why are there no plans to extend Metro from Vienna all the way to Fairfax, or even Manassas?

FairfaxK Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> why are there no plans to extend Metro from Vienna
> all the way to Fairfax, or even Manassas?

WTF?

Why would they extend Metro to Fairfax or Manassas?

The only logical extension of the Orange line would be to Fair Lakes/Fair Oaks and Centreville. People from Manassas and Fairfax can drive to the damn Metro parking garage.

There was a bond referendum concerning extending the Metro down 66 around 2001. It didn't pass and the focus moved to extending to Dulles. It's a shame because 66 was built with the extension in mind and it wouldn't be nearly as costly a project as Dulles rail.

WashingTone Locian Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> FairfaxK Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > why are there no plans to extend Metro from
> Vienna
> > all the way to Fairfax, or even Manassas?
>
> WTF?
>
> Why would they extend Metro to Fairfax or
> Manassas?
>
> The only logical extension of the Orange line
> would be to Fair Lakes/Fair Oaks and Centreville.
> People from Manassas and Fairfax can drive to the
> damn Metro parking garage.

Typical NOVA way of thinking. There are plenty of other major metropolitan areas whose rail service extends much further out into its suburbs than the DC area.

Or maybe those of us in the west have seen what extending metro to springfield did to that area, and want no part of it. driving to vienna is like having a moat, no bridge wanted or needed thanks

Springfield was going to hell long before the Metro went there.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2009 02:49PM by Shadow.

Disagree Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> WashingTone Locian Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > FairfaxK Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > why are there no plans to extend Metro from
> > Vienna
> > > all the way to Fairfax, or even Manassas?
> >
> > WTF?
> >
> > Why would they extend Metro to Fairfax or
> > Manassas?
> >
> > The only logical extension of the Orange line
> > would be to Fair Lakes/Fair Oaks and
> Centreville.
> > People from Manassas and Fairfax can drive to
> the
> > damn Metro parking garage.
>
> Typical NOVA way of thinking. There are plenty of
> other major metropolitan areas whose rail service
> extends much further out into its suburbs than the
> DC area.


Because Manassas has VRE and it makes no fucking sense ripping up Fairfax City streets when people can take a five minute bus ride or drive to the Vienna Metro Station.

WhyUWant2RapeMe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Or maybe those of us in the west have seen what
> extending metro to springfield did to that area,
> and want no part of it. driving to vienna is like
> having a moat, no bridge wanted or needed thanks


The Metro has nothing to do with the fucking mess in the Mixing Bowl. It's nowhere near it, as a matter of fact.

WashingTone Locian Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Because Manassas has VRE and it makes no fucking
> sense ripping up Fairfax City streets when people
> can take a five minute bus ride or drive to the
> Vienna Metro Station.

There's no such thing as a five minute drive to the Vienna metro, unless you're 2 miles from Exit 62. What about the people who commute in from Centreville and westward? VRE Manassas lines leave from the CITY of Manassas and is not feasible for people that need to go to places other than the Springfield area and DC. Unfortunately the suburbs of DC have the same or more amount of employment than the city itself, which is something obviously somebody high up forgot to take into account before they let the builders shit out 5000 cookie-cutter townhouse developments.

Disagree Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> There's no such thing as a five minute drive to
> the Vienna metro, unless you're 2 miles from Exit
> 62. What about the people who commute in from
> Centreville and westward? VRE Manassas lines leave
> from the CITY of Manassas and is not feasible for
> people that need to go to places other than the
> Springfield area and DC.

That's why I said they need to extend the Orange Line to Fair Lakes and Centreville. Most of the people in the City of Fairfax are pretty damn close to that "2 miles from Exit 62."

WashingTone Locian Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> WTF?
>
> Why would they extend Metro to Fairfax or
> Manassas?
>
> The only logical extension of the Orange line
> would be to Fair Lakes/Fair Oaks and Centreville.
> People from Manassas and Fairfax can drive to the
> damn Metro parking garage.

I'd rather see the Orange Line head up 50 towards Chantilly. That area would probably benefit the most from TOD. Shit, even extending the line down 123 and then up 29 or 236/50 would also be beneficial. I would love to see them transform that area into mixed-use development rather than stick with the crap that they have there now.

As for extending it down the I-66 median, that would produce less TOD. Honestly, who in their right mind would want to live near an interstate highway?

What they have talked about is having a light rail line going along all of 50/29 from DC to Centerville, 236 from Alexandria to Chantilly and 28 from Sterling to Manassas. Those would probably see the light of way over Metro because light rail obviously costs a lot less.

WashingTone Locian Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That's why I said they need to extend the Orange
> Line to Fair Lakes and Centreville. Most of the
> people in the City of Fairfax are pretty damn
> close to that "2 miles from Exit 62."

I agree with the second part of your statement, Centreville is a lot better than nothing, and I can see a lot of people from Mannassas who commute to DC using that. But I'm not sure it would be the only "logical" idea for an extension, there are still a good number of people (and a lot more to come) from the Gainesville and even Warrenton areas that commute to places west of the District. I'm in Haymarket myself and I'm not sure the last time you've been out this way, but this place is springing to life. Route 15 may be in the process of being widened, but I have a feeling it's going to be a disaster from here on out. Residential construction is booming, and even commercial construction is picking up for some odd reason. I'm not saying a line running this far west will bring it in the most money, but at some point it will start bringing in a lot.

And this is the crux of my argument, the anticipation of development. If only we lived in a magical dreamland of cupcakes and gumdrop smiles, where infrastructure improvements didn't run more than 15 years behind everything else.

Dork Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Honestly, who in their right mind would want to live near an interstate highway?

I live about a 1/4 mile from 66 myself, and I can barely here it. It can be appealing to anybody looking to buy a place that cuts down on their commute (and the freak chance the Orange line actually gets extended). I know before I'm about to embark on a 45min quest down I-66 east in the morning, the last thing I want to do is sit at the 10 traffic lights between my development and the onramp.

Dork Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
Honestly, who in their right mind would want to live near an interstate highway?


Evidently a lot of people. There are literally hundreds of homes bordering the highways, with more being built every year. And people buy them and live in them. Everyday.

Just as some people see driving 40 miles into work everyday as acceptable. Different strokes for different folks.

WashingTone Locian Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> FairfaxK Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > why are there no plans to extend Metro from
> Vienna
> > all the way to Fairfax, or even Manassas?
>
> WTF?
>
> Why would they extend Metro to Fairfax or
> Manassas?
>
> The only logical extension of the Orange line
> would be to Fair Lakes/Fair Oaks and Centreville.
> People from Manassas and Fairfax can drive to the
> damn Metro parking garage.

You're joking right?

I really think a logical extension would be a new stop at Fair Lakes, Centreville, Manassas, and ending at Gainesville.

The metro stops at Vienna and its pointless. By the time you get to Vienna, why even bother getting on the metro, you already sat in traffic up until that point.

HIJACKER Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You're joking right?
>
> I really think a logical extension would be a new
> stop at Fair Lakes, Centreville, Manassas, and
> ending at Gainesville.
>
> The metro stops at Vienna and its pointless. By
> the time you get to Vienna, why even bother
> getting on the metro, you already sat in traffic
> up until that point.

Precisely. The point of public transportation is to use it as an alternative to driving. I can understand a quick ride to a parking lot, but sitting in traffic for 30+ minutes to get on a train for another 30+ minutes is asinine. The further west you're commuting from, the more Vienna feels like you're already at DC. Why bother stopping?

I know I'm a bit biased on this, because I literally both live and work off I-66. If the Orange line ran along the interstate west of Vienna, you could have stops at 50, Fair Lakes (7100), Centreville (where 29 intersects with 28), Manassas (234 Business), and Gainesville (29). I'm sure a ton of people wouldn't mind driving up to 66 to get on the Metro from there. I know I would use it as much as humanly possible.

I'd rather see 24/7/365 subway service than an extension of the metrorail line. For me, the primary reason I don't use the metro is not that it doesn't run to Centreville. It's that I don't want to bother learning which metro stop closes earlier, and having to stop whatever I'm doing so I can catch the last train home.

If they ran the metro down 66 to manassas/ centreville, id ride it around. People could do all their shopping all from teh metro. Start in manassas, shop on sudley rd, metro to fair lakes/fair oaks, metro to tysons. Think of how much the economy would benefit!

Let's just be grateful for now that metro is finally being routed to Tyson's and Reston, don't jump the gun especially in this economy.

The one and only reason that Metro is being extended out to Dulles is that there is a PERCEPTION that every world-class city across the globe has reasonable public transportation from the major airport(s) to the heart of downtown.

Where we got the idea that we had to be like every other major city in the world is beyond me!

You People Have No Clue Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The one and only reason that Metro is being
> extended out to Dulles is that there is a
> PERCEPTION that every world-class city across the
> globe has reasonable public transportation from
> the major airport(s) to the heart of downtown.
>
> Where we got the idea that we had to be like every
> other major city in the world is beyond me!

We already have Metro access from a major airport to downtown, did you forget about Reagan National?? Granted, that's a National airport, so lets take BWI (International), you can take the MARC Train from there to DC.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2009 11:26PM by HIJACKER.

So the almost 24 million passengers that utilize Dulles don't count?

Dulles is considerably larger than National and always will be. It's also able to land larger planes since it has larger runways. Seems to make sense to provide rail there.

The future plans as well as the right of way exists in the I-66 median for Metro from vienna to centreville. That is why you see 'stubs' at the end of the current tracks after the vienna station. I know when they were developing the Centreville Farms area, they left the area near I-66 and Stringfellow for a future Metro station, as well as the park and ride. Not sure if there are plans for a station in between, I can't recall any dedicated land for parking near US-50. I'm sure I'll be retired before this happens though.

Speaking of vienna, whomever designed the merging lanes there should be shot. It is almost impossible to merge into traffic going W/B during rush hour. It is mostly the jerks using the exit lane as a thru lane when traffic is bad. Thought this was illegal.

What are 'stubs'?


Metro Rider Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The future plans as well as the right of way
> exists in the I-66 median for Metro from vienna to
> centreville. That is why you see 'stubs' at the
> end of the current tracks after the vienna
> station. I know when they were developing the
> Centreville Farms area, they left the area near
> I-66 and Stringfellow for a future Metro station,
> as well as the park and ride. Not sure if there
> are plans for a station in between, I can't recall
> any dedicated land for parking near US-50. I'm
> sure I'll be retired before this happens though.
>
> Speaking of vienna, whomever designed the merging
> lanes there should be shot. It is almost
> impossible to merge into traffic going W/B during
> rush hour. It is mostly the jerks using the exit
> lane as a thru lane when traffic is bad. Thought
> this was illegal.

Breaking news tonite is that the Feds just approved the Orange line extension out to Nissan.

Stops will be at Fairfax Corners, Centreville (Rte. 28), and then non-stop to Nissan.

Construction has been fast-tracked with ground breaking in late April.

This is great news for I-66 commuters!!

More in the WaPo in the morning.

Metro Rider Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The future plans as well as the right of way
> exists in the I-66 median for Metro from vienna to
> centreville. That is why you see 'stubs' at the
> end of the current tracks after the vienna
> station. I know when they were developing the
> Centreville Farms area, they left the area near
> I-66 and Stringfellow for a future Metro station,
> as well as the park and ride. Not sure if there
> are plans for a station in between, I can't recall
> any dedicated land for parking near US-50. I'm
> sure I'll be retired before this happens though.
>
> Speaking of vienna, whomever designed the merging
> lanes there should be shot. It is almost
> impossible to merge into traffic going W/B during
> rush hour. It is mostly the jerks using the exit
> lane as a thru lane when traffic is bad. Thought
> this was illegal.

It can be tough to be excited about expansion when any of them won't really see the light of day until well after you leave/die. I'll only have a decent reason to care if maybe I keep my condo as a rental property or something, then I can get excited when its location will actually appeal to the city center folks and maybe bring in some more money?

And yeah, I see people pulling that all the time on the exit lane for 7100 going eastbound in the morning. I'm sure it's technically illegal, but I think the police are more concerned with the potential revenue of HOV violators during rush hour.

If you look at the most recent Fairfax County Transportation Plan there are 3 Metro stops planned between Vienna and Centreville. In particular there is a stop on the plan near the westbound on ramps of I66 at R29. For some $trange rea$on the Silver Line is being planned to extend into Loudoun County. In fact, the final planned stop on the Silver Line is currently in the midst of hundreds of acres of empty fields in the middle of nowhere.

newgatedenizen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If you look at the most recent Fairfax County
> Transportation Plan there are 3 Metro stops
> planned between Vienna and Centreville. In
> particular there is a stop on the plan near the
> westbound on ramps of I66 at R29. For some
> $trange rea$on the Silver Line is being planned to
> extend into Loudoun County. In fact, the final
> planned stop on the Silver Line is currently in
> the midst of hundreds of acres of empty fields in
> the middle of nowhere.

The official rationale for extending the $ilver Line into Loudoun i$ that, if Metro goe$ to Dulle$, they need $pace for a rail yard. There i$n't available $pace at Dulle$. $o, Metro can't $top at Dulle$, it ha$ to go on to Loudoun.

come back to bed, honey

Local History; my favorite.

The real question is why does fairfax city have a metro stop in the first place. As a political jurisdiction it has a small population. So why when the metro system was being planned did Fairfax city get a seat on the council? Because fairfax gave up it's already existing streetcar system for the new metro. The old railstation is close to where that club/bar "Bridges" is in the Mosby building,in old town fairfax. In fact they just paved the railbed and named the street railroad ave. if you fire up good old google maps you can see a thin line running between propertiess from railroad ave north. it goes through the neighborhoods, splitting streets, becomming farr beofre crossing 19/50 if you zoom in you can see the rubble of the bridges where it crossed streams and lastly the original station in oakton still exists as a private home. see here, 38.879487,-77.296876.

The tracks used to take you all the way into roslyn where you could transfer to the cities grid. The Troleys were quite expansive stretching all the way to mount vernon. the reason there is a loop in the gw parkway at mount vernon is so the trolleys could turn around. there was even a line that services fort meyer. see photo.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Fort_Myer_trolley_station.jpg

For any of you who are familiar with fort Meyer that is the old hospital near the back gate of Arlington Cemetary. the tracks woud have been where fort Mcnair road is now.

For more on the history of the metro system please read, The Great Society Subway by Professor Zachary Schrag.

WashingTone Locian Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> FairfaxK Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > why are there no plans to extend Metro from
> Vienna
> > all the way to Fairfax, or even Manassas?
>
> WTF?
>
> Why would they extend Metro to Fairfax or
> Manassas?
>
> The only logical extension of the Orange line
> would be to Fair Lakes/Fair Oaks and Centreville.
> People from Manassas and Fairfax can drive to the
> damn Metro parking garage.


Because Fairfax is like, less than a fucking mile away from Vienna. Also, the VRE goes out to Manassas. Do you know how much of a shitshow it would be if the metro went out to Manassas/Hoodbridge?

Fair Lakes/Fair Oaks I can agree with - the only real buses that go out there are the 29K (I think) and a couple Fairfax Connector buses.

- - -
http://bothsidesofthefence.wordpress.com
Because picking one side requires making a decision.

Champion Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Local History; my favorite.
>
> The real question is why does fairfax city
> have a metro stop in the first place. As a
> political jurisdiction it has a small population.
> So why when the metro system was being planned did
> Fairfax city get a seat on the council? Because
> fairfax gave up it's already existing streetcar
> system for the new metro. The old railstation is
> close to where that club/bar "Bridges" is in the
> Mosby building,in old town fairfax. In fact they
> just paved the railbed and named the street
> railroad ave. if you fire up good old google maps
> you can see a thin line running between
> propertiess from railroad ave north. it goes
> through the neighborhoods, splitting streets,
> becomming farr beofre crossing 19/50 if you zoom
> in you can see the rubble of the bridges where it
> crossed streams and lastly the original station in
> oakton still exists as a private home. see here,
> 38.879487,-77.296876.
>
> The tracks used to take you all the way into
> roslyn where you could transfer to the cities
> grid. The Troleys were quite expansive stretching
> all the way to mount vernon. the reason there is
> a loop in the gw parkway at mount vernon is so the
> trolleys could turn around. there was even a line
> that services fort meyer. see photo.
>
> http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a
> /Fort_Myer_trolley_station.jpg
>
> For any of you who are familiar with fort Meyer
> that is the old hospital near the back gate of
> Arlington Cemetary. the tracks woud have been
> where fort Mcnair road is now.
>
> For more on the history of the metro system please
> read, The Great Society Subway by Professor
> Zachary Schrag.

I don't think Fairfax City has had a trolley system for many years it ended much before metro was completed and didn't give it up for the metro. The automobile was the downfall of the trolley system, which I am sure was very inefficent compared to the current metro system. Where are you getting your facts?

Champion Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Local History; my favorite.
>
> The real question is why does fairfax city
> have a metro stop in the first place. As a
> political jurisdiction it has a small population.
> So why when the metro system was being planned did
> Fairfax city get a seat on the council? Because
> fairfax gave up it's already existing streetcar
> system for the new metro. The old railstation is
> close to where that club/bar "Bridges" is in the
> Mosby building,in old town fairfax. In fact they
> just paved the railbed and named the street
> railroad ave. if you fire up good old google maps
> you can see a thin line running between
> propertiess from railroad ave north. it goes
> through the neighborhoods, splitting streets,
> becomming farr beofre crossing 19/50 if you zoom
> in you can see the rubble of the bridges where it
> crossed streams and lastly the original station in
> oakton still exists as a private home. see here,
> 38.879487,-77.296876.
>
> The tracks used to take you all the way into
> roslyn where you could transfer to the cities
> grid. The Troleys were quite expansive stretching
> all the way to mount vernon. the reason there is
> a loop in the gw parkway at mount vernon is so the
> trolleys could turn around. there was even a line
> that services fort meyer. see photo.
>
> http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a
> /Fort_Myer_trolley_station.jpg
>
> For any of you who are familiar with fort Meyer
> that is the old hospital near the back gate of
> Arlington Cemetary. the tracks woud have been
> where fort Mcnair road is now.
>
> For more on the history of the metro system please
> read, The Great Society Subway by Professor
> Zachary Schrag.



Nice story, but the trolley stopped operating in FFX in 1937.

In 1896 a trolley line was built by the Washington, Arlington and Falls Church Railway from Rosslyn, through Clarendon and Ballston to Falls Church. In 1904 that line was extended to the city of Fairfax. The company struggled through bankruptcy and legal restrictions (losing the right to travel into DC in 1932) and in 1937 ceased operating trolleys.

So in 1904 they had decided that the development of Northern Virginia warranted extending some form of public transportation further west to Fairfax, but in the 105 years since, the area hasn't developed enough to go any further? Makes perfect sense.

My bad, I forgot about the bus service and VRE. But I still contend that rail expansion is seriously behind schedule.

Shadow Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So the almost 24 million passengers that utilize
> Dulles don't count?
>
> Dulles is considerably larger than National and
> always will be. It's also able to land larger
> planes since it has larger runways. Seems to make
> sense to provide rail there.

It's larger because it's an INTERNATIONAL airport which has to accommodate larger planes. I already said this earlier if you would've read through the thread first.

HIJACKER Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Shadow Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > So the almost 24 million passengers that
> utilize
> > Dulles don't count?
> >
> > Dulles is considerably larger than National and
> > always will be. It's also able to land larger
> > planes since it has larger runways. Seems to
> make
> > sense to provide rail there.
>
> It's larger because it's an INTERNATIONAL airport
> which has to accommodate larger planes. I already
> said this earlier if you would've read through the
> thread first.

I did, still don't see why we shouldn't provide rail to Dulles. Sure, BWI and National have access already, but if we extend the rail out 66 and not to Dulles, you can be certain plenty of people will bitch years down the road about how idiotic it was that rail wasn't connected to Dulles, but we did send it to some stupid shopping mall.And Dulles still has considerably more passengers than BWI.

It definitely makes sense to run a line out to Dulles, and to do it sooner rather than later. The fact that it's running through Tysons as well is essentially killing two birds with one stone. I'm sure it's going to be a complete disaster during construction, but it will surely help in the long-term.

With that said, things are only going to get worse along 66. Western PWC is exploding with growth, and all these people are going to need to commute east either into the District or some other place in NOVA, and the only artery they have to use is 66.

Has anybody given thought about using the current rail lines that continue west of Manassas? I know they're currently only used for freight but they practically run right through the center of Gainesville and Haymarket, and it looks like they use the same track as the VRE once you get to Manassas. I'm sure there would be some cost involved in upgrading the track to run metro cars, but is this possible?

They don't want to extend it to mannassas or the beaners will have an easy ride into d.c

The Fair Lakes area station will be located near Fairfax Corner...there's that little auxillary parking lot across the street at Govt Center Parkway and Monument...that's where the parking lot and Kiss and Ride will go...Metro down the middle. Don't know if a pedestrian bridge will connect to Fair Oaks Mall side. Fairfax Sups are pushing for it and Connolly proposed legislation on Congress to extend Metro to Gainesville.

I-66 Commuter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It definitely makes sense to run a line out to
> Dulles, and to do it sooner rather than later. The
> fact that it's running through Tysons as well is
> essentially killing two birds with one stone. I'm
> sure it's going to be a complete disaster during
> construction, but it will surely help in the
> long-term.
>
> With that said, things are only going to get worse
> along 66. Western PWC is exploding with growth,
> and all these people are going to need to commute
> east either into the District or some other place
> in NOVA, and the only artery they have to use is
> 66.
>
> Has anybody given thought about using the current
> rail lines that continue west of Manassas? I know
> they're currently only used for freight but they
> practically run right through the center of
> Gainesville and Haymarket, and it looks like they
> use the same track as the VRE once you get to
> Manassas. I'm sure there would be some cost
> involved in upgrading the track to run metro cars,
> but is this possible?

My first condo was in Reston 1/4 mile from the planned Wiehle Avenue stop. Bought it for $97,500 back in 2000. 2 BR units in that area are going for $230k now, and I bet it'll be more in 2013.

Should this ever come to fruition, there will also be on at Stringfellow and 66 where the Stringfellow Park-n-Ride currently sits. Should that happen, though, I'm pretty sure the HOV exit ramps (at Stringfellow and Monument Drive) will go bye-bye.

Speaking of which, the ramps are supposed to be open during non-HOV hours at some point in the (relatively) near future. I started a conversation w/ VDOT regarding this last January (as in Jan 2008). As of November, they were still on schedule (although the guy I spoke w/ had no idea when it'd be open).

formerhick76 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My first condo was in Reston 1/4 mile from the
> planned Wiehle Avenue stop. Bought it for $97,500
> back in 2000. 2 BR units in that area are going
> for $230k now, and I bet it'll be more in 2013.

Why do you think I'd love to see some form of public transportation out where I am? It's not just for convenience, but it's actually a return on an investment (especially if I'm not living here but still own the place).

Oh, and I just found this with a quick search, looks like a few years ago they DID plan a Haymarket/Gainesville extension of the VRE, using the current freight track. Does anybody know if this has been scrapped?

http://www.vre.org/about/Gainesville-Haymarket.pdf

I-66 Commuter Wrote:
> Why do you think I'd love to see some form of
> public transportation out where I am? It's not
> just for convenience, but it's actually a return
> on an investment (especially if I'm not living
> here but still own the place).
>
> Oh, and I just found this with a quick search,
> looks like a few years ago they DID plan a
> Haymarket/Gainesville extension of the VRE, using
> the current freight track. Does anybody know if
> this has been scrapped?
>
> http://www.vre.org/about/Gainesville-Haymarket.pdf

LOL, I ended up selling the place. What VRE needs is to go out to maybe even Front Royal and then have some sort of giant depot around Fair Lakes where you can switch to the Orange Line's end. But too much $$$, and I'm not sure how much $$$ is there for anything other than the Silver Line.

the politicians in manassas are to stoopid to get it done.

theShadow Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Should this ever come to fruition, there will also
> be on at Stringfellow and 66 where the
> Stringfellow Park-n-Ride currently sits. Should
> that happen, though, I'm pretty sure the HOV exit
> ramps (at Stringfellow and Monument Drive) will go
> bye-bye.
>
> Speaking of which, the ramps are supposed to be
> open during non-HOV hours at some point in the
> (relatively) near future. I started a
> conversation w/ VDOT regarding this last January
> (as in Jan 2008). As of November, they were still
> on schedule (although the guy I spoke w/ had no
> idea when it'd be open).


VDOT has been fucking around at that exit for a while. The arms that blocked the lane were broken for over a year, then somebody had to run fiber under the road there, and now they have these huge LED signs that tell me not to turn there. As if the big orange variable message board and [now] functional stop arms werent enough.

Regarding the VRE in Gainesville, when we bought out here, we were told it was imminent. However, now it looks to have been put on hold, due to the economy, etc. Nevermind that the Linton Hall commute was ranked the WORST in the country. Taking a bus to the Metro rail is a major waste of time. It takes longer to Metro bus/rail downtown than it does to sit in traffic. To be honest, I don't think I want Metro all the way out here. Gainesville is the last major suburb, west of D.C. and I prefer it they way it is.

Interesting article about the VRE extension to Gainesville was published the other day:

http://www.insidenova.com/isn/news/local/traffic/article/vre_ready_to_move_on_11-mile_rail_extension/34129/

"Hughes said beginning in 2014..."

LOL, there goes my aspirations to ever using public transportation while I live in this state.

What the fuck were they even thinking? How come WMATA didn't give a shit about Virginia until now? The Red line goes all the way up the 270 corridor, and as such, it's the most trafficked line.

It's not used much in VA because IT DOESN'T EVEN GO HERE. Only 5 miles of track even goes into the county, and getting to Vienna alone blows.

Metro is a big failure as far as I'm concerned. It costs too much so when people do the math, driving is often less expensive or the same cost. Driving is often faster despite traffic because the fucking orange line makes a million stops.

Metro can't offer express trains because of track limitations so extending the line to someplace like Centreville means an insanely long ride to/from DC.

Who are we kidding here? Silver line will bring more passengers to DCA. People from the burbs who don't want to pay United's prices or deal with the hassle of IAD.

why? because your paying because you want it and were still waiting for you to pay us to work on it.

if you need transportation? i wouldn't say asking gov. to provide it cheaply is a best plan. likely will come at a price i'd think.

I hope it does not come to Fairfax area. If you want to expand it run an express train to Centreville and Manassas or to really make it easy. Have a train that goes to Manassas off 234 and then out past Haymarket to area just past rt 15. If people really want to take it they can drive west to the stop and reduce traffic east in AM and West in PM.
But remember everywhere Metro goes crime goes up. Look at site in Maryland as well for the crime rates.

> But remember everywhere Metro goes crime goes up.
> Look at site in Maryland as well for the crime
> rates.

Oh yeah, the areas surrounding the orange line in Virginia are just riddled with crime and property values surrounding the stops have plummeted, right? Dumb fuck.

Would any of you support the Orange Line being extended just to Fair Oaks Mall?

http://novarapidtransit.org/Fair_Oaks_Metro_Extension_040715.pdf

Pending on TOD development surrounding the mall, I'd imagine.

Right now WMATA's first expansion priority is getting Metrorail to Dulles, currently under construction is expected to open around 2020.

With I66, unless something has or does change, a contract was awarded last fall, and they are finalizing details, but company like the one who rebuilt the Beltway (not same one) from Springfield to Tysons, will begin doing something similar starting this fall on I66 from the Beltway to Gainesville, with outer general lanes, toll lanes inside that, and then in the middle, space for Metrorail tracks out to Centreville and VRE tracks from Manassas to Centreville in center, with construction expected to last until 2022 - http://outside.transform66.org/faqs/default.asp , read FAQs on this page for more info. I do not foresee any Metrorail coming further out on I66 for several to around 10 years, and that is assuming funding can be found. Right now, Metrorail has enough funding challenges for repairs, reliability, and safety for Safetrack and beyond (Google wmata unsuck and review twitter feeds in top search results). Be careful what you wish for though, once Metrorail is opened in this I66 segment if it happens, similar to Tysons and Wiehle, housing prices will go up near the stations (good or bad depending on your economic situation) and to some extent could bring a bit of crime near the stations.

Joke Insurance Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Would any of you support the Orange Line being
> extended just to Fair Oaks Mall?
>
> http://novarapidtransit.org/Fair_Oaks_Metro_Extens
> ion_040715.pdf
>
> Pending on TOD development surrounding the mall,
> I'd imagine.

I would support it since less cost than having it go all the way out to Centreville. Many days rush hour 5-6pm, westbound, I66 congested all the way out past the 123 exit typically, and other spots either way including eastbound depending on accidents. Experienced it first hand in traffic way too long. I did notice the date of that document is from 2015. More up to date info at http://outside.transform66.org/faqs/default.asp about construction to deal with traffic congestion in I66 outside the beltway corridor, but mo specific Metrorail commitments, other than to say there will be dedicated roadway space for it by around 2022. Joke Insurance, do you have additional info about Metrorail being considered just to Fair Oaks beyond the Apr-2015 document date?

Pray that this will happen and get built, all things are possible with God.

With the proposed VRE extension to Haymarket canceled, this could be next on the planning board.

nootropic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > But remember everywhere Metro goes crime goes
> up.
> > Look at site in Maryland as well for the crime
> > rates.
>
> Oh yeah, the areas surrounding the orange line in
> Virginia are just riddled with crime and property
> values surrounding the stops have plummeted,
> right? Dumb fuck.

Actually, crime is up dramatically in the few years after Metro rail starts service to an area. He didn't mention property values, but you're such a fucking genius I guess you just knew that.

Fairfax PD has had to set up a special team of cops inside Tysons to deal with all the niggers coming there to steal. If a nigger can take the nog hauler to an area with nice shit where he can steal something, then that's what the nigger will do.

nog hauler rider Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> nootropic Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > > But remember everywhere Metro goes crime goes
> > up.
> > > Look at site in Maryland as well for the
> crime
> > > rates.
> >
> > Oh yeah, the areas surrounding the orange line
> in
> > Virginia are just riddled with crime and
> property
> > values surrounding the stops have plummeted,
> > right? Dumb fuck.
>
> Actually, crime is up dramatically in the few
> years after Metro rail starts service to an area.
> He didn't mention property values, but you're such
> a fucking genius I guess you just knew that.
>
> Fairfax PD has had to set up a special team of
> cops inside Tysons to deal with all the niggers
> coming there to steal. If a nigger can take the
> nog hauler to an area with nice shit where he can
> steal something, then that's what the nigger will
> do.

This ^^^