How to go from Chantilly to Richmond VA by bus or train?

Question

How to go from Chantilly to Richmond VA by bus or train?

Answer 1

You can take a Virginia Railway Express train from Manassas or other station near Chantilly to Washington, and from there an Amtrak train to Richmond (there are two stations, Main Street Station is at Downtown).  The VRE trip takes an hour, there are four trains monday to friday (from Manassas 5:11, 6:22, 7:27 am and 5:16 pm), costs US$ 7.20 and ends at Washington Union Station.  From Washington Union there are two trains that serve Main Street station and 8 that serve the suburban Richmond station.  The trip takes between 1h 55 to 2h 17, the fare varies from US$ 24 to 47, but if you purchased quite in advance the fare is lower.  As far as I can see in the web, there are no local buses in Chantilly and no buses to Richmond from there.

Answer 2

Metrobus routes 20 and 12 provide rush hour service from the Chantilly and Centreville areas to the Vienna/Fairfax-GMU Metrorail station on the Orange Line (see timetables below).  From there, take the Metro to the King Street station, where you'll find a seamless transfer from there to the Alexandria Amtrak station, which lies just across the railroad tracks.  Take the King Street exit, head south out of the station through the faregates and turn left to cross underneath the bridge.  Sometimes a gate is open to allow you to use a stairwell underneath the bridge to access the station directly.  Otherwise, continue walking forward and turn left at the first sidewalk you see.  Fares from Alexandria are slightly cheaper, the trip slightly shorter (on par with driving), and the Metro will get you there for about the same price as going downtown to Union Station.  I use Richmond Main Street station because it is served by GRTC's Broad Street 6 bus, and several other buses are available a few blocks away from the station at 14th & Main.

Answer 3

Take a bus, it's not really that long of a drive. Maybe 4 hours. By train you'd be paying out the nose and it's not worth it for that short of a drive.