Botched Bolts Behind Metro Mishap — “A Metro train pulled apart on the tracks last year because the agency was using the wrong parts, installing parts that were used incorrectly, and not checking to ensure things were done right… The 51-page report approved Thursday by the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission details a litany of failures that led up to an eight-car Silver Line train bound for D.C. coming apart outside the McLean Station on Aug. 25.” [WTOP]

New School Rules — “The new Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook, which was approved by the board on Thursday, includes more than two dozen changes meant to standardize the way discipline is handed down in the school system.” The changes go into effect this fall. [WTOP]

County Seeking Tysons Traffic Solutions — “A number of options to relieve traffic congestion around McLean and Tysons were presented at a previous community meeting. Fairfax County’s transportation department is seeking feedback on those options, and the deadline for comments has been extended to July 31.” [Patch]

Large Music Library in Falls Church Home — “A long-time local resident who is once again kicking off the Creative Cauldron’s summer cabaret series also happens to curate one of the most interesting home collections of the Tin Pan Alley era of music.” [Falls Church News-Press]

Virginia Nabs Top Spot on CNBC List — CNBC ranked Virginia #1 on its recently released “America’s Top States for Business” list. [CNBC]

Firework Sparklers Behind McLean House Fire — “The garage of a McLean home caught fire on [July 3] due to firework sparklers that were improperly disposed of.” [ABC7]

Egyptian Art Coming to Falls Church — “Falls Church Arts (FCA) is excited to be the first gallery to exhibit this unique collection of Egyptian Contemporary art by these wonderful artists from the Luxor, Alexandria, and Cairo regions of Egypt. These artworks were created over the last several weeks on papyrus especially for this exhibition, the first of its kind in the U.S.” [Falls Church News-Press]

(Updated at 1 p.m.) Independence Day is coming up on Thursday (July 4). Check this list in case you are planning to visit government facilities around Fairfax County later this week — they might be closed.

Photo by Warren Tobias on Unsplash

In the wake of Capital One opening the region’s tallest office building, the nearby McLean Metro station has had a sharp increase in Metro traffic.

New data from the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission compared Metro ridership in January, February and March with the same period in 2018. All of the Silver Line stations in Virginia saw an increase in ridership over the previous year, part of an ongoing trend.

Overall the McLean Metro station had the largest increase in ridership with 20.6 percent growth.

The Greensboro Metro station, site of The Boro development and other projects aiming to compete with Tysons Corner Center as a commercial hub, also saw substantial ridership increase with an 18.4 percent growth.

The most popular station is Wiehle-Reston East — the end of the line — with 1,018,980 total riders over three months. In Tysons, the most population station was Tysons Corner with 490,212 riders over three months.

The Spring Hill Metro station had previously seen a 2.9 percent decline in ridership between last winter and the one before, but in the three months that followed the station saw a modest 2 percent increase in ridership over the previous year.

Photo 2 via Tysons Partnership/Twitter

“Battle of the Brews” Voting — Several Tysons-area breweries are featured in a beer bracket to determine the best brewery in Northern Virginia. Voting for the second round begins today. [Northern Virginia Magazine]

Metro Study Looking for Infrastructure Solutions — “Metro is launching is a two-year study of the Blue, Orange and Silver Line in order to find long-term options to meet future regional needs.” [Reston Now]

Falls Church Student Shares Story — “Junior Niharika Singhvi has attended Falls Church City Public Schools since 2006. In April of 2018, her parents’ work visas expired, and she was forced to return to India. Four months later, she arrived back at George Mason High School.” [Falls Church News-Press]

Local Restaurants Make Washington Post List — Fahrenheit Asian and Amoo’s in McLean made the “The 25 best casual restaurants in the D.C. area” list. [Washington Post]

Tysons Bartender Included in Photography Pop-Up — Shakara Ellison, a bartender at the Founding Farmers in Tysons Corner, was included in a photography project highlighting bartenders of color. [Washington City Paper]

MicroStrategy Sold Domain Name for Millions — “Tysons-based MicroStrategy Inc. (NASDAQ: MSTR) has struck a deal to sell the “Voice.com” domain name to a blockchain-based company for $30 million in cash — and that could be just the beginning of a domain name selloff at the business intelligence software firm.” [Washington Business Journal]

Little Library Memorializes Falls Church Kids — Lemon Road Elementary School opened a little library to remember three Falls Church kids who were killed in a collision with an alleged drunk driver. [NBC4]

Photo courtesy Caboose Brewing Company

Fairfax County is moving toward autonomous vehicles connecting the Mosaic District to the Dunn Loring-Merrifield Metro.

At a work session today (Tuesday), the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors reviewed plans to start a pilot program for self-driving vehicles as a shuttle service.

“We’re pretty excited,” said Leonard Wolfenstein, chief of the transportation planning section. “We have several partners in the public and private sector.”

Wolfenstein said the mile of distance between the Metro and the Mosaic District was one of the main reasons it was being eyed for the autonomous vehicle pilot.

“The Mosaic District is a vibrant and active growing sector of the county,” said Wolfenstein. “Mosaic is roughly a mile from the Metro, so it’s a great first-last mile type of environment to test this out.”

Under the planned partnership, Dominion Energy would identify, select, and purchase shuttles while Fairfax County government would oversee its operation. Who actually operates the shuttle is still to be determined.

Staff noted that concerns about safety, like how shuttles would affect pedestrians and cyclists, are still to be determined. In particular, staff said the “tricky situation” is figuring out whether the autonomous vehicles will safely be able to cross Lee Highway.

“The proposed path would create an environment where there are opportunities for all those users,” staff said. “At the end of the pilot, there will be a report published to establish a regulatory framework. This is the only pilot like this in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”

Clinton Edwards from the Department of Rail and Public Transportation said that the department was reviewing the business case for automated vehicles. Edwards said the department was considering cost, insurance, liability concerns and private-public partnership issues.

But for members of the Board of Supervisors, most of the questions focused on how to get the public on board with the idea.

“The key is to create buzz,” said Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust. “People need to think of Fairfax County when they think of autonomous vehicles.”

Providence District Supervisor Linda Smyth said the partnership should rely heavily on Edens, the Mosaic District property management company, for that.

“Turn the marketing of this over to Edens,” said Smyth. “Let them do what they do best.”

Image via Optimus Ride

It is far from the biggest problem facing Metro, but the lack of cell coverage in the Greensboro Metro tunnel is still a minor annoyance for locals that could be fixed earlier than planned.

Since May, Metro’s claims that Virginia’s tunnels had complete cellular coverage came with an “except for Tysons” corollary. But while Tysons was originally scheduled to get covered by 2020 with the rest of the tunnels, plans for Tysons have shifted to an expected completion by the end of the year.

“Wireless voice and data service is now available in more than 60 percent of Metro’s tunnel segments,” Sherri Ly, the media relations manager for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, said. “Metro is on schedule to have the Greensboro tunnel on the Silver Line complete by the end of this year and expects to have cellular coverage across the entire system by June 2020.”

The lack of cell service is more than a convenience issue. Experts have called it a glaring safety problem for the system — particularly in the wake of a death in a smoke-clogged tunnel in 2015.

Bus riders in the Tysons area can expect to see blue and white Fastran buses on some Fairfax Connector routes starting today (June 3).

The buses are meant to help riders impacted by the summer shutdown of several Metro stations during the summer.

The Fairfax County Department of Neighborhood and Community Services and Fairfax County Department of Transportation teamed up to bring Fastran buses to a few Fairfax Connector routes, as the Fairfax Connector offers more service on two express routes from the Springfield area to the Pentagon.

The Fastran buses will cover these Fairfax Connector routes:

• Route 432
• Route 927
• Route 461
• Route 466

“Fastran buses do not have route numbers and destinations listed outside of the buses,” according to Fairfax County. “The Fastran buses will stop at each bus stop on affected routes to make sure passengers know to board. When boarding, please look for a sign inside the bus to verify your route.”

Riders won’t be able to check real-time arrival information for the Fastran buses, since the buses do not have the technology. Fairfax County urges riders to get to their bus stop at least 5 minutes before the bus’ scheduled arrival time, which can be found via the static schedule information on BusTracker and by texting 41-411.

Metro recently closed several stations on the Blue and Yellow lines south of Ronald Reagan National Airport for platform reconstruction that will last until September.

Fairfax County is deploying the Fastran buses through September.

Let us know below if the Metro shutdown will affect you during the summer.

Photo via UCM of Alexandria/Facebook

Metro recently closed several stations on the Blue and Yellow lines south of Ronald Reagan National Airport for platform reconstruction that will last until September.

The temporary shutdown is a part of Metro’s plan to reconstruct its 20 outdoor concrete platforms.

Ahead of the closures, Metro got the word out about Metrobuses, free shuttles and other bus options — like the Fairfax Connector — for affected riders. (The 494 Fairfax Connector runs from Lorton to Tysons, passing through Springfield.)

Tysons Partnership has information about carpools and vanpools, which travel for free in express lanes.

From social media and news reports, the transition has caused commuting headaches for some people — from getting stuck in traffic to bus drivers getting lost to stranded riders.  Others have reported few or no issues with alternative transportation.

Let us know below if the Metro shutdown will affect you during the summer.

After 32,000 student trips, the free Metrobus pilot program at Justice High School in Falls Church could be expanding to Marshall High School in Tysons.

Students across the county can use the Fairfax Connector and City of Fairfax CUE bus for free, and students account for 1.4 million trips on those buses in less than 4 years, but the passes have not been usable on the Metro system.

Over the last eight months, 35 percent of students at Justice High School have gotten a Metrobus-enabled student bus pass. Students at the school account for 3,500-4,000 trips per month.

Nearly half of the ridership among Justice High School students was on Metrobus Route 28A, which runs along Route 7 from King Street in Alexandria to Tysons.

Of students surveyed as part of the pilot, 70 percent had never ridden a Metrobus to or from school and 52 percent said they would not ride unless it was free. The majority of students said they also wanted to see more routes, extended hours and Metrorail service added.

The top three uses for the pass were traveling home or to activity centers — Tysons specifically — or to an after-school job.

At a Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Transportation Committee meeting on Tuesday (May 14), faculty and students from Justice High School told the committee about their experiences with the program as the committee considered an expansion of the pilot.

A similar pilot program is planned for either Marshall High School, Falls Church High School or Annandale High School in the 2020-2021 school year.

“Students take the bus to the mall and the movies, but they also go to work with it,” Justice High School Principal Maria Eck said. “I met with a student on a totally different topic, but he told me he got a better job because of the bus pass. Now he can find a job he can get transportation to, and he’s going up to Tysons to help his family.”

Staff recommended renewing the agreement with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to continue the pilot at Justice High School next year.

“When I first heard about it, I couldn’t believe it,” Carlos Pineda-Lopez, a student at Justice High School, said. “Now, I’m not paying $40 a week for Metro. It’s been amazing. For a family that makes $30,000 with both parents combined, that adds up. Sometimes I couldn’t go to practice or work and that would hurt my family. This bus pass increased my mobility and range of jobs. Now, I can go anywhere in Virginia. That’s how the pass has helped me. It’s helped as a next step towards adulthood.”

A task force meeting next week will tackle proposed retail, residential and public facilities near the University of Virginia Northern Virginia Center, as Fairfax County looks to revamp an area by the West Falls Church Metro station.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) and Virginia Tech submitted proposals as part of the county’s 2017 Site-Specific Plan Amendment Process.

The county has initiated a planning study of the proposals, which would add public facilities and government mixed-use and possibly residential units, on the WMATA parcels and up to 130 dwelling units and 43,800 square feet of retail and office space on the Northern Virginia Center parcels.

“The proximity of the Northern Virginia Center property to the WMATA site presents an opportunity to plan the area in a more holistic manner,” the Fairfax County website says. “This approach would allow consideration of their joint land use, transportation, and public facility impacts. Therefore, the proposals will be evaluated concurrently as a special study separate from the Site-Specific Plan Amendment process timeline.”

A community meeting in January gave an overview of the county’s planning and review process.

After that meeting, a task force made up of residents in the area has been working with the county to evaluate the proposals to make a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors. The task force is analyzing transportation, public facilities, schools and environmental impacts.

The task force meeting, which is open to the public, is set for Tuesday, May 21, from 7-9 p.m., at The Northern Virginia Center (7054 Haycock Road) in Falls Church.

In addition to the task force, the county plans to hold meetings to get the community’s input.

First image via Google Maps and second image via Fairfax County