Planned service disruption on Virginia Railway Express

On Tuesday, June 1, there will be a planned service disruption that will affect morning and evening service for both the Manassas and Fredericksburg Lines.

CSX Transportation has
been working to install a third mainline track between Alexandria and
Franconia/Springfield (construction can be seen from the East side of the
train). Just south of Alexandria, the tracks go over the Norfolk Southern
tracks using two bridges. One bridge has one track. While the second bridge has
the space for two tracks, it can only support one track. Construction on a new
bridge has been taking place alongside the tracks (this construction can be
seen from the West side of the train). CSXT will cut out the old bridge and
slide the new bridge into place. Ultimately, the third track will help ease
capacity constraints on the Fredericksburg Line by allowing passenger trains to
pass slower freight trains in the area.

The bridge work will
occur over Memorial Day weekend and is expected to take four days to complete.
The work will start after VRE service on Friday, May 28 and will continue
through Tuesday, June 1.

In conjunction with CSXT
and the Commonwealth of Virginia, VRE has been working towards increasing the
capacity of the rails it operates on. Over the past several years, this has included
additional interlockings, an additional bridge over Quantico Creek, a third
track near the L’Enfant station, and a third track between the Potomac River
and Alexandria.