In part due to opposition from Fairfax County leaders, the regional DMV Moves task force appears to have abandoned a proposal for a regional sales tax to provide additional Metro funding.
A collaborative effort between the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG), the DMV Moves task force has been working for a year on developing funding alternatives.
Fairfax County officials are eager to build additional affordable housing adjacent to the Huntington Metro station.
However, a parking garage that has been closed since 2018 stands in their way.
After staying largely dormant since 2021, plans for a 2-mile bicycle/pedestrian path from the Franconia-Springfield Metro station south to Newington Road are back — as is opposition from some neighbors and advocacy groups.
Fairfax County officials in recent months have ramped up efforts to obtain easements from property owners along the planned route of the Cinder Bed Road Bikeway.
A task force empaneled to look at strategies for making transit service in the D.C. region sustainable long-term might not, in the end, deliver specific recommendations on a funding mechanism.
“It is, at this time, I think, still up in the air,” Nick Donohue, a staff facilitator for the DMV Moves task force, told the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) Board of Directors last Thursday (April 3).
Finding better ways for bus networks across Northern Virginia to better collaborate seems to be a priority for local representatives on the DMV Moves task force.
However, the possibility of consolidating the disparate systems into one appeared to be a non-starter, especially for Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay.
Metro is following through on plans to prohibit people alleged to have committed serious infractions on its property from returning.
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Board of Directors voted 8-0 yesterday (Thursday) to approve a new policy allowing the transit agency to issue citations banning individuals arrested for assault or sex-related crimes from its system.
For the immediate future at least, further expansion of rail lines across the D.C. region is likely to take a back seat to more modest upgrades to transit service moving forward.
That seemed to be a consensus, albeit not a unanimous one, as members of the regional DMV Moves task force met Monday (March 24) to narrow options for improving the area’s transit — and paying for a Metro system that’s now estimated to cost between $450 million and $600 million more per year.
By the end of this month, local residents should have a better idea of options on the table, as regional leaders attempt to find dedicated funding streams for transit service in the D.C. area.
“We do expect information to be shared” at the next meeting of the DMV Moves task force, Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) Executive Director Kate Mattice told the commission’s board at a meeting last Thursday (March 6).
The D.C. region’s upcoming cherry-blossom season is expected to give Metro another boost as it continues a post-Covid rebound.
“If all goes to plan, we’re hoping for our first combined one-million-trip day since the onset of the pandemic,” Paul Smedberg, first vice president of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), said on Thursday (March 6).
Metro leaders are taking steps that could permit the transit agency to ban people from its property if they commit crimes or otherwise demonstrate what is deemed improper behavior.
The measure was first discussed publicly at a Jan. 30 meeting of the Metro Board of Directors’ safety and operations committee. An agency spokesman told FFXnow on Monday (March 3) that the discussion “remains ongoing.”
