public transport help (Springfield, Fairfax, Vienna: transfer to, shopping center, buses)

[macintosh]

Hello.

For the next few weeks, I am trying to find if I can use the bus (or rail or both) to go from Centrevelle to Springfield. Spefically, I need to commute from Fair Lakes Mall to Ravensworth Shopping Center on Braddock road. Anybody here familiar enough with the bus system to guide me in this? Or, what information should I search for to see what options I have?

Thank you.

[choff5]

Don't know myself but did find the metro trip planner, Metro - Rider Tools - Trip Planner maybe that will help if you can play with it, or check schedules there.

[CaliTerp07]

Fair Lakes Shopping Center, or Fair Oaks Mall?

Either way, type it into the metro planner choff5 pointed you too. Use the intersection of "Braddock & Port Royal Road" and it'll find the Ravensworth center. It's a nasty trip on public transportation though...3 or 4 connections and from Fair Oaks it's over 90 minutes, from Fair Lakes it's nearly 2 hours.

[slowlane]

Here's another local transit system you can check:
Fairfax Connector*- Fairfax County, Virginia

[bmwguydc]

There is a Metro Bus that runs along Braddock Road to GMU. You could take the bus there and then transfer to the CUE bus, and another Metro bus on Route 50 to Fair Oaks Mall. I know that the buses run on those routes, but cannot recall the numbers, though the trip planner should point you in the right direction.

To my mind, that would be easier than taking a Fairfax Connector bus to the Metro and then having to get from the Vienna Metro to Fair Oaks. The bus station at Fair Oaks is on the lower level, outside Sears.

If you don't mind a bit of a walk some days, there are Fairfax Connector buses that go to/from the Government Center to the Vienna Metro, on a short loop. Some times of the day, I would think bus coverage could be spotty from Metro, not during rush hours, though, so it's an option, with a walk along Monument Drive to the back entrance of Fair Oaks Mall.

The County's transportation page also gives a listing of connecting buses at the Metro stations, which can come in handy: Metro Services*- Fairfax County, Virginia

Here's the Metro system bus map in PDF for NOVA: http://www.wmata.com/pdfs/bus/VA.pdf. It also details the CUE bus routes and Fairfax Connector routes.

From the map, it's the 17A or K that I was thinking of, that runs along Braddock Road to GMU. And it looks like it's a 1C, 2B, or 2G that will get you from a CUE connection to the Fair Oaks Mall. That might be faster, depending upon the timetable, than going to the Metro station and then to Vienna to Fair Oaks, since you might have a local Metro bus on that route, and the express Fairfax Connector bus would require a walk.