New Slug Line to Alexandria!!

I work 8:30-5 in Old Town and noticed the "best hours" were out of my range. I would love to pick up people and wonder if they changed the hours if more people would be available?

Well, sort of. The Kiss-n-ride area is on the other side of the small median. In my opinion, there is plenty of room for buses and cars (given the very few buses that are there at any given time). The way I see it, this is easy compared to all the other congested areas where cars and buses "work together" without a problem.

Anyway, on the 19th we have invited somebody from the PRTC to observe and see if there are any problems. If so, we can move the line. The idea is to make commuting easier from all of us!

There is a slight change to the new Woodbridge VRE slug line. The pick-up will be immediately in front of the VRE station building were the current kiss-n-ride is located.

Although the pedestrian overpass is completed and open for use by VRE passengers, the kiss-n-ride area on route 1 is NOT open. So, the gates to the overpass are locked and cannot be used for the foreseeable future.

We are pushing forward with the October 19th, start date. The only change is that the slug-line will form in front of the actual VRE station. Actually, this is more convenient for VRE passengers. If the train is late, people can just walk from the platform to the front of the building!

The two big things to remember are these:

(a) Leave the HOV at that flyover ramp just north of Newington (the Fairfax County Parkway interchange for the local lanes). If you stay in the HOV, you have to exit at the Franconia-Springfield Parkway, and that means getting stuck in a lot of traffic on the streets; if you miss that exit, you have to go to the Pentagon or Crystal City and backtrack.

(b) Remember that the Beltway construction will be ongoing for another two years and that traffic patterns can and will change frequently. The big thing for purposes of going to the VRE and Metro stops is to use Exit 176B to northbound Telegraph Road and to know how to use Exit 174 as an alternative.

(When the Beltway work is finished in a few years, the "Local/Thru" configuration on the Wilson Bridge will be extended to a point west of the Telegraph Road interchange. When that happens, you'll need to stay to the right to use the "Local" lanes. Otherwise, you'll wind up in Maryland. But that configuration won't be in place until either late 2011 or sometime in 2012. The latter is more likely.)

There are a couple of routes from Woodbridge into Alexandria to the drop-off points. For all of them, you want to use the Shirley Highway HOV facility and then take the exit just north of Newington (the flyover ramp on the right into the local lanes; it's the exit BEFORE the Franconia-Springfield Parkway exit).

Once you exit the HOV facility, get over to the left on I-95 so as to take the flyover ramp to the Beltway's Outer Loop towards Alexandria, the Wilson Bridge, and Baltimore.

You then have a choice of how to go:

(a) To the Eisenhower Avenue Metro, you can either take the Eisenhower Connector exit (Exit 174), go left at the bottom of the ramp, then go right at the next light. Or you can take the new flyover exit at Telegraph Road (Exit 176B), then stay to the right on the ramp for the new ramp to Eisenhower Avenue. It drops you right in front of the Holiday Inn; make a right and the Metro stop is right there.

(b) To the King Street Metro/Alexandria VRE, the best route is probably to take the new Telegraph ramp (Exit 176B), stay left on the ramp to get onto northbound Telegraph, then take the ramp on the right to eastbound 236 (Duke Street). The VRE is to the left at the second light; the Metro is to the left at the third light.

You can use the Eisenhower Connector to get to the King Street Metro, but it's a more convoluted route.

I live not far from that area and I highly recommend you familiarize yourself with both routes into the area (the Eisenhower Connector route and the Telegraph exit route) so that you're ready to bail out from the Beltway in case of traffic jams. Bear in mind that the Beltway is still heavily under construction from the Eisenhower Connector to Telegraph Road. I DO NOT recommend trying Van Dorn Street, or bailing off I-95 at the Franconia-Springfield Parkway exit and going east and then north on Van Dorn, because Van Dorn backs up horribly every morning and you'll never get anywhere.