METRO Weekend Parking (Franconia, Springfield, Falls Church: home, cost, car)

[gp123]

Hi all,

I'm currently working on scheduling a flight to go home on leave in FL for a week. I would be leaving on a Sunday and returning on the following Sunday. I was looking at possibly flying out of Reagan and parking in a Metro lot. From what I can tell, Metro parking is free on weekends, but is there a fee for parking for 8 days at the lot or do I have to worry about my car being towed or anything like that? I'm looking to park at Franconia Springfield?

Thanks

[cdmurphy]

This is what Metro says about multi-day parking:

Multi-day parking is available at three stations: Greenbelt, Huntington, and Franconia-Springfield. Each of these stations has between 15 and 17 spaces allocated for multi-day use of up to 10 days. Availability is on a first-come, first-served basis. There is no charge for multi-day parking beyond the regular fee, paid with a SmarTrip card on the day of exit if exiting during collection hours (10:30 a.m. - midnight on Monday - Thursday, and 10:30 a.m. - 3 a.m. Friday).


These spaces, located inside the regular facilities and not at the metered (Kiss & Ride) spaces are at:
1. Level 1J at Franconia-Springfield station
2. The lower level of the new Huntington station garage
3. Cherrywood Lane side at Greenbelt station

It sounds like there's no charge if you exit on the weekend. However, the limited number of spaces might be a problem.

[bluetruckguy]

If you exit on weekend there is no charge.. but I agree with the limited number of spaces issue too.

Sometime ago, when I had to park for long time, I parked at the parking lot across stree from West Falls Church station.. its not exactly WMATA parking lot.. but it is MTA or something.. its right opposite there in the Virginia Tech parking lot.

I've parked there many times for 3 or 4 days without any problem.

[CHIP72]

I'd bet Huntington would be a better bet for long-term parking than Franconia-Springfield (in terms of parking spaces being available). The nice thing is, if you are parking on a weekend and the long-term spots aren't available at Franconia-Springfield, it isn't that hard to go over to Huntington and see if that station has spots available. It doesn't cost you anything except extra gas if you are doing that on a weekend.

If worse comes to worse the SuperShuttle is always an option.