The Virginia Railway Express reminds me of Herman Melville's character, Bartleby the Scrivener. Whenever asked to do his job, he replied, "I would prefer not to."

I write this on Inauguration Day. Hundreds of thousands of people attended the presidential inauguration in Washington. Thousands of VRE passengers are not federal employees, and for many of them this was not a holiday. Thousands of riders would have traveled on VRE that day, and a lot of them would have paid above-average fares, buying undiscounted single-ride tickets.

If only VRE had operated the trains! But VRE seems to reply: "We would prefer not to."

Stephen Dunham

Spotsylvania