Blue Line

Priority: Wilson Blvd Realignment = 2
              Pentagon Bridge Realignment= 2
              Abandonment of L'Enfant Plaza to Largo Leg = 2
              West Falls Church to Wiehle Ave Extension = 1
              Wiehle Ave to Dulles Airport Extension = 2
              Dulles Airport to Leesburg Extension = 5
              Springfield to Woodbridge Extension = 3

Notes:

  • As part of a re-routing plan to make Metro more efficient in the Downtown and Rosslyn-Ballston areas, the Blue and Yellow Lines are redrawn to more effectively serve those areas. The Blue Line abandons its Arlington Cemetery station and takes over the current Yellow Line Potomac bridge near the Pentagon. The alignment was chosen because tracks in the Wilson Blvd Corridor are already severely over burdened, since trains currently only operate at half the normal intervals (due to track sharing downtown). Extensions up the Dulles Corridor to Tysons Corner and beyond would worsen the problem without additional service for Wilson Blvd. The alignment shown is the simplest way to solve that problem, while maintaining service on the Pentagon Bridge and preserving regular intervals downtown.
  • Service at the Arlington Cemetery station is to be replaced by the S-Southside light rail line, running between Fort Belvoir, VA and La Plata, MD via Alexandria, Arlington, Georgetown, Downtown and Anacostia.
  • Extensions past West Falls Church generally follow the official plan, with the following exceptions:
    1. Tracks deviate from the Toll Road right-of-way and on to Sunset Hills Road to serve the Wiehle Ave and Reston stations, where potential for TOD is high. Public right-of-way at Sunset Hills Road is adequately wide for tracks to be separated, though some car lanes may be lost.
    2. An extension continuing in the Toll Road right-of-way toward Leesburg is desirable, considering that city's relatively urban development pattern. Two Leesburg stations would be necessary: "Gateway", near the US-15 Bypass to serve Park and Ride users, and a downtown station, "Leesburg", to serve walkers.
Station List
(New stations in blue)

Leesburg
Gateway
Ashburn
Old Ox Rd
Dulles Airport
Dulles North
Herndon
Reston
Wiehle Ave
Wolf Trap
Tysons West
Tysons Central
Tysons Galleria
Tysons East

Falls Church West¤
Falls Church East¤
Ballston¤
Virginia Square¤
Clarendon¤
Courthouse¤
Rosslyn
Foggy Bottom
McPherson Square
Metro Center
Federal Triangle
Smithsonian
L'Enfant Plaza
Pentagon
Pentagon City
Crystal City
National Airport
Potomac Yard East
Braddock Road
King Street
Van Dorn Street
Franconia / Springfield
Newington
Lorton
Woodbridge - Occoquan

¤ Existing stations with new Blue Line service.