WASHINGTON — The Amtrak derailment at the entrance to Union Station Tuesday morning, set off a multitude of headaches for commuters throughout the day.
In addition to Amtrak delays, it was also impacting Virginia Railway Express trains.
The VRE posted the following statement on their website Tuesday morning:
"Due to an incident involving an Amtrak train just south of Washington Union Station, this morning’s VRE service was severely impacted. Once we were informed the tracks VRE trains utilize to enter the station were taken out of service, we began to offload all passengers at L’Enfant and Crystal City.
Due to the nature of the incident, the trains that entered Union Station this morning will not be able to come out for this afternoon’s service.
The trains that had not yet entered Union Station this morning are the only ones available for afternoon service and will originate at L’Enfant; no VRE service will be available this afternoon from Union Station."
"I want to go home," a very frustrated Denise Dowden told WUSA9 Tuesday night.
She says she didn't realize VRE trains were canceled out of Union Station.
"I've just spent the last half hour using the Metro to get here to only miss the train and now I have to wait an hour so yea, good times," she said.
Kiemon Beard was headed in to D.C. from Woodbridge Tuesday morning when his train came to a stop.
"It started out normal, until we got a block away from here and then everything went to hell real fast," he said.
He says his VRE train was directly behind the Amtrak train that derailed.
"It's not the first time there was a train delay and it's certainly not going to be the last," said Joey Zeldin from Fredericksburg, who was also waiting at L'Enfant Station for the train to go home.
Zeldin told WUSA9 that waiting for the train and dealing with delays was still better then sitting in traffic on I-95.
"I would much rather be on this train then D.C. traffic. I've driven up 95 once and I will never do that again," said Zeldin.
Tuesday night VRE shared the following:
"Due to this morning’s incident involving an Amtrak train just south of Union Station, VRE service will continue to be impacted tomorrow. Train traffic is still suspended going into and out of Union Station, and we still are unable to retrieve our train equipment from the coachyard north of Union Station. This evening, we used the five train sets that had not entered the coachyard this morning to run as much service as possible. We plan to do the same for tomorrow morning, Wednesday, July 12.
Please note that trains will not be able to enter Union Station tomorrow morning, so they will terminate at the L’Enfant Station.
We plan to run ONLY the following trains to the L’Enfant Station tomorrow morning:
Fredericksburg Line:
-Train 302 departs Spotsylvania at 5:06 a.m.
-Train 308 departs Spotsylvania at 6:01 a.m.
-Train 312 departs Spotsylvania at 7:06 a.m.
Manassas Line
-Train 324 departs Broad Run at 5:21 a.m.
-Train 328 departs Broad Run at 6:16 a.m.
-Train 332 departs Broad Run at 8:01 a.m.
The following trains will NOT run tomorrow morning:
-Fredericksburg Line trains 300, 304, 306, 310 and 314
-Manassas Line Trains 322, 326, 330, and 321
We will send additional updates as needed.
The afternoon service will also be affected and we will provide that schedule as early as we can based on any new developments. The plan is for trains in the afternoon to originate at L’Enfant as they did today. At a minimum, we plan to operate Fredericksburg Line Trains 305, 309, and 313, and Manassas Line Trains 329 and 335. If circumstances change and we are able to operate additional service, we will let you know.
We apologize for this disruption to your commute and we will follow up with our regional partners to review the incident."