L'Enfant is the first stop on the Virginia Railway Express after trains leave Union Station. The station allows commuters from various parts of Virginia to not have to double-back to their offices (or get off in Alexandria and clog Metro trains) at the large concretion of office buildings in the Southwest Federal Center. The density of commuters trying to reach this area has resulted in ongoing discussions to expand the station to also potentially be the terminus of some MARC commuter trains, providing more one seat rides and allowing commuters from Maryland and West Virginia to not contend with a Metro ride (requiring a transfer) from Union Station. The station (at least pre-pandemic) is the busiest VRE Station with double the ridership of Union Station.
The station receives service only from peak direction Virginia Railway Express rush hour trains, with the single AM and two PM reverse-peak Manassas Line trains having to skip the station. This is a real pity because having those very empty trains stopping at L'Enfant could provide some MARC commuters easier access to their offices. MARC and VRE (although it was suspended from 2015 to 2024) have a cross-honoring agreement that allow multi-ride ticket holders (10 ride, weekly or monthly tickets) with a ticket to or from Union Station to transfer to the other system for a free continued ride into Maryland or Virginia. This is because the station was built on the cheap with only one platform, although planning is being done to rebuild the station as an island platform along with a forth track through the station.
A few Amtrak trains (at least used to, last references I found were in 2022) stop or stopped at L'Enfant Plaza as part of the VRE step-up program (discontinued during the pandemic in 2020) that allowed VRE multi-ride ticket holders to ride Amtrak trains with a special $5 or $10 step-up ticket. L'Enfant was never a regular Amtrak station and regular Amtrak tickets could never be booked to or from the station (it has no Amtrak station code), although some savvy Amtrak travelers would get on and off these stopping trains to be closer to their offices in the L'Enfant area. Otherwise, all Amtrak trains to and from Virginia (including the Northeast Regional and long-distance trains) bypass the station.
The station was built and opened by VRE with its start of service in 1992, although some local trains on the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroads stopped at a small 7th Street station until the 1950s. The station contains a single low-level (like all VRE stations) side platform on the northern side of what is a three-track line located on a concrete viaduct. This line was originally electrified primarily for freight trains by the Pennsylvania Railroad in the 1930s but passenger trains through the area have always been steam or diesel with the engine change occurring inside Union Station. The support beams for a centenary system are still visible through the station.
The platform contains a canopy structure that covers most of the platform, except at its western, Virginia-bound end. This canopy structure is in the normal VRE style with tubular bluish-grey painted support beams holding up an angled roof. Little older-style diamond L'Enfant signs line the platform. This canopy structure extends to cover the staircases down to the station's two main exits. One leads up from 6th Street SW, at the Union Station-bound eastern end of the platform (that is actually the southernmost point on the platform). The other leads down near the western end to 7th Street SW.
ADA access to the platform is open air and feels like an afterthought. At the western, Virginia-bound, end of the platform a ramp leads gradually down from the platform to a sidewalk through a grassy plaza. This leads to C Street SW.
Tucked on the eastern side of this plaza, just below the edge of the VRE platform is the one elevator entrance to the L'Enfant Plaza Metro Station (with service on all Metro Lines except the Red Line). Escalator entrances aren't directly connected to the rail station but there is one at the corner of Maryland Avenue SW and 7th Street SW on the same block as the VRE station, just on the opposite side of an office building that towers above the station platform.
Photos 1-15: October 11, 2015; 16-18: August 17, 2024;
