Fairfax County will once again have a voting representative on Metro’s board of directors.
Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn has been tapped as Virginia’s second voting member on the Metro board, along with Paul Smedberg, who represents the state government. Alcorn will represent Northern Virginia localities, replacing Loudoun County supervisor Matt Letourneau.
Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) members voted yesterday (Thursday) to appoint new representatives for Virginia on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) board of directors. Letourneau has served on the Metro board since 2020.
“It’s always been NVTC’s intent to rotate membership on the board by jurisdiction,” NVTC chair and Fairfax City Councilmember David Snyder said.
Alcorn was originally appointed by NVTC in January 2020 to serve as a non-voting alternate director on Metro’s board. After his promotion to a principal director, the alternate slot will be filled by Arlington County Board member Matt de Ferranti.
All changes are effective July 1.
The WMATA board consists of eight primary and eight alternate members, with two in each category coming from Virginia, Maryland, D.C. and the federal government.
NVTC also appointed de Ferranti as chair of its WMATA committee, a leadership post always occupied by one of Virginia’s two alternate Metro board members. Virginia’s other alternate director is Alexandria City Council member Canek Aguirre.
Legacies of Connolly, Hudgins lauded
Also at yesterday’s meeting, NVTC members paused to mark the legacy of two influential Fairfax County leaders who died this spring.
The late Congressman Gerry Connolly was lauded for his support of transit both on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and in the House of Representatives.
Connolly died May 21 at age 75. While a special election has been set for Sept. 9 to choose a successor, it will be a tall order to replace him, one local official said.
“Frankly, nobody can fill Gerry Connolly’s shoes,” Snyder said.
Snyder praised Connolly’s advocacy for transit first as a district supervisor, then as chair of the Fairfax County board and ultimately in Congress. He noted that Connolly “played a foundational and fundamental role” in shepherding Metro’s Silver Line to completion.
Connolly had chaired NVTC in 2006.
Cathy Hudgins, who represented the Hunter Mill District on the Board of Supervisors from 2000 to 2019, died May 24 at age 81. She was lauded for her commitment to her district, which includes Reston and the Vienna area, and her support for the Silver Line project and other transit initiatives throughout the region.
Rollout of ‘Tap-Ride-Go’ wins praise
Local leaders on NVTC seemed pleased by the rollout of Metro’s “Tap-Ride-Go” initiative, which gave Metro users the long-awaited option to pay with a credit or debit card, or their smartphone, instead of the system’s SmarTrip cards.
“It’s been a blessing,” said Fairfax County Supervisor Dalia Palchik. “I’ve been impressed how easy it is. It’s been incredible.”
Palchik serves on the board of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC). That body on June 5 received a briefing on early experiences with the new payment option.
The mood of the presentation was upbeat.
“The acceptance of this program already has been hugely successful. The numbers are well beyond the expectation we had,” said Paul Smedberg, a Virginia representative to the Metropolitan Washington Area Transit Authority (WMATA) board of directors.
WMATA rolled out the Tap-Ride-Go initiative for Metrorail riders on May 28. The option is expected to become available to Metrobus riders in the future, but no timeline for that expansion has been announced yet.
In part, the effort is designed to make riding Metro easier for visitors to the D.C. region who may not be familiar with the existing payment options. They can now just tap their cards or card-linked phones at the faregates and enter the system without having to stop and purchase a SmarTrip card.
The tap-and-go alternative underwent its first major real-world test during WorldPride DC, a celebration of the LGBTQ community that will wrap up tomorrow (Saturday) with the conclusion of a two-day music festival.
According to Smedberg, nearly 70% of trips taken at stations near the festival’s events have taken advantage of the new tap-and-go option during peak periods.
Additional special events over the coming year will also be monitored to determine use trends, leading up to what could be a large crowd of visitors in summer 2026 to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday.
The new options are designed to complement, not replace, existing payment methods. Those who prefer the old-school SmarTrip card continue with no alternation to their current behavior.
NVTC chair David Snyder counts himself among the SmarTrip devotees.
“I’m in love with my Metro farecard,” he said.
