Service Interruption Planned for Va. Commuter Rail

The Manassas and Fredericksburg VRE lines will not operate on a portion of their routes to or from Union Station tomorrow because of planned signal testing on the tracks, a Virginia Railway Express spokesman said yesterday.

Instead, morning service on the Manassas line will terminate at a temporary station near the Van Dorn Street Metro station on the Blue Line, just north of the VRE Backlick Road station, and originate from the same temporary station for the evening service.

Morning service on the Fredericksburg line will terminate at the Franconia-Springfield station on the Blue Line, and evening service will depart at the regularly scheduled departure times for that station. VRE riders should transfer to Metro for the rest of their commutes and show their VRE tickets to Metro attendants when entering and exiting the Metrorail system.

VRE officials said the railway put the temporary measures in place to avoid delays that would have resulted if trains were running on normal routes. The signal testing would require trains to operate at much slower than normal speeds.