Description
The Silver Line has two primary goals. The first is to link Washington, D.C. by rail to Washington Dulles International Airport and the edge cities of Tysons Corner, Reston, Herndon, and Ashburn. The second is to spur urban development in Tysons Corner and reduce overall reliance on highway traffic in the business district, Virginia's largest and the 12th-largest in the country. The district's area is comparable in size to downtown Washington, D.C., but is rather insulated from its surrounding neighborhoods and has no existing grid pattern in its streets.
The Silver Line would also improve public access to the Udvar-Hazy Center, an annex of National Air and Space Museum located near Dulles Airport; Virginia Regional Transit currently runs a shuttle bus from the airport to Udvar-Hazy.
The pre-existing portions of the Silver Line opened on July 1, 1977 from Stadium-Armory to Rosslyn, and on December 11, 1979 from Rosslyn to Ballston, and East Falls Church opened on June 7, 1986. Unlike all prior segments of the Metrorail system, which were designed and constructed by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), this line will be designed and constructed by the MWAA and operated by WMATA. The first phase of the project is funded 43% by $900 million of federal funding, 28% by a special tax district on commercial property proximate to the Silver Line route, and 28% by a $0.50 toll increase on the Dulles Toll Road. Funding for the second phase of the project will be shared by Loudoun County, Fairfax County, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.
While the Silver Line was originally planned to terminate at Stadium-Armory, it will instead do so at Largo Town Center because Stadium-Armory's pocket track is too short for trains to turn around. It follows the Blue and Orange Line tracks through DC, continuing through Arlington along the Orange Line and branching off immediately east of the West Falls Church station. The new track runs in the median of the Dulles Access Road until an elevated bridge takes it over Virginia Route 123. Two elevated stops along the west side of Route 123 serve the national headquarters of CapitalOne and two enclosed Tysons Corner shopping malls. The track then enters a tunnel which emerges in the median of Virginia Route 7. Two elevated stations above Route 7 serve the western section of Tysons Corner. The elevated track then swings into the median of the Dulles Access Road until it reaches the airport. Along the way, four or possibly five new stations would be built with platforms in the median of the access road and a faregate and pedestrian bridges to parking areas elevated above the highway. In anticipation of the Herndon station being built, in 1999 Fairfax County constructed a 1,750-space parking garage with ramps to the Dulles Access Road toll lanes, and this facility is being used for bus commuters on an interim basis. The garage has drawn criticism because of alleged construction flaws. As currently planned, upon reaching the airport the track will enter a tunnel which will follow the path of the arrivals driveway of the airport terminal to a station located close to the terminal. The track would leave the tunnel near the airport hotel and economy parking lots and would head north parallel to the main runways. A storage yard and maintenance facility would branch off to the west occupying the airport's buffer zone north of the end of its major runways. The final two stops would be in the median of the Dulles Greenway, serving the Ashburn suburb. Hence, the line is expected to draw both airport traffic and commuters from the far western suburbs of Washington, DC. Buses currently provide these users with limited public transportation. In contrast, the Silver Line is expected to provide trains once every six minutes during rush hours and once every fourteen minutes during non-rush hours.
Sixty-four of Metro's new 7000 series cars have been ordered for Silver Line service. The contract was signed on July 2, 2010 for 428 cars. Each car is expected to cost $3 million.
Read more about this topic: Silver Line (Washington Metro)
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