MARC/VRE Inauguration Day Service

A story in today's Fredericksburg paper says that VRE still has thousands of Inauguration Day tickets for sale:

http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/ ... 009/438349

A few weeks ago VRE was sternly saying that walk-in ticket purchases at VRE headquarters in Alexandria would be denied. Now VRE is taking walk-in sales.

Literalman wrote:A story in today's Fredericksburg paper says that VRE still has thousands of Inauguration Day tickets for sale:

http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/ ... 009/438349

A few weeks ago VRE was sternly saying that walk-in ticket purchases at VRE headquarters in Alexandria would be denied. Now VRE is taking walk-in sales.

Surprising that they still have so many left, especially when the state is being cut off from the North because of the closing of the Potomac bridges. MARC had more than three times as many tickets (30,000 compared to 8,000) and sold out a long time ago.

VRE tickets are selling fast
http://www.dcexaminer.com/local/011309- ... _fast.html

UPDATE: All Fredericksburg Line trains are sold out.
Some Manassas Line trains are still avilable.

All VRE Trains have sold out.

How are things Holding up down there? The WMATA seems to be jammed.

Kaback9 wrote:How are things Holding up down there? The WMATA seems to be jammed.

Union station is insane. They closed the station earlier and all passengers were forced to wait outside. I got there at 3:30 and didn't get in until 15 minutes ago. There were at least 15,000-20,000 people packed on 1st street (where I was) yelling at the incompetent Amtrak and MPD. will update...

VRE is running clean-up extras on both lines, according to the Washington Post:

VRE to Run Extra Trains
VRE said it will run an additional train on the Fredericksburg and Manassas Lines to accomodate patrons who missed their regular train.

The trains are scheduled to leave Union Station at 7:30 p.m. and make all stops except Crystal City.

VRE officials also said they served more than 18,000 riders today, a one-day record.

mkellerm wrote:VRE is running clean-up extras on both lines, according to the Washington Post:

VRE to Run Extra Trains
VRE said it will run an additional train on the Fredericksburg and Manassas Lines to accomodate patrons who missed their regular train.

The trains are scheduled to leave Union Station at 7:30 p.m. and make all stops except Crystal City.

VRE officials also said they served more than 18,000 riders today, a one-day record.

MARC needs to do the same, although there trains run well into the night, to make up for overcrowding due to the afternoon chaos.

why would you call Amtrak police incompetent they weren't not the ones calling the shots for the last couple of days. FBI and secret service was. Even as crew walking to our trains we were subjected to drama and i said to one of the cops that i knew whats up and he said it isn't us making this happen its the feds

r40slant wrote:why would you call Amtrak police incompetent they weren't not the ones calling the shots for the last couple of days. FBI and secret service was. Even as crew walking to our trains we were subjected to drama and i said to one of the cops that i knew whats up and he said it isn't us making this happen its the feds

I'm not saying the police force is incompetent overall, I'm just saying that the cops who were there at the time (half of whom were DC MPD) were totally disorganized, and if you were there you would probably say the same. Granted the first thing I heard, from a WMATA empoyee, was that the Secret Service closed the station and that even he didn't have access, so the SS were probably the source of the mess. To me the main problem seemed to be a lack of communication, especially when one cop says something then another one says something totally different. Also, considering words that others in the crowd were using "incompetent" is a kind word to describe whoever was responsible. Otherwise, on the contrary Amtrak Police, as well as MTA and WMATA police, strike me as very professional.

I was there i had to run the 2:00pm Acela to NYC and it was crazy, just more people then they could handle.

Here is a video of a lady singing on one of VRE's Inaugration trains
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26065026@N02/3216982264/

davinp wrote:Here is a video of a lady singing on one of VRE's Inaugration trains
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26065026@N02/3216982264/

Wow. You know, the MARC/CSX station manager at Germantown (who I know since I take the train there) asked me (jokingly) if we were gonna sing songs on the train, and I just laughed...

btw Those new gallery car interiors look pretty nice. Much nicer than the dim interiors with thin, low-back "school bus seats" on the ex-Metra gallery cars MARC uses. Coincidentally (and unfortunately) the train I got (both ways!) was one of the two gallery car sets and had three gallery cars, and a Kawasaki bilevel cab car (thankfully). When I boarded (in the secong gallery car) I immediately shot to the Kawasaki. Ironically though, most of the first time passengers didn't realize they could pass through the cars , and the gallery car was packed with people while the Kawasaki was practically empty. This was the case on both trips.

davinp wrote:Here is a video of a lady singing on one of VRE's Inaugration trains
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26065026@N02/3216982264/

I take it this didn't take place in a quiet car...

mkellerm wrote:

Washington Post reported:
VRE officials also said they served more than 18,000 riders today, a one-day record.

Any word on MARC ridership? I saw a video from a Baltimore TV station showing how Pennsylvania Station in Baltimore was jammed by 5 AM on I-Day morning.

Btw I read, also in the Post, that it was Washington city fire marshalls who were restricting access to Union Station Tuesday afternoon. There's a legal limit on occupancy.