Last Summer, Mike and Susan were planning a move to the DC area.  One of their first considerations was, of course, good schools for their two daughters.

VRE Virginia Railway Express Commuter Train

But a second consideration (and almost as important) was Mike’s commute to DC.   Mike has pretty long hours at his job and they really didn’t want him spending even more time away from the family.

Since Mike gets a subsidy for taking public transportation into work, being near a rail station was an interesting proposition.

First, they chose to research the school boundaries near the VRE (Virginia Railway Express)

What is the Virginia Railway Express (VRE)?

The VRE is a commuter rail service which connects Washington D.C. with parts of the Northern Virginia suburbs.

In Fairfax County, the VRE operates on Amtrak rails (which explains why the end point of the VRE in DC is Union Station).

Since the VRE is a commuter service, it only runs Monday through Friday (except on select holidays), and its schedule is restricted to commuting times (i.e. it does not run throughout the day).

Mike and Susan considered the VRE to be a viable option for Mike’s commute, so they started researching the school boundaries which would be most accessible to it.

School boundaries accessible to the VRE (the Virginia Railway Express)

School boundaries accessible to the Virginia Railway Express (VRE)

The 6 school boundaries most accessible to the VRE are:

• Robinson (the Northeast side)
• Lake Braddock (North)
• West Springfield (North)
• Lee
• Edison
• Hayfield

And, since schools were Mike and Susan’s first priority, they turned their attention to see each of those schools’ performance:

School Rankings for schools serving areas near the VRE

For the high schools serving areas near the VRE, here is how they rank in Fairfax County using our Ultimate Ranking©*

After this quick research, Mike and Susan selected the Top 3 school boundaries that met their criteria of:

• Good schools for the girls and
• Have the VRE conveniently close-by

If you want to commute to DC using the VRE, which boundary would you choose?

To find out, use the Fairfax County Map of School Boundaries and find the best place to live for your needs:

Log in to the Fairfax County Map of School Boundaries

Log in to the Fairfax County Map of School Boundaries (a.k.a the Affordability Map) to see the location of each of these boundaries within Fairfax County and to choose your ideal boundary.

* Click here to log in and access the Ultimate Fairfax County High Schools Ranking©

If you haven’t subscribed yet, why wait?

Downloading The No-Tears Guide to Moving to Fairfax, VA is free, and you’ll get access to our unique home-search (by school boundary).

Plus, you get the Fairfax County Real Estate Affordability Map, AND access to detailed information about each Fairfax County School boundary.

More information about the VRE

For a comprehensive VRE map and VRE train schedules, visit VRE.org

Train image by John Gray on flickr, maps by Google

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