Artwork at the Reston Town Center Metro station is in the running for an international public art award, with local residents eligible to cast ballots in support.
“Ethos” by George Bates is among 100 pieces of public art vying in the CODAawards competition, sponsored by CODAworx.
Northern Virginia political leaders at the local and state levels seem to have a firm dollar figure associated with the proposal to improve Metro service across the region. There remains a question, however, regarding whether they’ll be able to come up with the funding.
The Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) is preparing to adopt a resolution on July 17 acknowledging that Virginia will need to commit an additional $153 million in fiscal year 2027 to implement operational upgrades and keep the transit system on track.
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.
D.C.-area leaders continue to find common ground elusive when it comes to increased collaboration between the region’s bus systems.
While the possibility of merging all local bus systems has already been taken off the table, the DMV Moves task force is still searching for the sweet spot where systems could work better among themselves and with Metrobus.
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.
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).
Fairfax County staff have sketched out details of a series of bond referendums for the next five years that would raise just under $2 billion for facility construction and renovation projects.
With both economic uncertainty and higher interest rates causing headwinds, however, alterations could be possible — even likely.
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.
