Virginia Railway Express Surveys Riders On Commuting Plans

Burke VA

27 April, 2021

3:35 PM

Description

BURKE, VA — As Virginia Railway Express continues reduced service during the COVID-19 pandemic, the commuter rail service is surveying riders on when they'd return. The commuter train service, which operates weekdays from Northern Virginia suburbs to Washington, DC, is implementing reduced service until further notice. The Fredericksburg Line is currently operating with five northbound trains and five southbound trains, compared to eight in each direction under a normal schedule. The Manassas Line has four northbound and four southbound trains, compared to eight under a normal schedule. The Amtrak Step-Up program also remains suspended until further notice. But when riders may return to work and begin commuting again, VRE acknowledged that its reduced service may prompt some riders to choose other travel methods. That's why VRE is surveying riders on whether they would ride if VRE returned to full service. The survey gives riders the option of saying they would ride under full service, they would not ride under full service, or they would ride when called back to work in person. If a respondent chooses the third answer, they are asked when they could return to in-person work. Riders are also provided with information on health and safety measures, including a mask requirement, enhanced cleaning, hand sanitizer dispensers, temperature checks for staff, social distancing markers at trains and stations, and socially-distanced seating on trains. On average, a VRE car has 130 seats, but only 45 seats are available under the current social distancing measures. Here are the latest ridership levels with social distancing measures as of April 23: Fredericksburg Line, northbound Train 300: 36 percent utilizationTrain 302: 25 percent utilizationTrain 306: 37 percent utilizationTrain 310: 43 percent utilizationTrain 314: 26 percent utilization Fredericksburg Line, southbound Train 301: 19 percent utilizationTrain 305: 59 percent utilizationTrain 307: 28 percent utilizationTrain 309: 36 percent utilizationTrain 313: 30 percent utilization Manassas Line, northbound Train 324: 34 percent utilizationTrain 328: 29 percent utilizationTrain 330: 15 percent utilizationTrain 332: 12 percent utilization Manassas Line, southbound Train 325: 8 percent utilizationTrain 327: 26 percent utilizationTrain 331: 39 percent utilizationTrain 335: 11 percent utilization To take the survey, visit www.vre.org/service/schedule-regular-schedule/schedule-survey.