Virginia Railway Express wants a federal planning grant to study how extreme heat, inland flooding and storms could affect its tracks and stations. The Operations Board on Sept. 18 recommended authorization to submit that application jointly with the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority.
The recommendation covers the U.S. Department of Transportation PROTECT planning-grant round for fiscal years 2024 through 2026. PROTECT is the Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-Saving Transportation program. Chief Executive Officer Katie Choe told the board she expects the grant to be about $800,000, fully reimbursed, with no local match. That figure is her expectation. It is not an award, and the written item does not state a dollar amount.
Chair Andrea Bailey, a Prince William County supervisor, presided at the Sept. 18, 2026, meeting at the PRTC / OmniRide Transit Center, 14700 Potomac Mills Road in Woodbridge. No one spoke in public comment. The recommendation carried on a voice vote.
The written item names VRE as the lead applicant and the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority as the joint applicant. The Federal Highway Administration issued the notice of funding opportunity on Aug. 27, 2026. The memo says resilience planning studies, if selected, are funded at a 100 percent federal share. Submitting the application has no fiscal impact. If VRE is selected, an amendment to the operating and capital budget would come back to the Operations Board for approval and referral to the commissions.
Prince William County Supervisor Tom Gordy asked whether proximity to waterways has raised concerns in recent years. VRE planning staff — Choe identified the speaker as Christine, the lead on the application — pointed to Broad Run Station and Piper Lane, next to Broad Run. Prince William County maintains the road. Staff said floodwater in an extreme event can rise to the entrances of the VRE parking lot.
That flooding is a known problem at the end of the Manassas Line. Potomac Local News reported in September 2024 that Piper Lane frequently floods after heavy rain, and that VRE had planned a bridge from Route 28 by way of Residency Road so drivers and people on foot would not have to use Piper Lane to reach the station. The station sits at Manassas Regional Airport.
The same site is in the middle of a project to extend the train yard and add parking for later VRE service. Potomac Local News reported in November 2017 that the work was funded with money from the builders of the Interstate 66 Express toll lanes. Express Mobility Partners, the private team on those lanes, paid the state $579 million, and $128 million of it was set aside for Manassas Line projects, including two new storage tracks at Broad Run and a parking plan then shown as 975 new and replacement spaces. In April 2026, Potomac Local News reported the yard expansion was at 95 percent design and was expected to take about two years to build once property acquisitions and permits were finished.
On the railroad, staff cited track close to the Potomac River in the area of Potomac Shores as another reason to study the system with the passenger-rail authority. Gordy said the examples showed why the board should seek the grant.
The written scope is wider than those two sites. It calls for a study of risks to rail operations from extreme heat, inland flooding, and intensifying storms with extreme wind and rain, across VRE’s operating territory, including infrastructure the commissions do not own. The item describes the work as a follow-up to a higher-level desktop analysis by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments Transportation Planning Board. If funded, the study would develop conceptual projects from that analysis. The written asset list includes Broad Run maintenance-and-storage-facility parking, not only the station platform.
A member asked about cybersecurity, including artificial intelligence and utilities at stations. Staff said that subject will come back in a closed session in October. The board did not take it up at the Sept. 18 meeting.
