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A new pedestrian safety measure will soon help slow down drivers as they approach a Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail crossing in Herndon.

The Town of Herndon announced last week that it’s working to install a Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon (RRFB) for the crosswalk connecting the trail across Crestview Drive near Old Heights Road.


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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.


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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.


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After months of negotiations and pressure from both elected officials and community members, Dominion Energy and NOVA Parks have settled on a new path forward for managing trees near power lines along the Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Railroad Regional Park.

Dominion and the regional park authority, which owns and manages the 45-mile-long W&OD Trail, have reached an agreement governing vegetation management activities that, among other provisions, requires the utility to provide advanced notice of any major maintenance work and to plant native species in affected areas when possible.


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With the new year underway, Dominion Energy is gearing up for another round of tree maintenance along the Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail, shifting its focus to the Reston area.

The power company has flagged 19 “hazard” trees near its electrical lines for removal in a 2.7-mile stretch of the trail between its Hunter Mill Road substation in Wolf Trap and the Reston substation on Sunset Hills Road, Dominion Electric Transmission Forestry Manager Amanda Keyes told NOVA Parks Executive Director Justin Wilson in a Dec. 16 letter.


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Fairfax County police believe one man is behind a series of assault and exposure incidents that have occurred near the Washington & Old Dominion Trail in Reston over the past month.

Koby Berry, a 27-year-old Reston resident, was arrested on Nov. 15 after he was allegedly caught on video touching a woman “inappropriately” in a store at North Point Village Center earlier that week, the Fairfax County Police Department announced today (Thursday).


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The Town of Vienna intends to seek state funding to support a planned Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail visitor center.

The request for $8 million is among more than two dozen priorities identified in the town’s legislative agenda for the Virginia General Assembly’s upcoming 2026 session.


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A new PBS documentary is airing this weekend, and it features Northern Virginia’s own Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail.

Set to be broadcast on WETA Metro, the local public television station, “From Rails to Trails” highlights the decades-long struggle to transform abandoned railroad tracks into public trails. The film was adapted from Peter Harnik’s 2021 book of the same name.


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Dominion Energy is planning to take down more trees near its power lines along the Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail — this time, with the consent of NOVA Parks.

Starting next Monday (Oct. 20), the power company will begin “selective” pruning and removals of trees and other vegetation on a 2.6-mile section of the trail between its Clark substation in Vienna and the Hunter substation in Wolf Trap, just outside Reston.


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Two bicyclists were injured on the same day in separate crashes at Washington & Old Dominion Trail crossings in Fairfax County.

Officers were first dispatched on Sunday (Sept. 28) around 10:28 a.m. to the 2300 block of Cedar Lane in Dunn Loring for a crash involving “a vehicle versus a bicyclist,” according to scanner traffic. A dispatcher told responders that a medic would be required.


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