A few weeks ago (10/24/08) I took my first-ever ride on VRE, riding from Union Station to Manassas, so I could check out VRE for the first time, development along the Manassas Line, and the downtown part of Manassas for a few hours. (The bi-level coaches on VRE, or at least the one I was in, was quite odd IMO; the upper level where I sat was set up much different than the bi-level coaches MARC operates on its system. Like many of the VRE bi-levels, it also had a single center-car entrance, not two end-car entrances.) One thing that struck me was once you get past the Metrorail-served portion of the Manassas Line (i.e. west of Alexandria) is how the line runs through what were once rural areas and the stations are essentially park-and-ride facilities seemingly in the middle of nowhere (though that's not actually the case, at least from looking at a map). Besides Manassas itself and perhaps Manassas Park, the line didn't pass through any true towns except the small town of Clifton, located in far southwestern Fairfax County. Considering the seemingly haphazard locations of most of the stations, I was particularly surprised that there wasn't a station in Clifton. My questions are, A) should there be a station there and B) why didn't VRE put a station there in the first place? If there was a station there, it obviously could serve that small community, but probably could only have a small park-and-ride lot, to not destroy the nature of the town. I wonder if Clifton actually fought against having a station there and/or if the residents/town leaders are fighting to have a station built there now.
2009 Phillies/Yankees World Series - aka the Acela Series