Washington Metro station
East Falls Church station is an island platformed Washington Metro station in Arlington County, Virginia, on the Orange and Silver Lines. East Falls Church station is the last aboveground, at-grade, or open-cut station for eastbound trains. East of this station, the trains enter tunnels.
The station serves the communities of Falls Church and Arlington. It is located in the median of Interstate 66 near Lee Highway (U.S. Route 29). Service began on June 7, 1986. A parking lot with 422 spaces sits on the Lee Highway side of the station.
Transit-oriented development
East Falls Church has the least transit-oriented development of the six stations on the Orange Line in Arlington. Unlike the stations from Rosslyn to Ballston, East Falls Church station is in the median of Interstate 66, where it is difficult to access for pedestrians.[2] As of 2018, Arlington County was considering plans to develop the site.[3]
History
The station was built as part of the final westward extension of the Orange Line to Vienna.[4], a 9.1-mile (14.6 km) stretch west of the Ballston station. It opened on June 7, 1986, along with the West Falls Church, Dunn Loring, and Vienna stations.[4]
When the Silver Line began service on July 26, 2014, East Falls Church became the final transfer point before its split with the Orange Line.[5]
In May 2018, Metro announced an extensive renovation of platforms at 20 stations. The East Falls Church station platform was to have been be rebuilt starting in early 2021.[6] However, due to low ridership caused by the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, platform reconstruction began one year early, along with other maintenance and repair projects on all stations to the west.[7] This station was one of 19 WMATA stations closed due to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.[8][9] The station was further closed due to the platform reconstruction and Silver Line phase two tie-in projects that closed stations west of Ballston–MU station.[10][7] Shuttle buses began serving the station on June 28, 2020.[11] Trains began bypassing the station on August 16, 2020, when work was nearly done. The station was reopened on August 23, 2020.[12]
From June 3 to 26, 2023, the station was closed for track replacement, along with other stations west of Ballston-MU.[13]
Station layout
Similar to all stations within the Interstate 66 median apart from West Falls Church, East Falls Church has a simple island platform setup with two tracks. An exit in the central part of the platform leads to a mezzanine on the western side of North Sycamore Street. The station's parking lot and bus bays are to the north of this exit at the southwestern corner of the intersection of North Sycamore Street and North Washington Boulevard.[2]
