Official’s herald new passenger rail service in Manassas

Amtrak’s Northeast Regional train stopped in Manassas on Wednesday to commemorate Virginia’s first major investment in passenger rail service.

Just before noon, public and transportation officials were on hand to greet the inaugural “whistle stop” train, which starting Thursday, will provide passenger rail service from Lynchburg to Boston, along Amtrak’s busy northeast corridor.

“This is the third stop that we have been at today and the crowd has been bigger each time,” said Virginia Transportation Secretary Pierce R. Homer. “There is incredible enthusiasm for the kind of mobility and choices this service offers.”

The train left Washington’s Union Station at 9:30 a.m. bound for Lynchburg, where Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and other public officials were scheduled to give speeches at various stops to herald the new service.

The state earlier this year finalized an agreement with the nation’s only passenger rail provider and created “Amtrak Virginia,” joining California, North Carolina and 12 other states that have contracted with Amtrak to provide rail service to portions of their states.

Virginia will provide $17.2 million over the next three years to fund the Lynchburg service, as well as a train from Richmond to Boston, which begins Dec. 15.

After the three-year pilot program, the service will need five to seven million dollars year to keep it rolling, said Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation spokesman Kevin Page.

Officials on Wednesday’s could not say where the additional money would come from once the initial investment runs out.

The train will depart Lynchburg weekday mornings at 7:38 a.m. and serve six stations along the U.S. 29 corridor, including Charlottesville and Culpeper, and will arrive in Manassas at 10:21 a.m.

The Richmond train will leave at 7 a.m. and serve six stations in Virginia, including Quantico and Woodbridge, before stopping at Union Station.

A one-way fare from Manassas to Washington will cost between $14 and $16, while the trip from Lynchburg will cost between $38 and $74. The fares are higher to northeast destinations, including Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City.

Virginia Railway Express passengers will be able to use VRE’s “ticket step up” option, which allows passengers bound for Washington to board an Amtrak train for $10 more than the regular VRE fare.

“The ticket step up option has always been popular on the Fredericksburg line, but now we will be monitoring how many people will use the option on the Manassas line now that we have new train which will provide another transit option,” said VRE spokesman Mark Roeber.

VRE averages 16,000 daily passengers and sells 2,300 “ticket step up” upgrades each day. “We will look at how the train will be an extension of our service,” added Roeber.

The trains are part of a broader investment the state has made in rail. Virginia has bid for $1.9 billion in federal stimulus money for rail improvements along the Interstate 95 corridor.

If approved, $74.8 million of the money would go to construct a third set of rails between Powell’s Creek, near Dumfries, and Arkendale in Stafford County. The third rail will allow trains to run at speeds of 90 mph or higher, said Page.

While the trains were praised as another travelling option for state residents, the train isn’t necessarily designed to help local commuters.

“If you have six million trips a day in Northern Virginia and you take a couple hundred people off the road, that’s not going to make a noticeable difference. But that is not to say the train won’t help a lot of people get where they need to go,” said Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance President Bob Chase.

The trains are expected to attract a combined 93,000 passengers a year.

Staff writer Uriah A. Kiser can be reached at 703-878-8065.a