Santa to skip annual charity train ride again this year

Not even Santa Claus plans to ride Virginia Railway Express this year.

Again this year, the jolly old elf won’t return for what was an annual, sell-out event, “Santa Trains.” Last held in December 2019, and every year before, the event invited children and parents to ride the rails with Santa on the commuter railroad’s Fredericksburg and Manassas lines.

In years past, Santa Train riders would flood VRE’s website to snag free tickets for the trains. Riders routinely claimed all of the vouchers within minutes. 

Santa would also collect toy donations for less-fortunate children during the event, distributed by the Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots program.

The commuter railroad states Santa will return to the rails next year in an announcement posted on the VRE website. Riders should bring an unwrapped toy with them during their ride to work on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, December 7, 8, and 9, it adds.

VRE will not be running Santa Trains this year but expect it to return in 2022. We will continue to support the Marines and their drive to donate toys throughout the Virginia region. We ask that you bring an unwrapped toy during your morning commute on Tuesday, December 7th or Wednesday, December 8th or Thursday, December 9th and leave them on your seat. Once again, VRE will not be collecting cash donations, but you can send your monetary donations to toysfortots.org/donate/Default.aspx.

The commuter railroad seems to have run out of steam when it comes to average daily ridership numbers. Once averaging nearly 20,000 daily riders before the pandemic, today, VRE averages about 3,000 daily trips, according to the latest October ridership report.

The most utilized train on the Fredericksburg line is about 20 percent full of passengers. On the Manassas line, it’s about 15 percent filled.

The nearly-empty rail cars come when Virginia is investing nearly $4 billion into its passenger railroad system. A new Long Bridge will be built across the Potomac River, connecting Arlington and Washington, D.C., and alleviating when railroad engineers say is the worst train bottleneck on the east coast, leading to significant delays.

The expansion will also lead to the doubling of Amtrak service between Richmond and Washington, D.C., and will eventually open the door to late-night and weekend train service on VRE, announced Gov. Ralph Northam two years ago.