Most bus riders along portions of Route 7 seem skeptical of placing future transit stops in the center of the busy roadway, but local leaders at least want the option considered before being discarded.
A recent survey of riders along the portion of the bus rapid transit (BRT) line proposed to connect Tysons to Alexandria found 60% preferred retaining curbside stops. The remainder were split between moving to center-of-the-road stops or having no opinion.
Northern Virginia leaders are treading cautiously with newly granted power to increase the sales tax in local jurisdictions.
Under the biennial state budget adopted in Richmond late last month, Northern Virginia localities now have the power to hold voter referendums to increase sales taxes by up to 1%, with the extra funding going to transportation, education or a combination.
Virginia lawmakers want to examine consolidating Northern Virginia’s transit agencies to assess potential cost savings and service improvements.
The proposal, which is included in the two-year budget lawmakers passed Monday, directs the Department of Rail and Public Transportation to include in its report not only the cost savings and long-term financial impacts of merging multiple systems, but also how potential changes would affect riders through fare structures, service reliability and accessibility.
A network of about two dozen bus rapid transit (BRT) systems could be running through the local region in coming decades.
But the effort won’t succeed without buy-in from local governments, a top transit leader told the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on June 16.
The Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) has embarked on a new round of community engagement in its Envision Route 7 effort to upgrade transit options.
NVTC has opened an online feedback form, asking a host of questions about how bus riders in the Route 7 corridor between Seven Corners and Alexandria’s Mark Center/Southern Towers areas currently interact with the system, and what they would like to see in the future.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has approved the elimination of two Fairfax Connector bus routes and reduced schedules on more than a dozen others to trim $7.3 million in budget costs.
The vote on Tuesday (May 5) was unanimous but, in several cases, unenthusiastic.
The intercity bus service FlixBus is expanding its presence in the D.C. region with new stops in Tysons and Fredericksburg.
Launching today (Thursday), the Tysons stop on Gosnell Road at Leesburg Pike (Route 7) will provide service to Richmond and the corridor from Bethesda to New York City.
Recent proposals to use part or all of the Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Regional Park for future transit options are non-starters, the body controlling the right-of-way says.
“Similar proposals have been discussed previously and have been determined to not be viable,” NOVA Parks officials said in a March 11 posting on the regional body’s website.
Fairfax County is likely to receive most, but not all, of the funding it is seeking through a regional transit grant program.
The county’s request for just under $4.4 million in funding to support a new limited-stop Fairfax Connector service between the Tysons and Franconia-Springfield Metro stations has been removed from the list of projects being considered for the fiscal years 2027-2028 I-66 Commuter Choice funding cycle.
Transit advocates have dusted off a 60-year-old proposal to add transit operations along the Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Regional Park.
The Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) has received more than 60 requests in recent months to consider the concept, executive director Kate Mattice said at the body’s March 5 meeting.
