The Virginia Railway Express is drawing closer to reaching its full capacity for passengers, and will be challenged to find creative ways to serve more customers in 2011.

A new record number of passengera — 19,912 — rode VRE on Jan. 6, according to The Free Lance-Star. The system's daily capacity is thought to be 20,000. And VRE's top-10 ridership days have all occurred in the past year.

Some of that creativity will be tasked to Fairfax County Supervisor Sharon Bulova, who will soon take over as chairman of the VRE Operations Board. It likely won't be easy — the Star also reports that state funding for VRE is decreasing this year.