Tentative Railway Labor Deal Good News For NoVA, DC Commuters

VIRGINIA/DC — A national railroad strike that could have caused serious harm to the economy and would have forced commuters in the Washington, D.C., area to seek alternative modes of transportation has been averted in a tentative agreement between railroads and the unions representing their workers, President Joe Biden said Thursday.

The tentative agreement means the Virginia Railway Express will not have to temporarily shut down at a time when the commuter railway was hoping to gain back riders it lost during the COVID-19 pandemic and as it serves as an alternative for commuters affected by Metrorail’s closure of several stations in Northern Virginia.

"That sounds like great news," a commuter who uses VRE told WTOP about the tentative agreement. “That’s something we were all on edge about.”

Another VRE rider, who does not drive a car, told WTOP that she has “just been kind of worried about how I would get down to D.C., so I’ve been coming up with an alternative plan.”

As the 12:01 a.m. Friday strike deadline approached, the railroads and union representatives hammered out a deal in a marathon 20-hour negotiating session at the Labor Department Wednesday.

Amtrak canceled its long-distance routes in preparation for a strike, but said in a statement Thursday it "is working to quickly restore canceled trains and reaching out directly to impacted customers to accommodate on first available departures."

Amtrak workers were not involved in the labor negotiations, but the passenger rail service uses the tracks that would have shut down freight lines across the country.

Railroad workers and the owners had been at an impasse over issues such as sick time and penalties for missing work. A shutdown was to go into effect after midnight on Friday if the parties had failed to reach a deal.

VRE operations staff would not have been part of the labor strike. But the commuter rail uses CSX- and Norfolk Southern-owned tracks to operate its trains. Without any dispatchers, the tracks would have needed to shut down and VRE would have suspended operations.

Earlier in the week, VRE recommended that riders make alternative plans for commuting in case a strike or lockout began Friday.

Area commuters are already dealing with no Metrorail service through Oct. 22 at the six Yellow and Blue Line stations south of Reagan National Airport — the Braddock Road, King Street-Old Town, Eisenhower Avenue, Huntington, Van Dorn Street and Franconia-Springfield stations.

Yellow Line service also is suspended between Pentagon and L'Enfant Plaza between Sept. 10 and May 2023 for work on the Yellow Line tunnels and bridge over the Potomac River. The City of Alexandria is encouraging commuters to make a plan for the shutdowns.

Due to the Metro station closures and its campaign to attract new riders, VRE is letting passengers ride for free during September and between certain stations in Northern Virginia and the District of Columbia in October. VRE passengers will not need a ticket to travel between any of VRE’s 19 stations.

While Amtrak's service north of D.C. along the Northeast Corridor would likely not have been affected by a strike, the passenger railroad said “a small number” of Northeast Regional departures to the south could be affected.

The tentative agreement resulting from back-and-forth negotiations will go to union members for a vote after a post-ratification cooling-off period of several weeks, but Biden's blessing is a signal that workers were closely involved in the negotiations, The Washington Post reported.

“These rail workers will get better pay, improved working conditions, and peace of mind around their health care costs: all hard-earned,” Biden said. “The agreement is also a victory for railway companies who will be able to retain and recruit more workers for an industry that will continue to be part of the backbone of the American economy for decades to come.”