After some much needed R&R (that’s rest and relaxation, not roads and rails), Transit on Thursday returns to Washington only to find that all hell has broken loose on Metro. The Sliver Line extension to Dulles, looking good when we left, is turning into a first rate debacle, and clouds of smoke seem to be drifting though the tunnels on just about every line. We can’t turn our backs for even a few seconds, can…

Today tens of thousands of District children return to school, leaving behind the late-morning starts, extended curfews and breaks at the public swimming pool that summer afforded them. And though the year will proceed as it usually does, they will be part of a school system that has seen drastic changes over the last few months. Now under mayoral control and led by new chancellor Michelle Rhee, the District’s public schools have entered a new…

Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues. Things used to be clearer for Fairfax County. It used to be known as the epitome of upper-middle class suburbanity, even earning name-checks in popular novels and songs as such. With acres and acres of rolling hills covered in leafy suburbs and landscaped office parks, it was a quiet complement to the quirky inner suburbs of Northern Virginia and the dense chaos…

Though Virginia Governor Tim Kaine gave the proposal to tunnel Metro under Tysons a toe tag two months ago, a coalition of Northern Virginia businesses and residents remain determined to revive it. Even after a panel of experts endorsed the widely-favored tunnel, Kaine was forced to instruct transportation officials to move ahead with plans for overhead tracks, rather than risk almost $900 million, or a quarter of the project’s total budget, in federal support. The…

Today, we focus on the tunnel under Tysons, but also look at Metro’s parking lots and the Orange Line Shuffle….