NOVA Streetcar Meeting quicknotes

Just got back home from the Northern Virginia Streetcar Coalition meeting. Will post a more fleshed-out article either tomorrow or over the weekend, but for now, here's the collection of Tweets I made from the meeting...you'll catch the basic gist from these.

• At the NOVA Streetcar Coalition meeting. Curious to see what they're going to put out.


• Abi Lerner (Alex): CCPY transitway needs to be done in a coordinated fashion btwn Alex & Arlington.


• Curbside or medianside? (medianside chosen for Route 1 part of CCPY)


• Beauregard/Mark Center-BRAC: connect to Columbia Pike?


• Alex. priority is CCPY/Rte 1 first, then Beauregard/Van Dorn 2nd, then Duke St 3rd.


• How to accommodate future conversion to streetcar without creating environmrntal impact & preserve flexibility for Federal funding?


• Alexandria wants to further study future conversions to streetcars before making a final decision.


• *NO* intent in Alexandria to go with overhead wires.


• Arlington: mention of 15K/day bus ridership on Columbia Pike.


• Relating Columbia Pike Streetcar project to Federal policy vision of current administration.


• Arlington to initiate Federal New Starts process for Columbia Pike soon.


• Arlington County plan (approved by board as policy) to increase Crystal City density by 68% over today.


• Arlington has $6M in grants to build their segment of CCPY transitway.


• Arlington doesn't think there's a viable alternative to overhead wires yet. Still looking to pursue overhead wires.


• FFX Co def of major transit corridor is basically "major public transit facility (which may be HOV lanes) provided based on alternatives analysis


• FFX Co Board endorsed long-term goal of rail on I-66 west of Vienna.


• Plan to build bus ramp from 66 HOV lane to Vienna station.


• If 28 gets widened, would likely include HOV lanes. Other transit modes unclear/unstudied.


• FFX comp plan endorses 176' ROW for Rte 1, preserves ROW for LRT in median.


• No LRT envisioned along 95/395.


• Mention that 1/3 of inbound 66 traffic in morning is heading to Tysons.


• MWCOG: big on projects that provide connectivity btwn systems. Mentions 43% of Purple Line users predicted to xfer to/from Metro.


• Ron Kirby (MWCOG) must've been around for awhile. He called it Shirley Hwy instead of I-395.


• NVTC: NOVA transit ridership up 3% in FY 2009 over 2008.


• NVTC: FY 10 transit in NOVA cost $700M. 65% local (including fares), 20% state, 15% Federal.


• NVTC: per state statutes, VA supposed to cover 95% of transit costs not covered by fares or Feds. They obviously fall far short.