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  • College Student starts petition for VRE weekend service

  • Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.
Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.

Moderators: mtuandrew, therock, Robert Paniagua

 #1246244  by davinp
 
Maxime Devilliers, a senior at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg,
reported that 275,000 people live in the Spotsylvania/Stafford/Fredericksburg area. The
University of Mary Washington has 4,200 undergraduate students, 800 graduate students,
and 950 faculty and staff members. All these people would benefit from weekend VRE
service, as well as reverse flow service. The Chamber of Commerce would also benefit from
more tourists and visitors coming to Fredericksburg. Mr. Devilliers stated that many young
people and students are not aware of VRE. Although young, they are not free-loaders and
pay taxes every day, including sales tax, liquor tax, and transportation tax. He observed
that other metropolitan areas have weekend commuter rail service, including New York
City, Boston, and Paris, France. Mr. Devilliers stated that he has 450 signatures on a
petition in support of weekend VRE service. He stated that weekend service and reverse
flow service would truly enhance the quality of life for the residents of the Metropolitan
Washington region.

See pg. 6 of the January Board Meeting Minutes
http://www.vre.org/about/Ops_board_item ... -17-14.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 #1247707  by dt_rt40
 
LOL. With a name like that is he from France? Someone needs to explain to him the dark secret of how American Intercity Railroads work. There is precisely _one_ line in the country that works the way they do in his country: i.e., owned by the government and intended primarily for passenger transit. And the rest of them barely tolerating passenger traffic out of a rather nebulous fear over a tenuous legal standing that Amtrak has.
(I wonder what the biggest privately-owned railroad is in France. There must be a few miles of such track, feeding a mine or chemical plant or something)
 #1247877  by NH2060
 
Whatever one thinks of this you have to admire the initiative. It takes more and more calls like this for such a proposal to be given serious consideration.

Theoretically VRE could do weekend service if the demand was there and there was funding in place. And unless CSX tends to move more freight on Saturdays and Sundays I don't see why they would a problem with having a handful of round trips run every 2-3 hours or so.