Numerous citizens requested data about the ability of the Metro system to absorb additional riders resulting from such high density at Vienna station. 

Officials declared that the “Metro Matters” program should alleviate citizens’ concerns about Metro capacity.  However, Metro Matters does nothing to address the fundamental limitations of Metro stations’ capacity.  Core stations (i.e., those in downtown D.C.) and major transfer stations particularly, already face capacity limits.  This is illustrated by a chart, which shows that passenger platforms, escalators, fare gates, etc. of core stations are today, or will soon be, at or beyond design capacity.  Such factors should be thoroughly examined and accounted for. 

Metro Matters does provide for more rail cars.  However, even with more rail cars, Metro projects that the Orange line will be in the "Unmanageable" category in seven years, around the time Metro West is slated to be completed.  The "Unmanageable" category means that riders will routinely be unable to board trains.  See the Orange line capacity in this chart's second box, "120 Metro Matters Cars," which are all that have been funded.

Specific requests for information regarding how Metro will address these problem have gone unanswered. 

Finally, a development as large as Metro West cannot be considered in a vacuum, but must also consider the high density projects currently under construction at Dunn Loring, and additional recent and proposed developments elsewhere near Metro stations.  Contrary to Transit-Oriented Development best practices, authorities did not consider the interplay between the last two stations on the Orange line.  This Transit-Oriented Development concept is termed "node specialization," and is explored in a Brookings Institute paper called Transit Oriented Development: Moving From Rhetoric to Reality, available at http://www.brook.edu/dybdocroot/es/urban/publications/belzertod.pdf (page 32).

 This publication strongly suggests planning for transit oriented development in a comprehensive manner.  Instead of a piecemeal approach where each transit node is examined separately, Brookings suggests assessing each station site individually while thinking regionally about the interplay between land uses around each station and how they can affect ridership system wide. 

Despite numerous requests from citizens, neither the County nor Metro appears to have engaged in any coordination among Orange line transit nodes.