Fairfax County Recommends New Names For 2 Metro Stations

FALLS CHURCH, VA — On Tuesday, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved recommendations for renaming the West Falls Church and Tysons Corner Metro stations. The Tysons Corner station would be called Tysons station, and West Falls Church station would have the UVA removed from the name.

The county's transportation department was notified in April that the University of Virginia (UVA) plans to move out of the campus near the West Falls Church station. Because the Virginia Tech campus is staying, the station would be named West Falls Church VT.

A staff report says changing the Metro station name from Tysons Corner to Tysons aids "local rebranding efforts." The U.S. Postal Service granted a request from the Board of Supervisors in March 2011 to change the name to Tysons, VA in the 22102 and 22182 zip codes. The U.S. Postal Service made the name change for the census-designated place of Tysons in 2015.

The county's recommendation will go to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority board for approval. The name changes would occur in coordination with station names being added for the Silver Line extension to Dulles Airport and Loudoun County. West Falls Church and three other Orange Line stations are closed this summer for a platform reconstruction project. The Tysons Corner and four other Silver Line stations are closed for a project connecting Metrorail to the future Silver Line stations.

Metro's station naming policy calls for locations to be identified by geographical features, centers of activity, names of cities, communities, neighborhoods or landmarks within one-half mile. Names must also not be easily confused with other station names.

Metro's policy also calls for the jurisdiction requesting a name change to pay the cost. The changes are expected to cost Fairfax County $670,000.