Silver Line Dulles WMATA Metrorail progress/pictures

BitterOldRRExec
National was the odd case of the terminal moving to the station.

Not odd at all. WMATA envisioned the Airport terminal growing towards the station at some point in the future.

scratchyX1
Wasn't there a single track station built at dulles when the airport was built?

No. There were only drawings made showing where the future station might be located.

I remember back in I think in the early 70s there was going to be a transportation exposition at Dulles...initial planning included a rail line from the Tysons Corner area to Dulles down the median of the toll road...at the last minute, it was cancelled...and we had been paying the price ever since on that decision.

The toll road was designed with transit in mind. For years the tolls have been going toward a fund to build transit in the median, with the toll free expressway lanes providing service to the airport.

The Dulles Access Road right of way was made wide enough to allow future a rail line in its median and to allow a future road in the same corridor separate from the road accessing the Airport. WMATA's 1968 Adopted Area Regional System Map showed the line to Dulles airport as future.

Sand Box John wrote: ↑Sun Dec 12, 2021 8:07 pm The Dulles Access Road right of way was made wide enough to allow future a rail line in its median and to allow a future road in the same corridor separate from the road accessing the Airport. WMATA's 1968 Adopted Area Regional System Map showed the line to Dulles airport as future.

This map itself is interesting, not because of the pre-planned extension to Dulles but also some extensions out to Laurel, Largo, Brandywine, Gathersburg, and into Alexandria.

STrRedWolf
This map itself is interesting, not because of the pre-planned extension to Dulles but also some extensions out to Laurel, Largo, Brandywine, Gathersburg, and into Alexandria.

Along with Columbia Pike branch out of the Pentagon and the extensions to Centreville and Burk, the alignment changes, station location changes, original station names and stations deleted on later revisions of the Adopted Area Regional System Map.

One thing that is interesting is the location of the Services and Inspection yard adjacent to D&G Junction on the now former Benning Road PEPCO power plant property. WMATA considered procuring some of that property just after the turn of the century for just such facility.

The present day Adopted Area Regional System Map has provisions to extend the Red line beyond Glenmont.

An aside note, WMATA published several version of what was know as the Green Map up the late 1970s. It was called the Green Map because later versions had the Brown Metro M logo on a green field on the cover when the map was folded to roughly 8 1/2 X 11 inches.

STrRedWolf wrote: ↑Mon Dec 13, 2021 8:08 am

Sand Box John wrote: ↑Sun Dec 12, 2021 8:07 pm The Dulles Access Road right of way was made wide enough to allow future a rail line in its median and to allow a future road in the same corridor separate from the road accessing the Airport. WMATA's 1968 Adopted Area Regional System Map showed the line to Dulles airport as future.

This map itself is interesting, not because of the pre-planned extension to Dulles but also some extensions out to Laurel, Largo, Brandywine, Gathersburg, and into Alexandria.

The laurel, Gaithersburg, and bowie extensions made sense at the time, MARC didn't exist, and the b and o service was very limited.
Brandywine would be useful now ,at the time it was farmland

I looked through the Arcadia book on Dulles, and a few other sources, and found nothing of the kind. You may have that confused with Washington and Old Dominion Railroad, from which many materials were delivered to the Herndon depot and transported to the construction site. The airport opened in November 1962, several years before serious planning of Metro had begun. As the W&OD depot was around five miles from the center portion of the airport property, it was of no particular use to commuters. The railroad was decommissioned five years later in 1967, and tracks pulled up the following year. Since that time there have been no standard gauge tracks in Loudoun County (note that Metro tracks are 1/4" narrower than standard railroad gauge).

There was talk of an eventual Dulles extension as Metro was being developed in the late 1960s and built in the 1970s, but the access road (later with added toll lanes) had to suffice. The first track at Dulles was not really track but a concrete pathway around which the current "subway" trains shuttle passengers to gates A/B and C/D (the latter with a lot of walking).

Hopefully that helps to clear up any confusion. While I believe I have echoed the research correctly, open for some corrections as necessary.

scratchyX1 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 13, 2021 12:20 pm The laurel, Gaithersburg, and bowie extensions made sense at the time, MARC didn't exist, and the b and o service was very limited.
Brandywine would be useful now ,at the time it was farmland

Now a days... well, I'm having trouble justifying Laurel. MARC along that line is rush hour (both directions), but you'd have to find land for the station. I can see it being extended to the Laurel Racetrack... but you might as well move the entire Laurel station to it.

Bowie could use it, as well as all the way out to Annapolis... but then any rail transit out to there from DC all the way out to Ocean City is worth it. As long as it's grade separated and faster than traffic.

Don't confuse AeroTrain with WMATA. They serve separate purposes and were built separately.

STrRedWolf wrote: ↑Mon Dec 13, 2021 5:07 pm

scratchyX1 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 13, 2021 12:20 pm The laurel, Gaithersburg, and bowie extensions made sense at the time, MARC didn't exist, and the b and o service was very limited.
Brandywine would be useful now ,at the time it was farmland

Now a days... well, I'm having trouble justifying Laurel. MARC along that line is rush hour (both directions), but you'd have to find land for the station. I can see it being extended to the Laurel Racetrack... but you might as well move the entire Laurel station to it.

Bowie could use it, as well as all the way out to Annapolis... but then any rail transit out to there from DC all the way out to Ocean City is worth it. As long as it's grade separated and faster than traffic.

The racetrack has a development going in, and the renderings show a station with high level platforms and 4 tracks.
It would still make more sense to add more sidings, increase service, and new stations on camden line, than build a separate wmata line next to it. And better integrate the service with RTA bus service.

by faster than traffic, do you mean the 72+ people fly on 50 between parole and the beltway, or the 30 from beltway into DC? Would the 50Mph MAS of the purple line be enough?

scratchyX1 wrote: ↑Tue Dec 14, 2021 12:51 pm The racetrack has a development going in, and the renderings show a station with high level platforms and 4 tracks.
It would still make more sense to add more sidings, increase service, and new stations on camden line, than build a separate wmata line next to it. And better integrate the service with RTA bus service.

by faster than traffic, do you mean the 72+ people fly on 50 between parole and the beltway, or the 30 from beltway into DC? Would the 50Mph MAS of the purple line be enough?

I definitely agree that the Camden Line could use at least three tracks and more sidings.

And by faster, I mean 79 MPH, because 72+ becomes 20 once accidents happen.

Saw a pair of 24 car long 7000 series trains sitting between W-R East and Reston stations today. Anyone know what that’s about?

KTHW wrote: ↑Sun Dec 26, 2021 9:49 pm Saw a pair of 24 car long 7000 series trains sitting between W-R East and Reston stations today. Anyone know what that’s about?

They probably need to store them as they are working through retesting/repairing the 7000 series given the last derailment and axle trouble.