Train, Richmond to Tyson's corner
 

I am driving from Richmond , up I-95 to Tyson's Corner. I Dread the I-95 and Beltway traffic. Is it possible to take the Amtrack from Richmond to Alexandria or Washington , and meet up with a Metro stop that could carry me to Tyson's Corner?

Someone may correct me on this, but not really. The closest metro will get you is West Falls Church or Dunn Loring. From there it is a cab of bus ride. You could take the low budget train (my name for the non-Acela) from Richmond to Union Station DC and then the red line from there to metro center where you switch to the orange and ride out to VA. It will take a long time. Braving the traffic is a better option IMO. If you went to New Carollton instead of Union Station, you could just hop on the orange line and read half a book by the time you get to Fairfax County. The upsides of that is a)you will get a seat and b) no changes of trains.

As an alternative. how about the fairfax county parkway (aka 7100) from 95 to either 66 or the Dulles Toll Road.

You could drive to Fredericksburg and pick up the VRE and take it to Alexandria. From Alexandria, you could take Metro to West Falls Church and then a cab or bus to Tysons. In other words, it won't be real easy, but it can be done.

Depends where you're going in Tysons. There are metro buses that go to the mall and there is a park & ride off the toll road just before 495 (my mind just blanked).

You can take amtrak to Union Station or the VRE to Alexandria (or Union Station) ... from either take metro, then a bus. Which metro stop will depend on which bus you end up using. It might be east falls church. If you want to taxi from the metro, most likely dunn loring is the best stop as you can go the back way into tysons.

As mentioned above, there is no great way to do this

www.wmata.com is the website to use ... beware of rush hour only routes

Everyone appears to have missed the obvious answer, which is to postpone your trip to 2013 ;).

you did not mention time of day. also, i would take the VRE over amtrak. the vre runs pretty much on time.

There is a direct bus to Tyson's from Crystal City. I think it's the #23. I've never taken it but I see it all the time. You could get to Crystal City by blue or yellow line from King Street (adjacent to the Alexandria Amtrak station) or directly on the VRE.

As for alternative driving routes, the Fairfax County Parkway isn't helpful since the section that goes through to 66 doesn't start until Springfield or so, which means that you have to do the crawl through Woodbridge and thereabouts, which is where the heaviest traffic is. 123 is a viable alternative, though is only one lane in each direction part of the way. It also has the advantage of actually taking you to Tyson's, rather than a several miles west. (And the disadvantage of possible traffic jams in downtown Fairfax and inevitable traffic jams in downtown Vienna.)

You can't avoid that part of I95 that makes me think is just asking for accidents to happen from around fredricksburg to woodbridge. Once in woodbridge, you can cut through Clifton for an alternate to the main traffic routes, but don't be fooled. This is NoVa, there is traffic everywhere, always!

Probably more likely 2015...

The quick answer is NO. But if you want to avoid the beltway take 95 to 395N to VA110 North to 66 West. Also try and time your trip to take advantage of the HOV lanes on 95 and 395; see schedule below.

http://virginiadot.org/travel/hov-novasched.asp

Probably more likely 2020...

Take 301 to waldorf md. 228 to 210 to 295 thru dc and out 66.

will add 1/2 hr to trip.

whatever you do, do not speed in King George County(fort hill to harry nice bridge)

Also (since what time you're making this trip is still unclear) be aware that this will put you on a westbound section of 66 that is HOV2-only (all of it, not just one or two lanes) from 4:00-6:30pm. If you return the via the same route, it's HOV2-only from 6:30-9:00am eastbound.

Just take the Amtrak to Alexandria; Blue line is right there - take it to Rosslyn. Take the 15K bus from Rosslyn to Tysons.

Done.

This is the best way.