Franconia-Springfield is an island platformed Washington Metro station in Springfield, Virginia, United States. The station was opened on June 29, 1997, and is operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). Providing service for the Blue Line, it is the southwestern terminus of the Blue Line, and is located at the junction of Franconia-Springfield Parkway and Frontier Drive. The station serves a suburban area and is mostly used for commuters, with 5,069 spaces - Metro's largest parking garage. It is a major transit hub, providing not only Metro service, but also Virginia Railway Express, Metrobus, and local and intercity bus service, including Greyhound buses. It also served as an Amtrak station for the Northeast Regional line between 2003 and 2010. Amtrak's code for the station was "FRS."
With 6,970 daily riders by a 2016 count, Franconia-Springfield station is the 8th-most used WMATA Metro station in Virginia.
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History
Prior to construction by WMATA, Franconia-Springfield station was the site of Franconia Station, a standard railroad station built by the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad. It was built in 1870 and torn down in 1952. Original Metro plans called for 2 separate stations for Franconia and Springfield, but by the time Metro got to building the station, plans had been changed to combine the 2 stations due to the expense and complications of running 2 separate branch lines to the two towns, as it would have required adding an entirely new "color service".
In 1981, WMATA held a series of public hearings to discuss issues related to the expansion of the then Yellow Line to Springfield by 1986, although the project was unfunded at that time. By 1987, the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission began to evaluate whether or not state funding would be necessary to complete the station as federal funding was not guaranteed at that time. By 1991, funding for the expansion was secured and plans for the station, parking garage, and other commuter facilities were approved by the Metro board.
The VRE platform opened in 1995, the second infill station on the system. The Metrorail station opened on June 29, 1997; its opening coincided with the completion of 3.3 miles (5.3 km) of rail west of the Van Dorn Street station. The final cost for both the station and rail expansion was $175 million.
In 2003, due to increases in ridership on both the Metro and VRE lines, WMATA opened an additional parking garage on the premises for park-and-ride users, offering an additional 1,000 parking spaces, and bringing the total to 5,100 spaces.
On June 25, 2017, Yellow Line trains stopped serving the station due to the elimination of Rush+, which is part of major changes to the Metrorail system.
Station layout
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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