VRE riders will have a chance to meet the system's managers

Date published: 5/14/2006

VIRGINIA RAILWAY EXPRESS passengers can meet VRE's managers at the Fredericksburg train station on Wednesday morning.

Managers will be on the platform to greet riders and answer questions throughout the morning rush hour.

The first VRE train departs at 5:15 a.m., the last at 7:50 a.m. Riders will probably get to meet a CSX manager as well.

CSX Assistant Vice President Jay Westbrook was on hand for the afternoon Meet the Management session in Crystal City in Arlington last month.

Stafford riders can meet the VRE management at the Leeland Road station on the morning of May 31 and at the Brooke station on June 14.

With VRE trains running on time more often, riders may have fewer complaints against VRE, and with gas prices climbing, many riders have probably forgotten about VRE's 6 percent fare increase at the end of June.

Still, broken-down trains, balky ticket machines and blank information displays are cause for some complaints.

And even when things are running smoothly, it takes some courage and a sense of public responsibility to go out and meet your passengers face to face.

In person and in monthly online chats, VRE's Chief Executive Officer Dale Zehner has done a decent job of fielding riders' complaints, questions and occasional compliments.

"Customers enjoy sharing their good riding experiences as well as the occasional goof-ups," says Pete Sklannik, former chief operating officer of VRE.

He has participated in Meet the Management sessions at the Long Island Rail Road in New York, at VRE and at Trinity Railway Express in Texas, where he heads up that commuter rail service between Dallas and Fort Worth. "In all three locations, customers expressed surprise that they were actually meeting the real railroad management, not just customer service reps," he said.

Meet the Management "venues also provided opportunities for railroad management to respond to a complaint right on the spot," Sklannik said.

Once, at New York's Penn Station, more than a dozen customers approached the Long Island Rail Road's President Chuck Hoppe, "and quite vocally complained about train delays departing east to Long Island," Sklannik said.

Date published: 5/14/2006