Advice - Inauguration - Best Metro station w/parking
 

I'm driving in from the North and thinking of parking at the Silver Springs station on the Red Line.

Is this a good place to leave the car and will I find parking?

What station would you recommend?

Thanks in advance.

Where from the North? When are you planning to get here?

Have you read any of the advisories that Washington Post and others have issued?

Coming from NYC on the 95.
495 to the Silver Spring station.

Will try to get the first train to DC which is around 6am, so I should get to Union Station around 6:45.

Metro starts running at 4 am on the 20th. Parking lots open at 3:30 am and you won't be alone. Cash $4 to park.

Check the Metro and Wash Post websites. The Post has had a bunch of articles with tips for dealing with the inauguration.

If you leave early enough (and Metro starts at 4:00am on inauguration day), you should find a parking spot in Silver Spring.

Be prepared to see next to nothing when you get to the swearing in. 240,000 people have tickets for the swearing in. Even they will see next to nothing. The rest of everyone will probably watch on jumbo trons.

DC already has inaugural gridlocked traffic downtown with 5 days to go.

If I were not someone with a local guide license, I'd watch the whole business in my warm house on my TV. You see a lot more that way.

Looking at the WP now.

Looks like Wheaton is the better station with 450+ spaces.

At the Amtrak station in Richmond, they expect all parking to be gone by 6AM. We are 90 miles away. I cannot imagine that it would be a lot better closer in.

Parking is going to be a huge problem. Tour groups are staying miles away because those are the only locations hotel rooms could be found at a reasonable price.

I am lucky. I have a gig with a group that begins on the 19th. I just pay for 3 days in a parking lot and, because my car goes in before the 20th, no worries.

You must have special privileges. According to WaPo's Dr. Gridlock, Metro's lots are being closed and cleared at midnight on the 19th to prepare for Inauguration Day. Cars left in the lots will be ticketed and towed.

Lauren didn't say she'd be parking at a Metro lot.

Excellent point.

But it might serve as notice to those who don't know.

I am parking at a private lot adjacent to a Metro station. I can't park in a Metro lot when I have to be away overnight.