Members of the Fairfax County’s Transportation Advisory Commissioners were guests of Fairfax County Connector Transit System as they toured the West Ox Bus Operations facility. Kris Miller (Senior Fleet Coordinator, Fairfax Connector) briefed the TAC on the West Ox Bus Facility while Nick Perfili (Fairfax Connector Section Manager, Transit Services Division, FDOT) provided an Update on Implementation of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Technology on Fairfax Connector Buses.
The West Ox Bus Operations facility is a partnership among Fairfax County, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. This $32 million facility, on a 30-acre site, encompasses three buildings including a 26,476 SF service building, a 43,266 SF maintenance facility, and a 14,929 SF administration building. The facility is designed to store and maintain a fleet of 175 buses of which 100 are allocated to Metrobus and 75 are allocated to the Fairfax Connector as well as room for 270 employees’ vehicles. All three buildings are 20 hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week operation that provides full-service maintenance and repair of buses in the Metropolitan area, as well as driver training and driver administration areas.
The Administration building consists of dispatch, training and administration offices as well as driver kitchen, dining, and lounge areas, and driver showers, restrooms and locker rooms.
The Maintenance building consists of 16 full-size bus bays complete with lifts, lubrication and fluid reels, tires, parts and battery storage rooms, administration offices, lockers, shower facilities and training rooms.
The Service Building houses 2 full-size automatic drive-through bus washes, a bay with lift and hot water pressure wash system for undercarriages, industrial vacuum and interior cleaning stations, and interior and exterior fuel service islands.
The TAC Vice Chair, Jenifer Joy Madden, prepared a short paper with “Ten fun facts about the West Ox Bus Operations facility”.
