VRE to keep youth fares for now

Karen Vossenberg’s job as a full-time mother would have been a lot harder over the past four years without Virginia Railway Express.

The Fredericksburg woman said her son, now attending Dayton University in Ohio, previously used the train five days a week, from the city to Union Station, to attend Gonzaga High School in Washington. “You have to go to Gonzaga to understand…why you would want your son go there,” said Vossenberg of the all male private school.

When the transit agency last month began discussing eliminating its reduced youth fare policy for riders between the ages of 11 and 21, she didn’t like the idea. The policy allowed her son, and an estimated 80 students per day who currently ride the train, to attend high schools and colleges in Northern Virginia and Washington.

“Without the train I would have had to of picked up a slug every morning and drove [my son] to school,” she said. “I have a daughter who now attends Georgetown Visitation school [in Washington], and if the youth fare policy goes away, I might be better off getting a job in Georgetown and driving her to school.”

The average fare on VRE is about $6. Vossenberg admitted that if she could send her children to private school she could also afford to pay the full train fare, but added the train is a major contributing factor that allows her daughter to attend Georgetown Visitation.

With the policy gone and more riders paying the full fare, they agency expects to gain an additional $100,000 in annual revenue. That money, said VRE CEO Dale Zehner, the agency needs after the state officials told him to expect $500,000 in additional budget reductions.

“We are constantly being cut around the edges with these budget cuts, which leave us looking for additional sources of funding,” said Zehner.

While the VRE board on Friday was presented with a resolution to end the youth fare policy, Fredericksburg councilman Matthew J. Kelly moved to defer the vote until the VRE staff could present an option to keep the youth fare, instead of simply eliminating it.

Allegations of fraud and abuse of the policy were the impetus for removing the youth fare, as officials said adults were purchasing and successfully using youth fares.

“We all know that Medicare has fraud in it, but don’t take away my Medicare. If you have a problem, address the problem and fix the problem,” said Manassas councilman Jonathan L. Way.

While VRE in recent years has worked to maintain the number of vendors who sell youth fares, which include a mixture of convenience stores, mobile stands and coffee shops at transit stations, the agency said there is no one form that tracks the total number of youth fares sold.

The board will take up the measure again at their next monthly public meeting at 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 18, at the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission in Woodbridge.

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