WMATA Will Finally Open Silver Line July 26

When I was up in DC for the LGBT Innovation Summit and took the Metrorail train to Capitol Hill, one of the things I noted was the directional signage in the existing stations adding information for the Silver Line.

After construction delays that have caused WMATA to postpone the start of Silver Line service several times, after five years of construction, the initial 11.7 mile $2.9 billion segment of the line from the Orange Line's East Falls Church station to the Wiehle Ave-East Reston station will open next Saturday, July 26.  Four of the five new Silver Line stations will be in Tysons Corner, VA with the other in Reston, VA. where the westbound Silver Line will terminate until Phase 2 expansion of the line is completed. 

After a ribbon cutting ceremony at 10 AM EDT for the line which will have Gov Terry McAuliffe (D) and other local officials, the first revenue service Silver Line train will roll eastward from the Wiehle Ave-East Reston station at 12 noon EDT.  

In preparation for the long awaited day in northern Virginia, WMATA will be running test trains and simulated service starting tomorrow along the entire length of the Silver Line to familiarize Washington Metro employees with the new route and finalize the train schedules under real time conditions.

Those Silver Line simulation trains going eastbound from the Wiehle-Reston East station until noon on July 26 will be marked as Orange Line trains with a destination of either East Falls Church or Largo Town Center.  They won't carry or pick up passengers from the six new stations until they reach the East Falls Church one that begins the portion of the Silver Line shared with the tracks of the existing Orange and Blue lines.

The Silver Line westbound simulation trains headed in the direction of Wiehle-Reston East once they reach East Falls Church station will offload all passengers, then continue on the new Silver Line tracks in Fairfax County, VA without passengers toward that new station.

As for what's transpiring with the Phase 2 construction of the Silver Line which will extend it from the Wiehle-Reston East station another 11.5 miles to Dulles airport (hallelujah) and eastern Loudoun County with six new stations, construction has already started on it with an estimated completion in 2018.

People in the DC metro area and visitors after next Saturday's opening will be one step closer to being able to ride Metrorail to Washington Dulles airport and Fairfax County.   Let's just hope Phase 2 of this massive public works project is built and opened on time..
 

WMATA Silver Line Service Start Delayed Until 2014

Houston area folks aren't the only ones having to wait for eagerly anticipated transit rail service to commence.   So are the peeps in the Washington DC metro area and Northern Virginia.

One of the things I have long loved about DC is flying into DCA, making a beeline to the train station platform just outside the terminal and jumping on the Metrorail trains to get me around town while I'm there.

The city traffic can be a pain in the butt at times to navigate, especially on the infamous Capital Beltway and near the federal buildings.  Parking in DC is at a premium, hard to find and expensive so I rarely rent a car there because of Metrorail. 

I don't like flying into Dulles or BWI when I need to travel to Washington DC because it necessitates a bus ride before I can connect to the WMATA rail system.   In BWI's case you also have the option of taking an $11 one way train ride to Union Station before connecting with the rail system.  But when I fly Southwest, until recently the only service they had into the Washington area airports out of Houston Hobby was either into Dulles or BWI.

I keep a WMATA SmarTrip electronic transit pass with me with funds on it for that purpose since I frequently find myself in DC for various events.   

I was happy to hear as a rail transit enthusiast that the long talked about Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project was way beyond the chatter stage. WMATA finally started construction in 2008 on the first phase of the long talked about Silver Line that would eventually include a stop at Dulles airport.


Phase 1 of the Silver Line is 11.7 miles from East Falls Church, VA and the Orange Line to Wiehle Ave in Reston, VA. with four stations in Tyson's Corner, VA.in the median of the Dulles Toll Road that connects to I-66.  Some of the sections of the Silver Line are elevated and above ground while a section of it is running underground through a 2100 foot tunnel in Tyson's Corner. 

Phase 2 will be a 11.5 mile section with six stations running from Reston through Dulles Airport in the median of the the Dulles Toll Road to just west of Ashburn, VA with a rail storage yard near Dulles Airport.   The Dulles International Airport Station will be an aerial one across the parking bowl from the world renowned Eero Saarinen designed terminal building.

The first construction contracts for Phase 2 were awarded May 14 with actual construction starting after the initial surveying work in spring 2014.  The long awaited section of the line to Dulles Airport is projected to start WMATA revenue service in 2018.  

While the Silver Line train tests are happening now for the Phase 1 part of the line and the fare service was supposed to start later this year, reports are that it is being delayed until January 1, 2014 according to the Washington Examiner due to construction delays on the West Falls Church Rail Yard critical to storage and operation of the Silver Line's rail cars.

There is a chance that Silver Line service could start in December.

But the end result is that despite the delay in the startup of WMATA revenue service, when it finally does crank up the opening of the Metrorail Silver Line puts the dream since 1962 of having a rail transit link between Dulles and our nation's capital much closer to being a reality.   

And us rail transit enthusiasts in DC and around the country couldn't be happier to have that happen.