Commuters who regularly ride Amtrak between Virginia and D.C. will have to reroute until Oct. 26 due to a closure for a “critical” infrastructure upgrade.
After service ends Friday night, work will begin inside the First Street Tunnel south of Union Station, closing trips to and from Alexandria.
During the closure, Amtrak will provide three round-trip buses between Alexandria and Union Station, along with several express bus routes connecting passenger rail service stops to the District.
Amtrak also suggests on its website that riders take the D.C. Metrorail Yellow or Blue lines from the King Street-Old Town station, a short walk from the Alexandria Amtrak station, to reach D.C. during the improvements.
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The work, called the “Pause for Progress” project, was announced in late August. It will replace track components and improve reliability at the “A-Interlocking” track control point between the two stations.
“The existing switches and crossovers are beyond their service life, requiring a 10-mph speed restriction that impacts operations,” an Amtrak news release said. “A short-term, coordinated outage is more efficient due to the confined tunnel environment and limited access, making phased construction impractical.”
A spokesperson with the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority, which operates the Amtrak Virginia route in partnership with Amtrak, told The Washington Sun the line between Alexandria and Union Station is vital to its service and that nearly 600,000 passengers used the tunnel to travel between Virginia and the Northeast last year.
“All of our trains travel through the tunnel when arriving and departing Union Station, and approximately 40% of our passengers connect to Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, so access to Union Station is necessary,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Amtrak did not respond to a request for further comment.
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