From commuter service to full regional rail system: New Virginia Railway Express CEO lays ambitious expansion plans
By Nolan Stout
This article was republished with permission from FXBG Advance’s news partner InsideNoVa.com. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.
Virginia Railway Express is on track for a big expansion in service by 2030, with its new CEO hoping for a total transformation of the system by 2050.
CEO Katie Choe, who stepped into her role in January, provided an update on her first month in the job and her vision for the future to the VRE Operations Board in late February.
“My main priority as I’m walking in is to successfully transition VRE from the commuter service that it is today to a full regional rail system,” Choe said.
The service, which connects Northern and central Virginia with Washington, D.C., with lines extending to Manassas and Fredericksburg, recently laid out ambitious plans in its System Plan 2050. The 2050 plan outlines the system’s goals for adapting to changing travel patterns, maximizing ridership and adding off-peak and weekend service. VRE’s goals call for $1.4 billion in capital needs over the next quarter-century to improve and expand the system.
The start of Choe’s tenure coincided with the beginning of construction on the Long Bridge Project, which will improve the bottleneck for train traffic on the existing bridge connecting Arlington and Washington, D.C. The bridge serves about 2 million Amtrak and 3 million Virginia Railway Express commuters each year, and capacity hovers around 98% during peak hours. The project is expected to wrap up by 2030.
The first benchmark in the 2050 plan comes up in 2030. By that point, VRE expects to increase its current level of service of 32 daily trains to 52. The extra service includes expanding from two reverse direction trains on the Manassas line to four on that line and six to Fredericksburg. VRE also wants to expand from one train each of off-peak service to three trains for Manassas and two for Fredericksburg. Express trains would jump from a single train to nine for Manassas and four for Fredericksburg on weekdays.
VRE would also add full weekend service rather than strictly Monday through Friday.
Choe said VRE plans to meet those goals on schedule.
“It is very, very much on the horizon,” she said. “So we need to make sure we are all on track.”
By 2050, VRE’s goal is to have trains run every 20 minutes toward D.C. and 30 minutes away from the District during peak travel times. Off-peak trains would run every hour, the same frequency as express trains during the week and weekend service. In total, the number of daily trains would be up to 116.
Choe’s next steps for meeting the 2030 goals are to evaluate organizational needs and hire a chief operations officer.
Choe said the expansion in services will depend heavily on reliability and being able to “aggressively deliver more, better and faster.”
“This is all about retaining the riders that we have,” she said. “We can’t grow our ridership if we move backward in this transition period.”
VRE’s services were decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic, but ridership has steadily increased in recent years. In January, there were 8,395 daily riders on average. That’s only about 200 more than December, but nearly 3,000 more than a year ago.
“People are hungry for VRE,” said Prince William County Supervisor Andrea Bailey.
January wasn’t the best month for on-time performance, however, particularly with the heavy snowstorm at the end of the month. Systemwide, trains were on time 79% of the time, down from 84% a year ago. The Manassas line was at 77% on time, down from 88% in January 2025. The Fredericksburg line did best at 82%, which was on par with the 81% of the previous year. Delayed trains systemwide were an average of 15 minutes late in January.
Prince William County Supervisor Tom Gordy and Manassas City Councilmember Sonia Vasquez Luna said part of VRE’s future will require expanding the Broad Run station. Luna also said the city’s station should receive investment as the Manassas Regional Airport expects to open to commercial flights by next year. Choe’s report listed a $9.1 million project in development to extend the platform at the Manassas station to accommodate eight-car trains and enhance pedestrian access.
“We have great needs that we’ve already started to talk about,” Luna said.
Arlington County Board Chair Takis Karantonis said VRE is in a good position because the state has been investing in passenger rail. Gordy echoed those sentiments.
“Passenger rail is having a renaissance, and we’re seeing it across the country,” Gordy said. “And I think there’s a fantastic opportunity in the midst of all this to continue to promote VRE as part of that.”
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect Virginia Railway Express currently only offers service Monday through Friday.
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One thing I’ve not seen expressed is how late the off peak service would go. I’d love a train leaving DC at like 1030 so I can catch a baseball game without driving.