Because of the extended headways that Metro is following on our Fest weekend, the entire Sunday itinerary had to be revised. You can see it here (scroll down to Sunday).
The problem in rescheduling is that the Red Line is on a 22-minute headway, and the Orange/Blue/Silver Lines are running on a 20-minute headway. So the lines don't always match up correctly at their common transfer point, Metro Center. What's more, to have kept to the plan of doing the Orange Line first to Vienna would have meant a longer dwell at East Falls Church (EFC, the transfer point between the Orange and Silver Lines), which is outdoors in the median of I-66. I believe the station is covered, but it may be a cold rainy day.
The following was done:
- Dropped the Orange Line to Vienna segment and the Green Line trip in the afternoon. With the longer dwells and for the above misconnect at EFC, Vienna would no longer have been a comfortable option.
- Slightly later departure from Union Station in order to get to Tysons Corner at a reasonable time for lunch (meaning not as early as the 10 AM hour). By cutting out the Orange Line and just doing Silver to the end and back to Tysons, the later departure gets us there at 11:17 AM. I am not certain if eateries are even open that early in a mall on a Sunday, but if not we can just wait until they do.
- 1 hour 20 minutes allowed for lunch at Tysons Corner. If we do have to wait a while, we can always leave on the next Silver Line train 20 minutes later.
Now we have seen varying weather reports that go anywhere from 0 to 10 to 80% probability it might be raining. Weather "experts" don't know for sure what will happen. If we see that it is pouring rain and we don't want to stop at Tysons Corner, we've agreed we have the option to just remain on the same Silver Line train we boarded at Wiehle/Reston East and travel back to Union Station by changing to the Red Line. That scenario would require another 13 minute dwell at Metro Center and put us back to Union Station at 12:04 PM.
Discussing with Ross and others tonight, although there are many places in the Washington area (including those on the Virginia side) that have collections of restaurants accessible underground from Metro, on a Sunday we would find all or most of them closed. Therefore, Union Station it is if we encounter weather that causes us to agree to bypass Tysons Corner.
I hope the abridged version of Sunday's activities is satisfactory, given most of us are in town already or on their way here tonight or tomorrow. It was the best that could be done under the circumstances whose details were not known until today since Metro likes to keep their news under wraps until almost the last minute!