VRE Repairs, Tardiness Fuel Ridership Drop

By Nick Miroff
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 17, 2006

At a time when authorities are urging increased use of public transportation to reduce congestion, an unexpected loss of Virginia Railway Express riders -- many weary of delays and breakdowns -- is a major setback.

After adding at least 200,000 passenger trips a year since fiscal 2001, the Northern Virginia rail line recorded 120,000 fewer trips from July 2005 to June compared with the previous year, dropping its total to 3.64 million.

Every rider who forsakes a seat on VRE -- which runs two lines, one each from Manassas and Fredericksburg ending at Union Station -- adds to the growing congestion on Washington area roads.

The losses at VRE are "a recipe for horrendous gridlock," said John Townsend, spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, who said he was "astonished and mystified" by the drop in riders. "We already have the third-worst traffic in the nation, and every single car that's added to the equation bogs down the system even more."

In the Interstate 95 corridor -- where the carpool lanes are becoming as choked as the chronically clogged regular lanes, and backups regularly stretch 50 miles -- VRE is called on to provide the only reliable alternative. Even with major traffic relief projects, such as the Springfield interchange, congestion has worsened as more people have moved to the area.

The same is true in the Interstate 66 corridor, where a major widening project near Manassas is underway and another in Arlington is being debated. Neither is expected to end the jams that slow many parts to a crawl.

With gas at $3 a gallon, other area transit systems have been adding riders by the tens of thousands. Ridership on Maryland's MARC was up nearly 6 percent in the past fiscal year, and Metrorail was up 5.3 percent, breaking records.

Of 15 major commuter rail services in the nation tracked in the first calendar quarter this year by the American Public Transportation Association, VRE was one of only three to lose riders. Its decline was second only to a system in South Florida that had service interruptions linked to track construction.

VRE spokesman Mark Roeber said the dip in ridership is "a hiccup" tied to numerous factors, including agreements with track owners running competing freight service, problems with a bridge near Quantico and the system's service problems. He vowed that "in time we'll have a positive and viable option against any other form of transport."

Ridership fell on both VRE lines in the past year, but the losses -- and problems -- were far more severe on the Fredericksburg line, where on-time performance dropped from 90 percent of trips in 2001 to 69 percent. The causes, beleaguered riders and train officials say, are many.

Some are of the chronic variety: Summer heat restrictions slow trains, leading to congestion. Freight and passenger traffic bottleneck at the Quantico Creek Bridge, where trains share a track. And VRE's aging locomotives-- creaky engines from the 1970s -- break down and strand riders mid-commute.

These complications were compounded by additional problems over the past year. The implementation of a directional signal last August was "disastrous," Roeber said. Rail tie replacement projects held up passenger service. A derailment in January slowed service for days. Heavy rains in June led to full-scale service cancellations and pushed commuters back to their cars.

VRE lost Mark Melnyk in March. He had enough of mornings stuck on the tracks and afternoons when his train didn't show up on time.

So Melnyk turned to the unthinkable: He got back in his car and onto I-95.

Instead of riding free on VRE -- his employer picked up the tab -- he started paying $300 a month for gas and waking at 4:30 a.m. to try to beat the worst of rush hour.

"At least by driving I know I can get there," said Melnyk, who commutes between Fredericksburg and Fort Belvoir.

The loss of passengers such as Melnyk cost VRE $500,000 in revenue. Of the agency's $62.8 million budget for this fiscal year, $24.8 million is drawn from ticket sales, and $38 million comes from federal, state and local governments.

VRE's backslide is a sudden derailment to traffic-fighting goals, transportation officials said.

"We invest a lot of time and money into taking people out of their cars and giving them reliable options," said Pierce R. Homer, Virginia secretary of transportation. "When people make a choice to not do that, we have to take a look at the quality and timeliness of our services."

When Homer looks at VRE's service problems, he sees myriad "operational challenges," many of which stem from the complex arrangements needed to make the trains run. The rails are owned by CSX Corp., of Jacksonville, Fla. VRE pays CSX more than $3.8 million a year for the right to use the tracks, but increased train volume on the two-track corridor means that passenger service can get stuck behind freight cars that are slow, late or stalled.

"It's difficult when you're sitting on a passenger train to see all that freight going by," said Jay Westbrook, a CSX liaison who manages the company's relations with VRE. "But we have a network that extends hundreds of miles in each direction. We make every effort to clear a path" for VRE.

Another frequently mentioned source of VRE frustration is CSX's heat-restriction policy. High summer temperatures can lead to kinks in the steel rails, so train travel is routinely slowed to 40 mph on the Fredericksburg line if the mercury rises above 85 degrees.

"Our heat policy is not to take chances with safety," Westbrook said.

VRE officials said the restrictions are not applied on the Manassas line, most of which is owned by Norfolk Southern Corp. That line had an on-time performance of 86 percent in fiscal 2006 and has remained fairly stable since 2001.

Some riders said passengers systemwide are fed up with VRE's older cars, derisively referred to as "cattle cars" for their rigid seating and metallic interiors. VRE has bought 11 cars that will be added this year and has ordered 50 more that will arrive by December 2008.

VRE officials said a slash in their advertising budget has also affected ridership. And they stopped promoting their service as a superior commuting alternative because, Roeber said, his agency no longer has the confidence to make those claims -- at least until the $26 million Quantico bridge is completed next year.

"In normal circumstances, we'll beat a car," he said. "But until you see the bridge in place and functioning, you wouldn't see us making any statements that would lend automobile drivers to believe our ride was going to be significantly faster."

When the trains are on time, it's hard to imagine anyone choosing to get behind the wheel. The 7:15 a.m. train Aug. 9, for instance, left Fredericksburg on time and breezed past the backups on I-95, which popped into view from time to time on the train's left side. To the right, riders watched the sun rise over the platinum-colored expanse of the Potomac River. The train reached Union Station eight minutes early.

In the afternoon, the cars were more crowded and the bathrooms dirtier, and the riders seemed much less patient, lining up by the exits. But the 6 p.m. train made it to Fredericksburg on time, 90 minutes after leaving Union Station.

Roeber said VRE is one of the only rail services in the country that provides "free-ride" vouchers to passengers if a train is more than 30 minutes late.

But riders such as Stafford County resident Doug Graham said the vouchers do him little good. "When I try to use up my free-ride certificates, the train is late all over again," said Graham, who has ridden VRE for the past 10 years. "The on-time record is really a killer."

Graham and others on the Aug. 9 Fredericksburg train spoke about their commute with a mix of weariness and resignation, convinced that VRE is still their best option. But a few said they are not so inured to suffering on VRE that they haven't looked at alternatives.

"It's getting to be a tougher and tougher trade-off," said Andrew Johnston, a Fredericksburg resident who has been taking VRE for eight years to his job in Rosslyn. Johnston said getting to work an hour late after a one-way commute of more than three hours is "embarrassing," but he would rather sit through delays in the company of other riders than alone in his car.

Even though he is off VRE, Melnyk isn't much happier. He is on time for work now, but, he said, afternoon I-95 traffic is a "nightmare."

"It's just unbelievable that this situation has gotten so out of hand," Melnyk said. "When you spend an average of four hours a day commuting, how can you have a life?"