Parking Fee Changes Coming To West Falls Church Metro (ICYMI)

FALLS CHURCH, VA—Starting on Monday, Feb. 5, Metro will begin implementing parking fee changes as part of a six-month pilot program. For Falls Church riders, that means new $2 parking fees on Saturdays, extended parking fee hours, and lower weekday parking fees at West Falls Church Metro.

West Falls Church is one of two stations lowering the weekday parking fee, which will be $3. East Falls Church will keep the $4.95 weekday fee.

Meanwhile riders at Dunn Loring and a handful of other Northern Virginia stations could pay $8.95 "non-rider" charges meant for those that park at Metro and don't use the rail or bus systems. That's a big contrast to the typical $4.95 fee on weekdays and the new $2 fee on Saturdays.

The $8.95 fee would apply for three kinds of riders:

• Anyone paying with a credit card
• Anyone paying with a SmarTrip card not used for their Metrorail or Metrobus ride
• Anyone paying with a SmarTrip card exiting the parking lot more than two hours after the start of their last Metrorail or Metrobus trip

The best way to avoid the steeper charge is to pay with the SmarTrip card immediately after exiting the Metro system, or use another station like West Falls Church.

Drivers should also be aware of extended hours where parking fees will be charged. Fees will be collected two hours earlier on all weekdays and one hour later on Fridays. The new hours 7:30 a.m.-12:30 a.m. Mondays to Thursdays, 7:30 a.m.-2 a.m. on Fridays and 10 a.m.-2 a.m. on Saturdays.

Members of the Metro board from Virginia proposed an exemption for Saturday parking fees at Fairfax County stations but Washington, DC vetoed it, along with a request for delay, Fairfax Times reported.

See a full list of parking fee charges here.

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Image via Patch editor Emily Leayman