Wiehle Station Access & Transit Preparations Dominate RCA Reston 2020 Blog in April

By Terry Maynard

With the Silver Line scheduled to arrive at the end of the year, RCA’s Reston 2020 Committee focused much of its attention in April to the state of local preparations to provide access to the new rail transit service.  Much of Reston 2020’s work followed up on baseline papers it had prepared in February on the limited progress in roadway and other improvements at Wiehle and the growing dialogue on the need to improve bus transit in Reston. 

Reston 2020 continued to participate in the second round of the County’s Fairfax Connector (FC) public meetings and kept the public informed about the upcoming input opportunities.  Based on what committee members heard there and Fairfax County postings on its County website on the proposed new schedules,  Reston 2020 identified an important new issue in the planned bus schedules:  major gaps in service between morning rush, mid-day, evening rush, and last evening bus service.    As Fairfax County continued to update its bus plan, Reston 2020 continued to highlight gaps in service.    It is planning to publish a more comprehensive examination of Fairfax County transit plans for Reston in May. 

The committee also provided extensive commentary on its blog concerning the continuing shortfalls in completing the many traffic, pedestrian, and biking improvements needed to enable Restonians safe, convenient, and easy access to the new Metrorail station.   A baseline post on the Reston 2020 blog highlighted the 32 improvements the County planned for the station area and the fact that only three will be completed by the opening of Wiehle Station.  The committee also published—and sent to Supervisor Hudgins—a report on the priority need to build a cost-efficient, well-located Soapstone Connection across the Dulles Corridor to ease traffic around the Wiehle Station.  

To put an exclamation point on these Reston 2020 initiatives, RCA President Colin Mills sent a Board-approved letter to Supervisor Hudgins thanking her for her responsiveness to the concerns detailed in the several Reston 2020 papers.