Fairfax County Touts Springfield FBI Location as Most Commuter-Friendly

Drivers traveling to the new FBI headquarters can save nearly 10 minutes daily if the agency is relocated to Springfield, rather than either site in Prince George’s County, according to an analysis compiled by Fairfax County and released Thursday.

The analysis considered auto travel times from 20 locations across Maryland, Virginia, and the District to each of the three sites under consideration for the FBI’s new suburban headquarters. It used growth forecasts through 2025 from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments travel demand model and travel time data from Google and Metro.

The average travel time for drivers?

• Springfield: 28 minutes
• Greenbelt: 37 minutes
• Landover: 36 minutes

“The Springfield FBI location gets commuters to work an average of 3-4 hours faster than the other potential locations every month, meaning more productivity and less stress,” said Chairman Sharon Bulova of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. “The faster commute, newly renovated Springfield Town Center, and the Franconia-Springfield Metro station make the Springfield site an ideal location for the new FBI headquarters.”

The analysis also shows that many Maryland residents can reach the Springfield site more quickly than either site in their home state, the report says.

Shady Grove residents traveling in single occupancy vehicles can arrive in Springfield in 31 minutes as opposed to 39 minutes to Greenbelt or 51 minutes to Landover, according to the analysis. Similarly, District residents commuting by car from Union Station arrive in Springfield 5 and 7 minutes quicker than if they were heading to Greenbelt or Landover.

Even drivers leaving from Branch Avenue - in Prince George’s County - could arrive in Springfield almost as quickly as they could to either Maryland site, the report notes.

“We’ve long debated whether Maryland or Virginia had the highest number of FBI employees,” said Supervisor Jeff McKay, “But this analysis sheds a new light on that argument. It’s actually shorter for many of the agency’s employees, even those living in Maryland, to get to Springfield. At a time when gridlock seems to be everywhere, we need to be wise about where the FBI relocates. This information, combined with our site’s major mass transit advantages, just reaffirms what we’ve said all along: Springfield makes the most sense for the FBI.”

FBI personnel traveling to the GSA warehouse in Springfield by mass transit will also experience travel time savings over the two sites in Maryland, the analysis suggests.

The average trip time for mass transit commuters leaving from the same 20 sites to Springfield is 63 minutes, quicker than a trip to Greenbelt (65 minutes) and Landover (90 minutes).

In addition to shortened daily travel times, FBI employees will see significant travel reductions when commuting to the agency’s training facility in Quantico. Vehicle commuters will arrive in Quantico more than 30 minutes sooner when departing from Springfield, while mass transit commuters will benefit from the site’s connection to the VRE, which allows FBI employees to travel directly to Quantico by train. Employees will also save time when commuting to the other FBI facilities throughout the Commonwealth, including the new Central Records Complex in Winchester.