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Virginia Railway Express to run ‘Firecracker Specials’
Let’s see. The major stations of Broad Run, Manassas, and Fredericksburg will not be served. The station closest to the National Mall fireworks (L’Enfant) will not be served. Trains will start loading 10" before departure. Does this mean there will be a 10" dwell time at all stations? What hath God wrought?
David, it looks like they have padded the regular schedule by about 8 min at each stop served to allow for the increased boarding times (but make up for some of it with skipped stops). With lots of families with kids and a full train, you need 10 min for boarding a train with steps up from a low platform. Also, it looks like this train is clearly targeted at families in the suburbs who don’t normally take the train but don’t want to deal with DC traffic, so the stops being served all have lots of free parking and probably easier access than the “in town” Fredericksburg and Manassas stops.
$10 even per child? That’s $50 for a family of 5 that could get there much cheaper by other means. I guess they are not too interested in volume.