VRE offers free rides after massive delays

Virginia Railway Express offered free ride certificates to their customers Wednesday after multiple trains were delayed in the summer heat.

Fredericksburg line train 309, coming from Fredericksburg to Washington's Union Station, was late making it back to pickup passengers for its 5:15 p.m. departure from the Washington rail hub.

After completing it’s midday run as train 301, which left Union Station at 12:55 p.m., the train encountered problems on its return trip south of Franconia, said VRE spokeswoman April Maguigad.

When it reached Union Station, passengers boarded, but the train and left about an hour late.

Another VRE train bound for Manassas, which left Union Station before delayed train 309 did, stopped in Crystal City after the engineer saw smoke coming from the axels. VRE decided to move passengers from that train onto another train, said Maguigad, which caused train 309 to be delayed once more.

Train 311 bound for Fredericksburg, which left Union Station at 6 p.m., was also stopped because of the delays in Crystal City, said Maguigad.

It wasn’t until about 8 p.m., when the stranded passengers in Crystal City were moved to another train, that the rail line delays eased.

VRE spokesman Mark Roeber said all of the delayed trains had working air conditioning.

To get the free ride tickets, VRE asks that you visit their Web site.