The planned VRE commuter rail extension from Manassas to Gainesville and Haymarket moves forward with the required environmental study and preliminary engineering work according to WaPo:
“I think this will be one of the most significant stations in VRE’s history one of these days, and we’ll put more people on at this location than at any other station,” said VRE board member and Prince William Supervisor W.S. Covington III (R-Brentsville). “I think this [extension] is critical.”
…many Manassas Line trains have standing room only. Bringing commuter rail to the county’s western end, he said, could lead to other rail expansions that could possibly connect Prince William with Dulles International Airport or the Tysons Corner area.
No money is secured for any of the project, and some Haymarket residents have opposed it, saying it would add too much train traffic in their back yard.
Focus should be on getting the Gainesville/Haymarket line down before planning other routes.
VRE data shows Warrenton and points west are filling the Broad Run/Manassas Apt station in Bristow. Old town Manassas station also recently opened a new parking garage and is a high boarding station.
I’ve ridden this line and can attest the parking lot overflows all the way down the access road. Parked cars also line the road up towards the SuperTarget shopping center on Nokesville Rd.
As for routes to Dulles Apt or Tysons?
Not likely since tracks would traverse Loudoun and Fairfax Counties.
Its still faster to take a car or a shuttle bus to get to the airport.
Jobs are widely dispersed within the general Dulles/Herndon/Reston job area.
Travel times increase when transfers to destination points are required discouraging use of mass transit which requires heavy demand from departure and destination points.
This is the first mention of a station near Innovation Park–east of Pr. William Pkwy and the FBI Crime Labs.
WaPo hasn’t gotten the news about the Nissan Pavillon name change to Jiffy Lube Live (yes–its true…). Just north of JLL is the Gainesville VRE station site fronting I-66.
The Haymarket VRE site is SW at John Marshall Hwy/55 and James Madison Hwy/US 15 or W-SW of the village of Haymarket.
Federal workers and contractors receive free transit passes leading to heavy usage of mass transit in the DC area.
DC’s metrorail system has the 2nd highest ridership in America after NYC.
VRE trains are identical to CalTrain in San Jose/San Francisco.
Interesting as DC’s MetroRail’s cousin is SF’s BART.
Trains and system nearly identical.
