UPDATE: Police Identify Man Struck by Amtrak Train Thursday Night

Amtrak Train Number 19 The Crescent from New York, VRE train, waited at scene while local police handled fatality.

UPDATE 9:45 am Friday — Fairfax County Police have identified the man struck by the Amtrak train Thursday night as Richard Anderson, 64, of the North Springfield area.  The Amtrak train was travelling west, just west of the Backlick Road overpass, when it struck and killed Anderson. No word on how Anderson got onto the tracks. Detectives from the Crash Reconstruction Unit responded to investigate and do not suspect foul play, the investigation continues.          UPDATE 9 p.m. Thursday — VRE passengers are on buses headed to VRE stations after becoming delayed tonight when an Amtrak train struck and killed a pedestrian south of Alexandria. UPDATE 8:45 p.m. Thursday — The person struck and killed by an Amtrak train Thursday night near …

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Amtrak: Burke Centre Station Third Most-Traveled Stop in Virginia

A fact sheet from Amtrak announcing its highest ridership in years shows Burke Centre as one of the fastest growing stations in the country.

Amtrak saw a record-setting 2012 fiscal year thanks in part to ridership from Virginia residents. According to the Amtrak Fact Sheet for FY 2012 (see PDF at right), Burke Centre was the third most-traveled stop in Virginia after Alexandria and Ashland. The Virginia Railway Express (VRE) operates the Burke Centre stop. Regular Amtrak ticket sales to/from Burke Centre began in 2010. Statistics released by Amtrak for every stop in the United States shows an increase in ridership by 3.5 percent. In Virginia, ridership increased by 8.3 percent. Burke Centre is also listed as Virginia’s fastest growing station and one of the nation’s fastest at a 38 percent increase. Two Virginia routes as ranked third and fourth as the fastest growing of the …

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Sherell Williams

2:23 pm on Thursday, January 10, 2013

Hi John, you raise a good point of distinction here. The press release I was sent is what mentioned the additional information about Burke. The only other reference I found to that info links me to the Virginia Association of Railway Patrons mentioned, but they pulled from the same statistics on the Amtrak site. I'll see if someone from Amtrak can provide some clarification.   more ›

The Way We Work: Super Commuters Go the Distance for Their Careers

For Labor Day, Patch examines why some professionals are willing to travel hundreds of miles every week for work.

At 5 a.m. three days a week, Mark Schofield wakes up in his Washington, D.C. home to prepare for his commute—to Philadelphia.  By 6:15 a.m., he grabs a cup of coffee from the Starbucks in Washington’s Union Station. “The coffee there is stronger” than on Amtrak train No. 130, he says.  It’s no wonder he needs a potent blast of caffeine: Schofield spends more than 15 hours riding each week to Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station. From there he catches a local train to his job at Haverford College in Delaware County. The commute adds roughly two and a half hours and 140 miles onto both ends of a 9-to-5 workday. His three-day commute, roundtrip, totals 840 miles—roughly the distance between Washington and Orlando, FL. For Schofield, and other “…

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Stimulus Project for VRE Congestion Relief Stalls

"A $75 million federal stimulus project to build 11 miles of railroad tracks near Quantico to relieve congestion for Virginia Railway Express, Amtrak and freight trains has stalled because of an ongoing feud that could derail the project," reports the Was

VRE Ridership Reaches 20,000 Daily

System is at capacity; money needed to maintain and expand.

Virginia Railway Express CEO Dale Zehner said ridership is the highest it's ever been, in an interview with WTOP.  Zehner attributes the growth to, "Congestion getting worse and our on-time [is] getting better." Earlier this year, Zehner told a Braddock District transportation town hall meeting the system is at capacity.  At that time, ridership had reached 19,500 daily trips.  "We can't let the system degrade," Zehner said.  "We must maintain the service levels we have today in cleanliness, customer care and mechanical maintenance, while at the same time working toward adding more cars to the trains and more trains to the system." Zehner said VRE was able to improve its service when it changed from working with Amtrak, the original …

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Virginia Health Department Warns Some Amtrak Passengers of Possible Measles Exposure

Riders on Amtrak’s Aug. 17 Northeast Regional #171, which stopped in Burke Centre, may have been exposed to measles.

The Virginia Department of Health is informing people who were passengers on Amtrak’s Northeast Regional train #171 on Wednesday, Aug. 17, that they may have been exposed to a person with measles. Northeast Regional 171 originated in Boston at 8:15 a.m., and made stops in Maryland (Aberdeen, Baltimore – Penn Station, BWI and New Carrollton), District of Columbia (Union Station) and Virginia (Alexandria, Burke Centre, Manassas, Culpeper, Charlottesville and Lynchburg). The train ended its run in Lynchburg at 8:36 p.m. Passengers who left train 171 before its arrival in Philadelphia need not be concerned, according to the health department. Measles is a highly contagious illness that is spread through coughing, sneezing and contact with …

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