(The Associated Press circulated the following article on August 3.)
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Some new equipment is on the way for Virginia Railway Express.
The commuter railroad’s board has approved a 92 (m) million-dollar contract to purchase 50 new two-level rail cars. They are set to arrive beginning in December 2007.
VRE has a fleet of 86 rail cars and uses 69 of them on the Fredericksburg and Manassas lines. A VRE spokesman says many of the existing cars are old and need to be replaced.
The new cars will give VRE about 25 percent more seating capacity.
Ridership is down slightly for VRE for the fiscal year that ended in June, after growing by about 13 percent for each of the previous four years. VRE officials say problems with delays on the CSX tracks have driven some riders away.