(The Associated Press circulated the following article on July 25.)
WASHINGTON — Despite soaring gas prices and worsening highway congestion, Virginia Railway Express is seeing a drop in daily ridership that it blames on delays caused by track maintenance and heat restrictions.
“It’s awful,” VRE Chief Executive Officer Dale Zehner told The Washington Times for a story Tuesday. “I’m amazed that it’s not worse. For the delays we’ve had, I would have thought we would have lost more (riders).”
VRE ridership declined about 2 percent, or by about 178 passengers, in the fiscal year that ended June 30 compared to the prior year. That dip is a marked change for VRE, which saw ridership jump an average of 13 percent each year from 2000 to 2005.
The Metro rail system, by comparison, continues to boast some of its highest ridership figures, with the transit agency setting seven of its top 10 ridership days this year.
The decline in daily ridership has cost VRE more than $1 million in operating revenue and could lead to another fare increase next year, Zehner said. VRE receives half its operating revenue from passenger fares, with the remainder coming from local, state and federal subsidies.
Delays became a problem about a year ago when VRE officials said hot weather forced them to slow trains so operators could detect bends that occur when steel tracks absorb too much heat.
CSX Corp., which owns VRE’s Fredericksburg line, places heat restrictions on the tracks it shares with VRE when temperatures hit the mid- to high 80s. Each delay can add up 10 to 20 minutes, VRE spokesman Mark Roeber said.
To make matters worse, CSX started a one-year plan to replace about 33 percent of the Fredericksburg line’s railroad ties. Norfolk Southern Corp., which owns VRE’s Manassas line, replaced railroad ties on about 20 percent of its tracks, Zehner said.
Passengers also are upset about limited parking at stations, VRE officials said. The railway recently added 285 parking spots at its Broad Run station in Prince William County, but the parking lot is full before the last train leaves at 7:50 a.m., Roeber said.
Tomeeka Fair, 32, of Fredericksburg said she stopped riding VRE in January because of delays.
“It was good until the weather (last summer), and then there would be delays all the time,” said Fair, who rarely rides the train now. “On a whole, nobody has good things to say about it.”