Transportation officials say expanded commuter lot will be worth the wait

The expanded parking at the Horner Road commuter lot will not open Monday as was previously announced by transportation officials.

Instead, final touch-up work needs to be done and a revised opening date will be announced soon, the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission said.

“While close to completion, there are still final construction tasks that need to be finished before the lot can be opened to the public,” PRTC officials wrote in a release. “We regret any inconvenience our original announcement may have caused.”

The lot, set to become the largest park-and-ride lot in Northern Virginia at approximately 2,000 parking spaces, is used by commuters to get on OmniRide buses and for its slug lines into D.C.

PRTC announced a second OmniRide bus stop will operate in the expanded lot area with new routing when it opens:

In the morning buses will enter the lot at the Telegraph Road entrance, serve the new bus stop, old bus stop, then enter Interstate 95 via the HOV ramp;

Buses will use the I-95 exit ramp into the lot, serve the old bus stop, the new stop, then exit the lot via Telegraph Road.

In other parking news, Virginia Railway Express commuters will see some parking at the Manassas Park station will shift to city residents-only.

Manassas officials recently told VRE that three additional rows of parking in the older section of the lot will be reserved for Manassas Park residents only.

Other VRE news:

On the east end, the Java Jacks opened July 1 at the Woodbridge VRE station opposite the Greyhound bus office. Hours of operation are 5:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

VRE is in the final testing phase of its “Fare Collection 2” system before a full rollout. The system uses smaller tickets for new machines that in the future will be compatible with electronic farecard technology.

The VRE is recruiting a large team of beta testers to give the machines a final shakedown, or specifically, people willing to purchase and validate tickets in the new machines for a week. For information, go to www.vre.org/service/farecollection/final_phase_beta_test.htm.