Metro News Release

For immediate release: October 23, 2006

Temporary Vienna Metrorail station parking lot to close next month

Metro and Fairfax County transportation officials began letting commuters know today that a temporary overflow parking lot at the Vienna/Fairfax-GMU station will close next month. See the customer brochure.

Metro currently offers 5,849 parking spaces at five lots or garages at the station, which serve nearly 13,000 riders on an average weekday. A 680-space temporary lot will close November 17 due to the expiration of the zoning permit and lease for the privately owned lot.

Alternative parking will be available at nine Fairfax County park-and-ride lots, and commuters can take Fairfax Connector or Metrobuses to the Vienna station.

Metro received permission several years ago to open a temporary lot on private property for Metrorail customers displaced during the 2000-2001 construction of a park-and-ride garage. The lot closed when the garage opened, but Fairfax County allowed Metro to temporarily reopen it in November 2001 due to high transit demand following September 11, 2001. The agreement expires November 19, 2006. The property on which the lot is located has been sold and incorporated into a private development.

Fairfax County is proposing to build a 2,100-space parking garage on an existing lot near the station. If approved, construction could begin in summer 2007 and be complete in early 2009, bringing the total number of parking spaces at the station to more than 6,600.

Signs announcing the closing of the temporary lot will be posted at the lot and brochures listing alternative parking sites with connecting bus information will be available in the rail station. Customers also can find the information on-line at www.metroopensdoors.com or http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/fcdot/parkride.htm or call Metro at 202-637-7000.

News release issued on October 23, 2006.