Washouts on the tracks caused most train service across the D.C. area to shut down Monday, forcing thousands to use local roads or the Metro system for their commute.
Amtrak, which has routes between D.C. and Maryland and D.C. and Virginia, still was not running rail service south of D.C. as of Monday afternoon.
Trains running north of D.C. were stopped overnight Sunday but had resumed service just after 6 a.m. Monday morning.
Further south, Virginia Railway Express was wiped out completely due to the storm and could face the same fate today, according to spokesman Mark Roeber.
In addition, massive amounts of water destabilizing the railways, made operating the trains too dangerous Monday, Roeber said.
A determination about Tuesday’s rail access would be announced by 4:30 this morning on the company’s Web site at www.vre.org.
VRE runs a Manassas line and a Fredericksburg line that serve about 15,500 customers a day.
Downed trees, flooding and stopped freight trains were the reasons the Maryland Department of Transportation opted to cancel the Brunswick and Camden routes Monday.
Bob Sullivan, a spokesman for CSX, which owns the rails on which VRE operates, said excessive rainwater caused problems at three different track locations in Virginia.
“In a couple of cases, the understructure of the track was washed away by the floodwaters,” Sullivan said Monday. “We’re working to make those repairs as quickly as we can.”
“The impact was rather significant, especially through Alexandria,” said Marc Magliari, a spokesman for Amtrak. “In Maryland, the water has been going down and we’re trying to have the afternoon be as normal as possible.”
