VRE’s General Counsel to Retire
Happy August, VIPs. As summer winds down, so does the long and impactful career of one of VRE’s most dedicated members: VRE General Counsel—and at one point acting CEO—Steve MacIsaac.
Steve has been with VRE since the very beginning. He recalls being asked to sit in on a meeting with members of NVTC who were interested in launching a commuter rail service. Years later, the very same Attorney General who sent him to that meeting joked, “I feel like you went to that meeting and never came back.” That initial conversation sparked a decades-long career tackling the legal hurdles of getting a commuter rail line off the ground and keeping it running.
In the early days, when VRE didn’t even have a name yet, everything felt like one challenge after the next. The concept was straightforward enough: the region’s highways were a mess and only getting worse. So why not make use of the existing freight rail lines that already stretch across Northern Virginia? It sounded simple, but Steve soon realized that introducing passenger rail onto freight corridors was anything but. There were issues with insurance, liability, and access agreements—complicated and frustrating at times, but also fascinating from a legal lens, which is what kept Steve going.
As a proud public servant and armed with a strong belief in the importance of mass transportation, Steve was there to see VRE through. “It just made sense,” he says. He joined a small but driven team of people who shared a vision for what VRE could become, and together they pushed through the multi-year effort to make it a reality. Steve often credits the success of VRE to the determination of Steve Roberts—who he refers to as the “father of VRE”—for never giving up on the project, especially when others might have walked away.
Looking Back, Moving Forward
Not every lawyer gets to dedicate their career to one cause and watch it grow from the ground up. Reflecting on his time with VRE, Steve calls it deeply satisfying—not just for seeing the deals through, but for seeing the results firsthand: a service that has changed how people move around the region.
He remembers riding the inaugural trains on both the Fredericksburg and Manassas lines. Sitting in those train cars, he looked around and thought about all the agreements, contracts, and negotiations that had made that moment possible. From the access deals with Norfolk Southern and CSX, to the pivotal legislation that addressed liability concerns and allowed VRE trains to travel into D.C. instead of stopping short at Crystal City—it was all part of the journey.
When asked what he’d like riders to know as he prepares to retire, Steve doesn’t hesitate to shout out the VRE staff. He urges passengers to take a moment and think about everything that goes into their daily commute—from the mechanics keeping the trains running to the smiling conductor welcoming them aboard. “It all works because of a team of people who care deeply about getting it right.”
Steve’s legacy at VRE is more than just legal work—it’s a reminder that behind every train ride are people who believed in the vision and put in the work to make it happen. And for Steve, it’s been a journey worth staying for.