Crystal City is an Intermediate stop on the combined VRE Line between Alexandria and Washington, DC. It services primarily commuters coming from Virginia to reach the huge number of office buildings in Northern Virginia. The station's single platform means that all reverse peak trains (one AM and two PM only to Manassas) skip the station.
Passengers wanting to reach the Washington Metro Crystal City Station (the connection to VRE is shown on the Metro Map) have a confusing walk south with the shortest connection by walking through the Crystal City Shops shopping mall following signs for VRE out to an exit to Crystal Drive. Unfortunately, these exit doors don't lead to the VRE station but passengers continue to have to walk north a little on Crystal Drive before crossing it with the station extremely hard to find. When I visited the station, I did help one lost tourist who was told to take the Metro somewhere and walked into the VRE station thinking it was the Metro, which led to an interesting conversation of me trying to explain the differences between the two different train services.
Passengers reach the station from a single entrance from Crystal Drive by walking along a single non-descript sidewalk along the edge of the private driveway of an apartment complex, just north of the National Landing Water Park. The Water Park is an outdoor-plaza style dining establishment with outdoor stalls serving high end-style food. The station's single entrance is at the end of this driveway that leads to a private parking garage. Here a single standard VRE metal shelter covers TVMs on one side and information panels on the opposite side, with lots of Proof of Payment and No trespassing signs.
This entrance immediately leads to the basically at the southern end of the station's single low-level platform, along Track 3, the westernmost of three tracks through the station area. The rest of the platform almost entirely covered by the normal VRE station metal canopy structure, with small, exposed areas at each end. The northern end contains an emergency use only level crossing to allow a train to in theory stop on the other two tracks. The southern end of the platform has an oddly placed on platform bike rack.
Photos 1-54: September 6, 2024;
