Soil testing at the planned Potomac Shores Virginia Railway Express station has come back clean, clearing a long-standing hurdle so staff can schedule a public groundbreaking with the developer.
VRE Operations Board Chair Andrea Bailey and CEO Katie Choe told the board at its Sept. 18 meeting that work had been paused pending the soil check. With the tests clean, the next step is a groundbreaking ceremony.
“We are, I would say, leaps closer, just another step closer, but leaps closer to this happening,” Choe said. “We are in the process of working with the developer to get the groundbreaking scheduled and certainly will invite all of you to that groundbreaking.”
She noted remaining coordination with the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority and Michael McLaughlin on final paperwork. No date, cost, or builder was given.
The station has been promised for more than a decade. Governor Terry McAuliffe broke ground with a golden shovel on July 31, 2014, for what was then a $14 million station to be built by developer SunCal and open in 2017. The design placed platforms below a bluff overlooking the Potomac River, with elevators and walkways connecting riders from the town center above. Potomac Local News reported the ceremony at the time and later documented the years of delay that followed. By 2018 the cost had risen and nothing had been built at the site; by late 2019 the project was still in design. Officials attributed the holdup in part to the pace of third-track work and multi-agency coordination.
Supporting pieces have advanced under later developer Biddle Real Estate Ventures. A roughly $24 million, 350-space parking garage is complete. Officials and executives broke ground in November 2024 on the station house, a roughly 20,000-square-foot retail building with an arch leading to a riverfront boardwalk. The actual station platforms and rail access have remained the unfinished piece, gated by land transfer from CSX and the soil work now reported as complete.
The site sits near the old Cherry Hill landfill area at Cockpit Point. Earlier plans involving soil movement and a land gift for storage were revised; the developer is responsible for testing and managing excess soil to applicable standards, with VPRA overseeing handling on the right-of-way. The Sept. 18 update is the first public confirmation that the soil tested clean.
The station is intended to serve the large residential and commercial development in Dumfries on the Fredericksburg Line between Rippon and Quantico. Board members have described it as a way to grow ridership. No further timeline was offered at the Sept. 18 meeting.
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