Fairfax County leaders and their regional counterparts are champing at the bit to get moving on a coordinated Route 7 bus rapid transit (BRT) network.
“If there’s only one thing I hope to see in my lifetime, it’s this project,” Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik said half-jokingly at an Oct. 1 meeting of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) board of directors.
The meeting included another update on the Envision Route 7 project, which aims to connect Tysons to Alexandria via a modern bus network that officials hope will run as much as possible on dedicated lanes down Leesburg Pike (Route 7).
“This is a big deal,” said Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn, who, like Palchik, represents the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on the NVTC board.
The corridor where the BRT system would operate is home to nearly 60,000 residents and is currently served by more than 40 bus lines between Metrobus and local systems.
NVTC staffers have spent years evaluating possibilities for improving transit service in the corridor, a process that is nearly complete.
“The efficiency of the roadway is a key way to help traffic move more efficiently through the region,” said Vikram Sinha, an NVTC project manager and top staff member on the initiative.
With studies mostly complete, attention will soon turn to coordinating development of the BRT service — and determining how to pay for it.
Those could be complicated discussions, Sinha acknowledged.
“What works in Falls Church may not work in Fairfax County or in Arlington County or in the City of Alexandria, and vice versa,” he said. “We want to work with all the jurisdictions and all the bus operators on realizing these improvements.”
One way to help fund the project would be for the state government to get further involved.
Perhaps to entice state leaders, NVTC Chair Sarah Bagley is promoting the Route 7 effort as a “landmark project” other localities and regions in Virginia will be able to learn from.
“It can be replicated in Hampton Roads, in Richmond, in the western portion of the state. We all have bus service,” said Bagley, who serves as vice chair of the Alexandria City Council.
To gin up enthusiasm, the transit line needs a snazzy name, said Falls Church City Council member David Snyder.
“There ought to be an identity here,” Snyder said.
There is precedent. Though construction remains about two years away, Fairfax County has already branded its nearly billion-dollar Richmond Highway BRT project as “The One,” while Arlington and Alexandria call the Crystal City BRT line “Metroway.”
Dranesville District Supervisor Jimmy Bierman said branding is important, but timing will be the key to the project’s success.
“I don’t care what you call it or how you sell it. The priority should be getting it done sooner rather than later,” he said.
Palchik concurred.
“It’s critical that we move as quickly as we can in coordinating,” she said.
Bierman suggested modest improvements to existing bus service and schedules would set the stage for ridership increases.
“You’ve got to get them on the bus first,” he said.
Elected leaders from across the region have been invited to take part in a bus tour of the eastern half of the BRT project corridor, running from Seven Corners to Alexandria.
The tour will give those leaders the chance to see both the opportunities and challenges currently facing travelers, Sinha said.
In December, the NVTC board will be asked to accept a staff report on the project, another procedural hurdle paving the way for potential construction.
