Still recovering from a loss of ridership during the pandemic, and a slow return to in-person work throughout the region, the Virginia Railway Express is proposing a budget that would bring new weekend service and a 5% fare increase.
During a livestreamed presentation on Oct. 24, VRE Chief Financial Officer Mark Schofield, joined by Budget Manager Alex Buchanan, laid out some of the proposals for FY 2025 (which begins in July 2024) their team hope to make a reality when the VRE operations board votes in December.
Watch the VRE presentation
Fare hikes
Buchanan said that, while the proposed fare hikes are not primarily motivated by ridership numbers, costs of service — number of trains, facilities, labor and equipment — have inflated greatly since 2020, which was the last time VRE raised fares.
“The number of trains and how frequently we operate those trains is not driven by ridership … It’s predominantly how many trains we run,” he said.
At present, less than 25% of VRE’s operating costs are covered by fares. In 2019, before the pandemic, fares accounted for around half of operating costs.
According to Buchanan, costs for running the system have risen 20% since 2020. Meanwhile, current ridership on VRE is about 6,400 riders daily, only around one-third of pre-pandemic levels.
To make up for lost revenue, VRE has taken advantage of state and federal pandemic relief funds since 2020. But, since those funds are likely to run out within the next few years, other modes of revenue will need to be tapped.
Questions on how to handle fare increases for current and future riders that use weekly and monthly passes are still being discussed, according to Schofield. He also said they are examining different ways to price rides according to zones within the system.
New Saturday trains and shuffling services
Schofield said in the presentation that, after years of planning, VRE hopes to offer three trains on Saturdays for its main lines, Manassas and Fredericksburg, in summer 2024.
One of the motivations for the Saturday addition is to encourage large groups and families to use the service for leisure in the region.
To that end, they are also considering a reduced fare for children 11-18, and free rides for those 10 and younger.
For the weekend service, which the VRE hopes to expand to Sunday in coming years, Schofield said they will have to run the experiment for a while to see what features and benefits attract riders the most.
Schofield said they have not decided on a final weekend fare scheme for their final proposal.
He also said some of the unneeded costs during the week could be shifted to help pay for the weekend. For instance, previously eight-car trains during the week could be downsized to six cars, freeing up some staff, including conductors, and resources for the weekend.
