Van Dorn Street is a Washington Metro station straddling the boundary between

Fairfax County Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. It is part of Northern Virginia and borders both the city of Alexandria, Virginia, Alexandria and ...

and the independent city of

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, United States. The station’s island platform lies in unincorporated Rose Hill in Fairfax County, while the station’s entrance and parking facilities are in Alexandria. The station was opened on June 15, 1991, and is operated by the

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA ), commonly referred to as Metro, is a tri-jurisdictional government agency that operates transit service in the Washington metropolitan area. WMATA was created by the United States Con ...

(WMATA). Providing service for the

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

Line, the station is located at South Van Dorn Street and Eisenhower Avenue, next to the

Capital Beltway The Capital Beltway is a Interstate Highway in the Washington metropolitan area that surrounds Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, and its inner suburbs in adjacent Maryland and Virginia. It is the basis of the phrase " inside ...

. From 1991 to 1997 it was the southwestern terminus of the Blue Line.

History

In June 1977, the city of Alexandria, Southern Railway, and the

United Parcel Service United Parcel Service (UPS, stylized as ups) is an American multinational shipping & receiving and supply chain management company founded in 1907. Originally known as the American Messenger Company specializing in telegraphs, UPS has grown t ...

reached an agreement allowing for Metro to retain the

air rights Air rights are the property interest in the "space" above the earth's surface. Generally speaking, owning, or renting, land or a building includes the right to use and build in the space above the land without interference by others. This lega ...

for the construction of the Van Dorn station when funding became available. After years of planning, in March 1987 Metro awarded a $32.3 million contract to complete the station by 1991 to Dillingham Construction of

Pleasanton, California Pleasanton is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. Located in the Amador Valley, it is a suburb in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 79,871 at the 2020 census. In 2005 and 2007, Pleasanton wa ...

. Originally slated to be part of the Yellow Line, in early 1990 it was decided Van Dorn would be served by the Blue Line with the Yellow Line being shifted to the Huntington station. The station opened on June 15, 1991, with the completion of of rail west of the King Street – Old Town station. Van Dorn Street would remain as the southwestern terminus of the Blue Line from its completion through the opening of the Franconia–Springfield station on June 29, 1997. 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. In May 2018, Metro announced an extensive renovation of platforms at twenty stations across the system. The Blue and Yellow Lines south of

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport station Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport station is a Washington Metro station in Arlington, Virginia on the Blue and Yellow Lines. The station platform is elevated and covered and is the last above-ground station on the Yellow Line in Virgin ...

, including the Van Dorn Street station, would be closed from May to September 2019. The platform at this station would then be rebuilt starting in September 2019, necessitating single-track operations on the Blue Line for several weeks. A nearby rail bridge will also be rebuilt during the reconstruction. From March 26, 2020, until June 28, 2020, this station was closed due to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. Between September 10, 2022 and November 5, 2022, Van Dorn Street was closed due to the

Potomac Yard station Potomac Yard station is a Washington Metro station under construction in Alexandria, Virginia, United States. The station will be operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), serving both the Blue and Yellow Lines, a ...

tie-in, closing all stations south of

. Shuttle buses were provided throughout the shutdown.

Station layout

The station has an

island platform An island platform (also center platform, centre platform) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are popular on ...

situated between Eisenhower Avenue and the

RF&P Subdivision The RF&P Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation. It runs from Washington, D.C., to Richmond, Virginia, over lines previously owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad. ...

tracks, which carry Virginia Railway Express and

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

trains. North of the station is a loop of

bus bay A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

s serving

DASH The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Fairfax Connector Fairfax Connector is a public bus service provided by Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, and is managed by the county government. The bus system provides service within Fairfax County, and connects to Metrobus, Metrorail stations, Virginia ...

, and Metrobus routes. A tunnel underneath Eisenhower Avenue leads to a small parking lot.

References

External links

* * The Schumin Web Transit Center
Van Dorn Street Station

Station from Google Maps Street View
{{Washington Metro stations navbox Washington Metro stations in Virginia Transportation in Alexandria, Virginia Stations on the Blue Line (Washington Metro) Railway stations in the United States opened in 1991 1991 establishments in Virginia Transportation in Fairfax County, Virginia