The new name would put the city’s airport — one of the busiest in the state — on the map, literally.
In a unanimous vote on Monday, Nov. 25, the Manassas City Council will urge Virginia Railway Express to change the name of the first station on the system’s Manassas line from Broad Run / Airport to Manassas Airport Station.
The resolution now goes to the commuter railroad’s operations board — the only commuter railroad in the state — and to the office of Prince William County Brentsville District Jeanine Lawson (who also sits on the railroad board) for consideration.
- The VRE Operations Board will have the final say on the proposed name change.
Support for the name change comes as the station will undergo a $30 million expansion to include 600 new parking spaces located across the tracks, on the opposite side of the current station parking lot, and a new pedestrian tunnel will be built, linking the new parking lot to the station platform.
- The current station parking lot will become a locomotive storage yard.
- The improvements are set to be completed by 2022, in time for the newly added E-ZPass Express Lanes on Interstate 66 to open.
Manassas City owns the airport, which is the busiest municipal airport in Virginia, with some 90,000 takeoffs and landings each year, generating $1.1 billion in economic impact in the state in 2016.
