able to add cars where we need them,” said Skinner.