City leaders and various transportation officials broke ground yesterday (Wednesday) on a bundle of improvement projects at Amtrak’s Alexandria Union Station.
Four upcoming projects seek to expand passenger and freight rail service at Alexandria Union Station at 110 Callahan Drive, while improving safety for passengers and the city. The projects coincide with VPRA’s Transforming Rail in Virginia (TRV) initiative, which aims to expand the state’s rail service by separating passenger and freight trains and building new infrastructure.
Planned undertakings at the 120-year-old station include the construction of a fourth railway track, as well as the replacement of two aging railroad bridges at King Street and Commonwealth Avenue. The streets underneath the bridges are also slated for renovations.
“This project is truly transformative,” Vice Mayor Sarah Bagley said at the groundbreaking. “It is going to change the experience for everybody traveling up and down the East Coast, but hopefully stop in Alexandria as well.”
The city is planning for a 2030 completion date in alignment with TRV’s Long Bridge Project, a 1.8-mile railway improvement to address “one of the biggest rail bottlenecks on the East Coast,” according to VPRA.
“This Alexandria four-track project is essential to improve the efficiency and the fluidity of operations in the state,” CSX Vice President Tammy Butler said. “Everyone recognizes the existing two-track Long Bridge bottleneck.”
Overall, the rail partners hope to increase the state’s daily Amtrak round trips from eight to 13, expand rail service on the Fredericksburg and Manassas lines and introduce new weekend service.
“Our throughput is going up by 33% when we finish,” Virginia Transportation Secretary W. Sheppard “Shep” Miller III said. “It’s going to be a big deal.”
Rep. Don Beyer, who helped introduce the Long Bridge Act in 2020, was in attendance alongside former VRE Operation Board member, Rep. James Walkinshaw. The two lawmakers voiced their support and approval for the project.
Projects at Alexandria Union Station and their descriptions are listed below.
Construct a fourth Alexandria track
This project entails six miles of new railroad and “related infrastructure” between Alexandria and Arlington. A new track will be installed from Arlington’s Long Bridge Aquatic Center to a location west of the Alexandria Station, which will offer both Amtrak and VRE service.
“When the fourth track project is complete, we’re going to have two dedicated passenger tracks, two dedicated train tracks, come south of here, all the way up to Union Station,” VPRA Executive Director DJ Stadtler said. “That will allow both the freight and the passenger to operate together, independently.”
Budget: $238.4 million
Renovate Alexandria’s VRE station
VRE intends to create safer boarding conditions by replacing its current track crossing with a tunnel that connects the two platforms with elevators and stairs. The center platform will be updated to accommodate increased capacity from trains on either side. The project also seeks to eliminate the need for step boxes “due to unusually low platform heights.”
Budget: $133.7 million
Replace bridges at King Street and Commonwealth Avenue
Aging railroad bridges over both streets will be replaced with new designs by VPRA and CSX that are up-to-code. These aim to improve rail service “by minimizing delays caused by service interruptions.” This project also comes with safety enhancements for “pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists who travel beneath the bridges.”
“The things that this station does and will do and now will do so much better, are because of this transformative project,” Bagley said. “The bridges — I want to highlight from the Alexandria perspective, they are not only going to improve the experience for rail travel, but they’re going to improve the experience for everybody underneath that bridge, to drive under it, to walk under it, to bike under it.”
Budget: $97.7 million
Improve the streetscape at King Street and Commonwealth Avenue
In tandem with the bridge replacements, this city-led project seeks to create “a new streetscape” and improve the space underneath the bridges. The city intends to cover this project’s costs and is still estimating the budget, according to a release.
