Town Officials Advocate to Name Future Metro Station 'Herndon'

Coming up with the right name for the future Metro station that will touch down on Herndon Parkway is important to the town’s officials.

Tuesday night the Town Council discussed recent communications with members of the Fairfax County board of supervisors on the issue.

Mayor Steve DeBenedittis said the name the town has suggested in the past is simply Herndon Metro Station, then CIT-Herndon West, for the station that will be located near the Center for Innovative Technology building.

DeBenedittis said in his communications with Hunter Mill district Supervisor Cathy Hudgins, she said the names should be Reston West-Herndon for the station that will land just south of Herndon Parkway, and Herndon-Dulles East for the CIT-area station. He said Hudgins, who is the new chair of the Metro board of directors, felt those names best fit the criteria for naming stations.

Councilmember Connie Hutchinson said, “It’s ridiculous that the Herndon station would be named Reston.” She said town officials should stand firm on their insistence that the station be named Herndon.

Vice Mayor Lisa Merkel said Sharon Bulova, chair of the Fairfax County board of supervisors, was in agreement that Herndon should at least get first billing on the name of the station. Merkel said Herndon-Monroe is still the top name on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s list.

Merkel said Reston will already have its name on two other sites at Wiehle Avenue and in Reston Town Center. She said Bulova and Dranesville district Supervisor John Foust stand behind Herndon in having top billing on the station name.

Councilman Bill Tirrell said He agrees with Hutchinson. He said even though the station is located in Fairfax County it will touch down inside the town, and is in a Herndon/Oak Hill zip code.

Tirrell said there are a lot of developers in Reston who have a lot of muscle and understand how to get their name and brand in front of people. “It’s not in Reston,” he said. He said they should advocate for Herndon, then Herndon-Monroe, then Herndon-Oak Hill.

DeBenedittis said he is not advocating for anything other than Herndon Metro Station, and the town should have sole billing. “This is the Herndon station,” he said. Tirrell said he thinks Oak Hill might be an appropriate name to share the station with but DeBenedittis said he doesn’t support Herndon-Oak Hill either.

Council members Grace Wolf, Sheila Olem and Jasbinder singh were in agreement that town officials should continue to lobby for the station to at least start with Herndon.

Wolf said she thinks no matter what the station is called people will identify it with Herndon because that’s where they’re getting off the train. She said WMATA should just go ahead and name it Herndon from the start.

“This is a huge deal in my opinion,” DeBenedittis said. He said the town needs to continue to advocate however it can, whether through letters, meetings or other means.  

Tirrell said they should have Supervisor Foust point out to Supervisor Hudgins that Reston will have its name on two sites already and that a station located outside Reston shouldn’t have Reston’s name on it.