VRE's 15th Anniversary

On June 22, 1992, VRE began service on the Manassas Line; service to Fredericksburg followed on July 20, 1992.

Now that VRE is 15 years old, it's time to grow up and expand service

Having at least one or two mid-day trains in each direction and/or limited weekend service, especially the former, would be a good start.

It eludes me that ridership for VRE, as well as MARC is a lot lower than on its NEC counterparts. Tri-Rail, for example (being of nearly the same age (OK, 18 years old), carries as many passengers in a month that VRE carries in a year. I think you not only need to cater to the commuters, but midday and weekend service will drive up ridership. If you build it, they will come, but only if you're open for business!

VRE is a tenant operation over the tracks of others, and the owners are not at all enthusiastic about more passenger trains getting in the way of their freights. VRE is also having problems with equipment reliability, broken-down freight trains impeding VRE trains, etc., resulting in late or canceled trains. At work I'm signed up for VRE email updates and reports of problems seem to be a daily occurrence. For many of those who need to get to work on time, VRE is not a bargain, and they've gone back to their cars. VRE is going to have to fix these problems to make the service more appealing to riders. This is not going to be quick or easy.

Speaking of equipment reliability...

VRE Could Get 20 New Engines
Kelley Shannon
Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, June 29, 2007

The Virginia Railway Express could buy 20 new locomotives, if bond projects under consideration in Northern Virginia are approved.

The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority has proposed borrowing $44.7 million for locomotives.

The authority would sell bonds this fall if its members adopt taxes and fees authorized by the Virginia General Assembly's 2007 transportation bill. The vote could follow a July 12 public hearing in Fairfax.

If the bonds are approved, VRE riders could see new locomotives on the tracks in 18 months. The state has allocated $15 million toward the purchase.

"If there's any way to make it happen sooner, we will do that," said Mark Roeber, VRE's manager of government relations and public affairs.

The need for new locomotives is urgent, as riders noticed Wednesday morning when brakes failed on Train 310's engine. The Fredericksburg-line train had to be canceled.

Some of VRE's locomotives are 40 to 50 years old, Roeber said.

VRE has worked with CSX Corp. to address issues that were slowing down service, namely heat restrictions in the summer, and competing freight train traffic year-round. CSX, which owns the tracks used by VRE's Fredericksburg Line, has delivered, Roeber said.

Wednesday "was the first day we had slow orders from heat, so our service has not taken any hits as it has in years past," Roeber said. He noted there have been several 90 degree days this year without heat restrictions.

The Fredericksburg area will not be directly affected by the bond sale vote, since local residents will not pay the new taxes and fees expected to bring in $300 million a year for Northern Virginia transportation work.
But all VRE riders will benefit, Roeber said.

The authority wants the money to benefit its tax-paying residents, but the nature of VRE means the locomotives will be used on both lines, Roeber said.

NVTA money for station upgrades or line extensions would more likely be used along the Manassas line.

Roeber pointed out it's difficult to limit benefits in a system where at least 20 percent of riders live in jurisdictions that don't belong to VRE.

"What we're really trying to do is make sure the system operates as efficiently and as best it can to serve all the people who need to use the service," Roeber said.

Mechanical problems are the biggest challenge right now. "Service itself is running much better. On-time performance is up."

Fredericksburg-line VRE trains were on-time, so far, more than 90 percent of the time in June, Roeber said. May trains had an 89 percent on-time average, he said.

This shows the combined benefit of the new bridge at Quantico Creek, reduced slow orders, and better communication with CSX, he said.

Ridership has rebounded, breaking through the 15,000 passenger mark. VRE hasn't regularly carried that number of passengers since before last year's difficult summer when trains were delayed by flooding and heat restrictions.

People realize 90 percent on-time performance is reliable, Roeber said. "Nine times out of 10, I'm going to get you home on time. My analogy is, 'Do you think you could do that in your car?' Not from Fredericksburg you couldn't," Roeber said.

VRE's next ridership challenge is adding riders on Monday and Friday trains. With increased teleworking and flex schedules offered by the federal government, ridership is lower on these days, Roeber said.

"We're trying to examine the demographics of the region and the type of service this new worker may need or want," he said.

Getting more people to ride on Mondays and Fridays will mean more people on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Not everybody has flex time. And people take off on Mondays and Fridays for a little-known secret called the three-day weekend.

VRE is exploring expansion to Haymarket on the NS B-Line at current.

Expansion south to Bealeton is not on the current radar. Expansion south of Fridericksburg is also not on the immediate radar.

The reason is the way VRE is organized. It is owned/run by the various local jurisdictions that it serves (in the form of two regional transportation commissions made up of public servants from those jurisdictions), and it is also operationally funded by those jurisdictions (about 40-45% or operational costs). VRE is not, in any form, a State agency, and lacks the powers/funding such an agency would have.

In order to expand to new Jurisdictions, those Jurisdictions would have to join PRTC or NVTC (the two transportation commissions) and also offer funding as the existing Jurisdictions do. TZo date, Spotsy is very on the fense about doing so, and Faquier is not even that interested. Till they join, no expansion will occur in those directions.

In addition, as someone pointed out above, VRE is not a track owner, but is a "renter" in effect, and must negotiate with the host railroads for every inch of operation it offers. And put simply, it's not remotely as simple as many might like to think to get permission for expansion, of either service area, or number of trains.

Even to expand to Heymarket, huge sums of money would be required, to upgrade the B-Line to dual track, with additional signaling, grade crossing seperation, new stations, and a storage yard, etc, etc, etc. The cost of that is massive, and funding isn't just laying around.

If you want to see what they are looking it, it can be found in detail here:

http://www.vre.org/about/Gainesville-Haymarket.pdf