If you missed the announcement by Fairfax County, Fairfax County Connector will be holding 2 weeks of public opinion sessions on the new realignment and routes associated with the opening of the Silver Line Phase 1. The first session will be this Thursday and focus on McLean and Tysons. In an effort to prepare interested citizens on the proposals we have decided to give a summary, pros, and cons for each new or modified route, starting with the first region on interest, McLean/Tysons.
We provided part of this analysis in our previous post discussing half of the new routes around McLean and Tysons (in an effort to split the discussion in digestible sizes). Here is the second half;
This system runs between the McLean Silver Line station through parts of northern McLean including Georgetown pike. Currently there are no transit options for residents in this remote portion of McLean. The proposed 722 service will be for rush hour only, with no weekend service. This system along with the 720, and 721 provide significant transit access to many residents in McLean who previously had no other options.
Pros – This route is a solid choice for Fairfax Connector and like other systems relieves the need for WMATA 24T, and therefore could help reduce the subsidy funding to WMATA from Fairfax County in return for more availability of funds towards Fairfax Connector. Realigning this system slightly could provide service to a small portion that would be left gapped if the 24T was removed.
Cons – Due to the low density in this region gas costs will inevitably have difficulty keeping pace with ridership. Consider using alternative bus models for service to this region which can reduce operation cost in order to make a more frequent or longer lasting system.
This system serves the McLean community along Lewinsville road and acts as a bus connection between western Tysons and eastern Tysons. Currently the WMATA 24T bus service follows a similar path. This route along with the 722 could fully replace the need for the 24T. There are some pockets of significant density in this region, specifically near McLean Hamlet and some condominiums in McLean. The proposed route will run rush hour only.
Pros – This route again serves as a replacement of currently inefficient service via the 24T by WMATA. It reduces the total length of bus travel thereby providing more timely service with less dead zones for user service. Removal of the 24T could provide significant returns to Fairfax County for allocation to more efficient Fairfax Connector systems.
Cons – This route has some areas of low density which may be better served through a smaller alternative bus models which will reduce fuel usage.
This route is part of the Tysons Circulator system proposed within the Tysons Comprehensive plan and funded in part by the new transportation district tax. This route serves primarily western and northern portions of Tysons internally and provides bus service focused around the high density development of Rotonda as well as the future Spring Hill Station for portions which are not within 1/8th of a mile from stations. The proposed system runs 7 days a week with full service, though it lacks late night service.
Pros – This route will serve thousands of residents and has very good headways which will make it quite popular. It also provides bus service for a significant corridor of office parks along Greensboro Drive near SAIC, Booz Allen, etc which could be very popular early on for Silver Line users coming from Arlington and DC (a growing population).
Cons – The system hours are a bit strange. On Saturdays and Sundays there are early morning service hours routing to the mall… before the mall is even open. 6am to 8am on a Saturday and Sunday morning will surely be far less used than 10pm to midnight on Friday and Saturday service. This systems hours should be realigned to more closely track the growing need for late night service in Tysons.
The SLC3 bus service is part of the Tysons Circulator system proposed within the Tysons Comprehensive plan and funded in part by the new transportation district tax. This route serves primarily western and southern Tysons communities and future development along Route 7. This portion of Tysons has less residential use and will likely not have any in the next 5 years with the exception of Tysons Tower which is directly adjacent to the Silver Line. Hours of service for this line are weekdays only from early morning to late evening, indicating it is likely provided to serve a largely commercial user base.
Pros – The bus route provides service from north of 123 to south of 123 which is very difficult to cross currently. The headways for this system are extremely active, 10 minutes during rush hour, and it makes sense based on the current alignment to provide only weekday service.
Cons – As far as priorities of service, this line misses the mark. Yes, it covers a gap area of Tysons, but who is actually using this instead of the SLC2 or simply travelling in on the Silver Line. Extending this system all the way to Westpark along sign of the Rotonda makes very little sense as they will have much better service from the SLC2. This circulator should be reconsidering to instead provide a connection between Eastern Tysons and central Tysons to serve thousands of residents within the Pimmit region as well as Commons of McLean. Many of these residents are home owners who now pay a higher tax on their real estate, and yet are not receiving access to Tysons without use of the silver line simply to go one stop over. This line should either be removed all together, and funds dispersed to make SLC2 and SLC4 more robust, or provided as a service to Eastern Tysons.
The SLC4 bus service is part of the Tysons Circulator system proposed within the Tysons Comprehensive plan and funded in part by the new transportation district tax. This route serves primarily northern Tysons along Jones Branch Drive as well as Westpark Drive. The route connects to the Spring Hill Silver Line Station. The system runs only on weekdays between 5:30am and 11:30pm.
Pros – The route location is pretty good. However, the routing of much of Westpark Drive backwards to Spring Hill Station is not efficient for most residents of Westpark Drive.
Cons – One major flaw of this system is the need to double up service along International Drive, where the SLC2 already serves the Rotonda community. This road is highly congested in the evening and will add delays to the system, as well as already being served. Instead this route could be routed via Park Run and better serve residents of Park Crest and Avalon who are no longer provided service from the 425/427 and are also losing out on late night service from the 401/402. These two multi-thousand resident developments are the most dependent on good bus access due to their central but separated location from the Silver Line. Many of these residents were included in the increased tax rate and are now receiving lessened transportation services.
Another major flaw of this system is the fact that it is only a weekday service. Again, this line serves many residential owners who are now losing out on late night and weekend service provided by the 401/402. In fact, these residents no longer have any weekend transportation options without walking over to the Rotonda frontage of International Drive. This system should not only provide weekend service but also late night service for the growing 20/30-something population along Westpark.
System Notes Overall
The concept proposed by Fairfax Connector has many good thoughts and benefits. One of the best improvements will be the reduced need for WMATA service (costly) being replaced by Fairfax Connector service (less costly). To build on that efficiency Fairfax Connector should consider improving its current fleet of vehicles to a more adaptable and diverse system. The US Navy has a diverse fleet of ships because it understands that each situation requires unique tools. Fairfax County knows it will be purchasing new buses for this upgrade, so why not purchase a few smaller alternative vehicles capable of better serving low density regions of the county with lessened operation costs AND capital costs. For the savings that are available on capital costs, the buses could be upgraded to use natural gas or even electric power for some of the rush hour only routes, again saving thousands annually in operation costs.
If we want to invest in the next century of transportation in our area, we should start with the minute details. Providing an oversized bus that will run 95% empty most of the time isn’t planning for the future, it is not recognizing reality and cookie cutter planning.