Virginia Railway Express
on the SubwayNut
on the SubwayNut
Virginia Railway Express is a built from scratch Commuter Rail system that saw both of its lines open in 1992. Due to trains having to share trackage with very busy Norfolk Southern and CSX freight railroads the line is still true Commuter Rail with both lines only operating Monday through Friday during rush hours. The two VRE lines all operate on tracks that have been continuously used by Amtrak intercity trains (except for the two terminus stations in Virginia, located on VRE-only sidings).
All trains (except the few reverse-peak ones) on both lines stop at the same northern four stations, along shared trackage into Washington, DC. VRE is a rare commuter railroad that basically has four major stations for passengers to get off at its endpoint to head to primarily white color jobs. L’Enfant Plaza has always been the railways busiest station, since its closer to major job clusters than Union Station and has connections to all Metro Lines except the Red Line (that stops at Union Station). These are the two VRE Lines:
For Fares VRE were developed when the system opened to operate with a model of fewer crew members compared to all other Northeast Railroads. The line uses the modern Proof of Payment System. Fares are by distance but must be purchased and then time/date validated before boarding at Vending Machines (or at Fare Validators at a few stations) or using a mobile app. Round-trips aren't sold but day passes, this made my life visiting nearly every VRE station easy. The ticketing system is the same technology as the CharlieTicket system from Boston, with stray Boston T Validators (just like the ones on the Fairmont Line) at a couple of stations, complete with a T logo on it. VRE has also never accepted Cash at its vending machines, these have always been credit card only since the system opened. This was done to safe costs of collecting cash and maintaining Vending Machines.
When the system first opened there were little attended booths for cash ticket sales at stations, these have been gone for years. Passengers using cash are basically out of luck unless there starting their trip closer to Washington, DC at a station with a Commuter Store Retail Outlet including at L'Enfant a few days per week, Crystal City (not at the station but in the nearby shopping center) and a few other stations. Franconia-Springfield has a Connector Store, inside the Metro portion of the station, but according to the VRE Website it doesn't sell VRE tickets.
Virginia Railway Express, for being a young only 30-year-old railroad, has operated a surprisißng verity of rolling stock. It opened with 38 single level newly built Mafersa Cars, and 21 remanufactured Budd Rail Diesel Cars with remanufactured locomotives.
In 1999, VRE purchased 13 Kawasaki Bi-Level cars as a tag on to the MARC III Order. These initial train cars are all still in service with other railroads. The 33 Mafersa Cars were sold to the Connecticut Department of Transportation in 2004 to retire the de-motored SPV 2000s and use fewer Shoreliner cars for Shoreline East. These cars even operated still in their original VRE’s livery before being repainted. These cars now operate on the Hartford Line after Shore Line East finally began operating with electric M8 cars, in 2022 22 years after its route was electrified by Amtrak. The other five were purchased by a Mining company in Quebec for its workers since the mine is only accessible by railroad. The Budd cars for sold to Caltrain (that used them for ballpark specials) in 2000 before the Grand Canyon Railroad purchased them that operates them to this day. MARC purchasing the Kawasaki Bi-Levels in 2008 and they've been repainted to look nearly the same as regular MARC III cars.
In the late 1990s the First Street tunnel was raised, along with some other projects to allow double-stacked container trains along the entirety of VRE. These projects allowed modern full-size double-decker train cars like Gallery Cars and Bombardier BiLevels that operate outside of the Northeast to operate along VRE.
In 2001 VRE started its transformation to the Rolling Stock it operates today. This began with second-hand Pullman Standard Gallery cars from Metra in Chicago. VRE began purchasing new Gallery IV cars that were delivered between 2006 and 2017 allowing them to retire all of the older Gallery cars. VRE also replaced all its locomotives with modern commuter rail MPI MPXpress MP36PH-3C locomotives that were delivered starting in 2010 that replaced all of its older refurbished locomotives. This means all VRE trains have nice large (and clean) windows compared to the Amtrak Lines. VRE's partnership with Metra is continuing with VRE ordering 21 Astom BiLevel cars in combination with the 200 cars that Metra has ordered.
A final footnote is that VRE leased two locomotives and 18 Bombardier BiLevel cars from Sounder from 2002 to 2008. These trainsets I so wish I had the chance to photograph. I remember visiting VRE's website as a teenager in the mid-2000s and finding the table that showed which consist each train operated with and couldn't believe there were four different types of trains along with the fact VRE's website actually told you which trainset each departure operated! Sadly it took me 2024 to ride VRE and I felt like I was riding Metra (although with consistency of Modern Gallery cars, not the mish-mash of most Metra Trains). The little Red, White and Blue lines on the stainless steel add a pop of color, compared to the just stainless steel look of the modern Metra Gallery cars.
