VRE Ridership Reaches 20,000 Daily

CEO Dale Zehner said ridership is the highest it's ever been, in an interview with WTOP.  Zehner attributes the growth to, "Congestion getting worse and our on-time [is] getting better."

Earlier this year, Zehner told a Braddock District transportation town hall meeting .  At that time, ridership had reached 19,500 daily trips.  "We can't let the system degrade," Zehner said.  "We must maintain the service levels we have today in cleanliness, customer care and mechanical maintenance, while at the same time working toward adding more cars to the trains and more trains to the system."

Zehner said VRE was able to improve its service when it changed from working with Amtrak, the original operator, to Keolis.  "In my opinion, Keolis is doing a much better job than Amtrak did," said Zehner.

Keolis Rail Services America is a subsidiary of the France-based Keolis Group.