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A 60-year-old proposal to bring passenger transit back to the Washington & Old Dominion corridor is drawing renewed attention after the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission received more than 60 requests to revisit the idea.
Most of the recent messages urged the commission to ask the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation to study whether a rail line could run along the W&OD Trail right-of-way between Purcellville and the East Falls Church Metro station. Nearly all supported the concept, although at least one opposed it, NVTC Executive Director Kate Mattice said during the commission’s March 5 meeting.
Falls Church City Council member Justine Underhill, the city’s primary representative on the NVTC board, asked whether a feasibility study was under consideration.
Mattice said the commission had not examined the proposal recently. But NVTC did study a similar idea in 1965, when the corridor was still being used by freight trains.
The commission’s board supported the concept in July 1966 and reaffirmed its position in December 1966 and August 1967. A report from that period suggested transit through Fairfax and Arlington counties could halve commuting times and create a high-speed link between Washington, D.C., and Dulles International Airport.
The analysis projected that service could begin by the mid-1970s if the region secured funding and political support. It also outlined a major construction effort: rebuilding the railroad, adding a second track closer to Washington, separating grade crossings, electrifying the route and constructing stations and parking lots.
None of that happened.
The Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, which owned the W&OD Railroad and its right-of-way, received permission from the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1968 to close the line. The right-of-way was sold to Virginia Electric & Power Co., now Dominion Energy, for its power-transmission infrastructure.
Dominion continues to own that portion of the corridor. During the 1970s and 1980s, however, it sold the former railway line to the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority, now NOVA Parks, which used it to create the region’s first linear park.
Local transit supporters revived the rail concept in 2024 by forming the NOVA Transit Revitalization Advocacy Coalition, or NOVA-TRAC. The group argues that a commuter line beside the trail could reduce traffic and offer Loudoun County travelers a faster route into Washington than driving.
The Town of Hamilton in western Loudoun added its support in February 2025, passing a resolution that endorsed the possibility of a new feasibility study for rail in the W&OD corridor.
NVTC members did not take formal action at their March 5 meeting. Instead, they directed Mattice to contact NOVA Parks Executive Director Justin Wilson for more information, which is expected to return to the board later.
If rail service is ultimately restored beside some or all of the trail, it would be the corridor’s first passenger service since 1951, when the route became freight-only.