Virginia Railway Express is higher costs and fewer riders when it goes to approve its $191 million budget during its Operations Board meeting tomorrow, December 16, 2022.
Riders have been slow to return to the state's only commuter railway following the pandemic. The system averages 5,800 passengers per day, a far cry from the 20,000 per day it carried in January 2020.
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A Fredericksburg police spokeswoman said at 5:37 a.m., December 7, police received a call for a pedestrian struck on the train tracks in Prince Edward and Frederick streets, near the city’s train station. Patrol officers and detectives went to the scene and found a body.
At 8:12 am, the medical examiner arrived on the scene and began conducting their investigation. The Fredericksburg Police Department is working in conjunction with the CSX Police Department.
The medical examiner has approved trains to resume travel. However, VRE train traffic has been impacted due to this incident.
The pedestrian was Christian Kinsella, 21, of Fredericksburg.
The incident forced VRE to cancel all morning trains on December 9. The commuter railroad operated afternoon trains on a modified “S” schedule.
All rail traffic is stopped on the Fredericksburg line due to an incident involving a trespasser. We recommend that Fredericksburg Line passengers seek alternate transportation.
Note: Updates are not typically available for delays under 1 https://t.co/ApDYyDsOOv
— Virginia Railway Express (@VaRailExpress) December 7, 2022
A holiday tradition cherished by thousands of Northern Virginia families, the Virginia Railway Express (VRE) Santa Trains will return on Saturday, December 10, after a two-year hiatus.
A total of 13 trains will depart from five VRE stations: Spotsylvania, Fredericksburg, Woodbridge, Manassas, and Burke Centre. The 75-minute excursions begin as early as 8:30 a.m. and as late as 3:30 p.m. Santa, Mrs. Claus, and their elves will be onboard listening to children's Christmas wishes and handing out goodie bags.
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Today, the commuter railroad operations board met at the OmniRide transit center in Woodbridge for its monthly meeting and discussed the results of its November 2022 ridership survey. The questionnaire asks riders where they live and where they usually board the trains.
According to the data reported today, ridership in Fairfax County (1.2 million population) is down 3%, down 2% in Prince William County (465,000 people), and down by about 1.5% in Stafford County (157,000 population).
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Virginia Railway Express will continue to offer free fares for riders who board at stations from Springfield and Backlick Road, Arlington, and Washington, D.C., in zones one, two, and three, respectively.
The commuter railway operations board voted today to continue the free fares, an extension of the free fare program it provided riders last month on its Fredericksburg and Manassas lines.
The railroad will again charge the full fare for those who board at stations south of Springfield. In July, VRE decided it would let all riders take its trains free while Metro closes its Blue and Yellow lines south of Reagan National Airport for rehabilitation work.
VRE CEO Rich Dalton says Metro will reopen its Blue line south of the airport by November 10, while the Yellow line will remain closed until Spring 2023. Subsequently, the operations board voted to provide reduced fares to riders who board zones one, two, and three.
According to the railroad operations board-approved promotion schedule, riders will pay $5 for a one-way fare, $10 for a day pass, and $46 for a 10-trip pass.
Dalton said many riders asked for free or reduced fares to continue. “This proposal started after hearing from our riders on the ground,” said Dalton.
The operations board urged Dalton to encourage new riders to set up Smart Benefits accounts, which provide allots federal workers a transit subsidy to ride the VRE.
Before the pandemic, the number of passengers on VRE trains was more than 60% lower than in 2019. Last month, about 6,800 people per day took the train during fare-free September, down from a daily 20,000 average three years ago.
More riders returned to use the system’s Fredericksburg line than the Manassas line since the end of the pandemic. VRE says it doesn’t have solid data to explain why the rail line that parallels Interstate 95 is more popular than the one that runs next to I-66.
In December, 22 miles of E-ZPass Express Lanes will open on I-66, providing new bus, slugging, and carpool options in the corridor for the first time. VRE said the new tolled lanes, which carpoolers will use free, will compete for VRE riders.
Faced with raising fares and cutting expenses within the next year, some operations board members suggested cutting service from five days per week to carry riders on their busiest days.
“The cliff is out there, but we have time before we have to make rash decisions,” VRE Chief Financial Officer Mark Schofield responded.
Meanwhile, Dalton said 1,000 riders brought their bicycles onboard trains last month, up from 500 in May. The commuter railroad says it worked to improve bicycle access and add bike racks at stations, so riders could lock up bikes while commuting to and from work.
Two developers will breathe new life into Woodbridge with a new development containing nearly 1,000 new homes and retail shops.
The mixed-use Riverside Station will sit on 19 acres on Route 1, across from the Woodbridge VRE station. When complete, a series of condo buildings, street-level shops, a small park, and landscaped areas will replace Station Plaza, home to B-Thrifty and Astoria Pizza, and the old Cowles Ford dealership, which has sat empty for 30 years.
IDI, the developer that constructed Rivergate Apartments less than a mile away on the Occoquan River, partnered with Boosalis Properties, owner of Station Plaza, to build the new development. In phases, as many as 970 homes and 130,000-square-feet retail space will be built on the site.
Boosalis worked with many of the merchants at Station Plaza to help them relocate into the new development when it’s complete, said Sherman Patrick of Compton and Duling, P.C. represented the developers,
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors unanimously approved a land rezoning, clearing the way for the project on September 13, 2022. The project fits within a small area plan approved in 2019, guiding new urban development for the area in the county’s eastern portion.
“Woodbridge is one of the oldest areas in the county, and revitalization is the only thing you can do here,” said Woodbridge District Supervisor Margaret Franklin, who pushed for the development.
Riverside Station will be a transit-friendly development near VRE, Amtrak, OmniRide buses, and 1 mile from Interstate 95.
The developers plan to build a $4 million pedestrian bridge over Route 1 to connect the neighborhood with the train station. The bridge will cross Route 1, somewhere between Occoquan Road and Route 123. The Virginia Department of Transportation aims to build a new flyover at Routes 1 and 123, and the design of that project is holding up the location of the pedestrian bridge.
“People will gain the benefit of being able to cross Route 1 safely,” Patrick told the Board of County Supervisors.
VDOT abandoned older plans for a flyover on Route 1 and 123, which required exit ramps at Routes 1 and 123. The right-of-way the state purchased for the ramps will now be developed into a small park.
Developers will reserve 78 homes for affordable housing, said Patrick. A new elementary school will be built just south of the latest development on Route 1, next to Fred Lynn Middle School to help alleviate crowding at Belmont Elementary and other schools in the area.
Developers have been talking about revitalizing this plot of land since the late 1980s when Cowles Ford moved to an abandoned Hechinger’s store on Minneville Road near Prince William Parkway in Woodbridge.
More than 10 years ago, former Woodbridge District Supervisor Frank Principi held a design charrette, inviting residents to provide input on how to revitalize this area of Woodbridge. Information from those meetings was used to develop the small area plan.
Developers plan to adhere to the guidelines and develop Horner Road, which runs parallel to Route 1, as the community’s central boulevard. Eventually, Horner Road will stretch to the Occoquan River after crews demolish the Gordon Plaza shopping center on Route 123.
“I attended the charette, and it’s great to see, in all of that time, giving your educated opinion about development, and then seeing it come to fruition,” said Lydia Silverstrand, a Woodbridge Potomac Communities Civic Association member.
The Riverside Station development follows the rezoning for Jefferson Square, just south of Riverside Station on Route 1, where developers will build 240 new apartments. The new homes will replace a dilapidated shopping center that dates back more than 60 years.
The Prince William County Department of Transportation aims to build a seven-story, $53 million parking garage near Wegmans grocery store in Woodbridge.
The plan for the new structure dates back more than 10 years. Initially, planners said commuters would park at the garage during the day, while baseball fans would flock to it on nights at weekends to watch Minor League Baseball games at a newly-constructed stadium.
Fast-forward to now. The baseball team moved out of Prince William County, headed 30 miles south, and became the Fredericksburg Nationals. Then the pandemic hit, prompting more people to work from home.
To date, commuter lots in eastern Prince William County see a fraction of the cars that once parked in them.
The Horner Road Commuter Lot at Prince William Parkway and Interstate 95 is the state’s largest and is considered a possible site for a new Washington Commanders football stadium.
- Of the 2,300 available parking spaces, 710 are used, as just 30% of the Horner lot is used.
- At the Dumfries Commuter Lot at Routes 1 and 234, where drivers used to illegally park curbs and grassy areas to Slug or catch a bus to the office, only 35% of the lot’s 925 spaces are full.
At some lots with hundreds of spaces, 50 or fewer spaces are used. We’re citing recent data sent to us from the Virginia Department of Transportation, recorded last year.
Since then, there’s been a slow return to offices in the Washington area. OmniRide, a commuter bus service from Prince William and Stafford counties, says it’s busiest during the week but sees few passengers on Monday and Friday.
Virginia Railway Express can only fill 25% of its trains compared to 2019 pre-pandemic ridership numbers.
Meanwhile, The Prince William Board of County Supervisors will hold a Design Public Hearing for the seven-story parking tower at 2 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022, at the Prince William County Government Center, 1 County Complex Court in Woodbridge.
Residents will learn more about the plan to build 1,400 more commuter parking spaces at the projected cost of $38,000 per space. If built, the lot next to I-95 will likely become the central transit hub for eastern Prince William County, shifting the transfer point for OmniRide buses from its headquarters to the parking garage.
In addition, the county wants to build pedestrian improvements to and from the garage. Plans for the new garage are on the county’s website. Transurban, the I-95 E-ZPass lanes operators, will build a new access ramp from the lanes to Opitz Boulevard to provide better access to the parking tower.
In March, Prince William County leaders awarded The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company a design-build contract to build the garage. The construction cost has increased by about $16 million since planners envisioned the project in 2017.
The parking tower will replace commuter parking spaces used by commuters at Potomac Mills mall until 2011. The mall stopped allowing commuters to park and built several restaurants, like The Cheesecake Factory. The lot will also relieve capacity at commuter lots on Routes 1 and Route 234 and Prince William Parkway and Horner Road, near Interstate 95.
The state’s only commuter railroad warns of canceled trains on both lines, from Fredericksburg and Manassas to Washington, D.C. The lines are owned by freight railroads CSX and Norfolk Southern, respectively, and without train dispatchers monitoring the traffic on those lines, VRE trains cannot operate.
“Any labor strike would result in the immediate suspension of all Virginia Railway Express train service until a resolution is reached,” VRE penned notice to riders.
— Virginia Railway Express (@VaRailExpress) September 13, 2022
The commuter railroad carries about 5,000 passengers daily, down from the 20,000 daily riders it had in 2019. The potential service shutdown comes as VRE offers free rides on its trains this month to attract more passengers back to the service.
VRE aims to offer free fares in October, but they will be limited to travel between the six VRE stations most impacted by the closure of stations along Metro’sBlue Line.
Riders traveling from the Backlick Road on the Manassas Line, Franconia-Springfield on the Fredericksburg Line, and Alexandria, Crystal City, L’Enfant, and Union Station on both lines would ride free.
Suppose VRE shuts down Friday, OmiRide, which provides commuter bus service to Arlington and Washington. In that case, D.C. says it will have plenty of room for more passengers. “Friday is our lightest day for ridership, so we should have plenty of capacity if it ends up that we need to assist VRE,” said spokeswoman Alyssa Ludwiczak.
A railroad strike would significantly affect the economy, slowing food and fuel deliveries to area stores and gas stations. Freight railroad employees are griping about long working hours and rules that keep them on call on their days off.
