 Manassas, VA | Amtrak Virginia: Northeast Regional | Alexandria, VA  |
Burke Centre is a train station that originally opened as just a VRE station with the rest of the Manassas Line on June 22, 1992. The station was renovated and rebuilt with a proper bus loop and a large five-level parking garage constructed that was dedicated on June 28, 2008. Amtrak service to the station first began on August 1, 2009 as a stop on the newly extended Northeast Regional to Lynchburg (also nicknamed the Lynchburger). The Crescent and Cardinal have always used the Manassas Line to enter Washington DC but never stopped at this station, bypassing it to this day.
Originally Amtrak tickets were not able to be purchased from Burke Center with the station only for VRE passengers with multi-ride passes using the Amtrak cross-honoring/step-up program. On January 18, 2010, the station became a regular Amtrak station, although after a second round-trip train was added to Roanoke in 2022 (after the first train was extended from Lynchburg in 2017), only the Amtrak train from Roanoke in the morning and to Roanoke in the evening stops at the station, this is probably because of the single tracked nature of the station. Unlike other single-tracked station the first PM reverse peak trip does stop at Burke Center, with the later PM reverse peak trip, and AM reverse peak trip still skipping the station. This means there is an inbound train at 4:06pm and an outbound train at 4:08pm, as of Spring 2025.
Today, the station's new parking garage contains most of the station's 1,515 parking spaces. There are also two small parking lots on each side of the parking garage. A baseball diamond is also visible from the station platform sharing the same parking lots, with some paths leading to some apartment complexes through the woods south of the station. The parking lot hosts an outdoor farmers market on Saturdays during summer.
The platform is located on embankment above street level. There are two platform entrances, one is a covered pathway that leads directly to level 2 of the parking garage. This pathway arrives at the garage inside a brick walled lobby with stairs, and the garage's only two elevators that have a little tower with a decorative clock on top of their elevator shaft.
The second entrance is nearby and contains a staircase and a switchbacking ramp down to the station's bus loop with three bus bays looping around a stretch of greenery. This entrance feels original and like it was originally the only entrance to the station. The bus bays have a couple of blue with red roofed shelters in the same style as the canopy structure that runs about four car lengths along the platform connecting both platform entrances.
There is a final very small shelter at the western end of the platform with a sign that says accessible boarding area, I don't know if this is still the case as the only accessible boarding area since VRE's now entirely gallery car fleet uses built in wheelchair lifts that can be on multiple cars. Although Amtrak lists that there is aa wheelchair lift located at this station, I didn't notice it on the platform, or a clear storage shed for it.
Photos 1-63: September 6, 2024;
