Rains Shutter Friday VRE Service

Heavy rains have washed out tracks on the VRE line, and others remain submerged underwater as of shortly before midnight. As a result VRE officials are canceling rail service for Friday. A full statement released by VRE late last night can be read below:

"As you may recall, our CEO recently sent out an email talking about the dangers of water to a railroad. We know that you have noticed the excessively wet weather we have experienced recently. Unfortunately, this has done some significant damage to the railroads that we operate over. Portions of both rail lines are currently under water, and there is at least one area where the track bed has washed out from under the tracks.

As a result, VRE has made the decision not to operate service on Friday, Sept. 9. With more rain expected overnight, we prefer to give the railroads the time they need to ensure that the tracks are fully operational. In addition, because the track issues happened during service, several of our train sets are currently being housed in our mid-day storage yard in DC, making the logistics even more complicated.

While we know that this may be inconvenient to many of you, this decision was made in the best interest of your safety. We expect to be fully operational on Monday. If that changes, we will be sure to notify you as soon as possible."