Take Fairfax Connector? Your Route Could Be Changing

Frequent Fairfax Connector bus riders take note: The county’s Board of Supervisors will vote Tuesday on changes to 40 routes, a decision that will not only connect nearby neighborhoods to the new Silver Line Metro stations but also change about 40 percent of the county's sprawling bus system.

For Chantilly one of the biggest changes is a new proposed route:

Route 985 (Dranesville, Hunter Mill, Sully) Implement a new weekday bus service that will provide peak period directional service along Dulles Technology Drive, Air and Space Museum Parkway and EDS Drive from the Wiehle-Reston East Metrorail Station.

After months of tweaking and public input, county transportation officials are presenting options for the board’s approval Tuesday so riders can start using the new routes in time for the first stage of the Silver Line’s opening in late December.

Transportation officials estimate that the total cost of the changes will be more than $3.3 million.

Getting the new routes running will cost about $2 million of pre-approved C&I tax money in the Fiscal Year 2014 budget. Adjusting the existing routes will cost another $1.3 million, which officials hope to get from Gov. Bob McDonnell’s new transportation bill.

Residents in the Hunter Mill and Dranesville districts will experience the majority of the changes, with route modifications in Reston and Herndon providing midday and evening service.

Other notable changes include:

• Routes 425 and 427 between Tysons West and the West Falls Church Metro station would be eliminated under the plan, replaced by new circulator routes around Tysons and the newly operational Silver Line.
• Route 555 from the Sunset Hills Park and Ride in Reston to the West Falls Church Station would also be discontinued. Residents would be able to use the new 505 route from Reston Town Center to West Falls Church instead, with service to both the Sunset Hills and Reston North Park and Rides.
• Two express routes from Reston to the Pentagon and Crystal City in Arlington, 595 and 597, would be eliminated and replaced by route 599, a combination of the two original routes.

Though officials initally proposed eliminating route 927, which runs along the Dulles Corridor to the Herndon-Monroe Park and Ride, they have chosen to maintain some service on route, only during weekday peak hours.

The Board will not take action on route 432, a line intended to serve Vienna and Tysons that has divided some parts of the community.

The route will be approved eventually, but the form it takes is still very much up in the air, with four options currently on the table.

Residents will have an opportunity to speak out on the route again Tuesday night at the Patrick Henry Library in Vienna.