Construction In Washington

[RowUnderDCA]

Interesting topic and relevant to the success of both UAL and Independence Air.


My big problem with rail to Dulles is that the existing Orange Line is already approaching capacity at rush hour times. Adding the new Silver Line to Dulles will dump all that new traffic onto a line that is already crowded. It gets even worse when you then merge with the Blue Line at Rosslyn. Metro has already warned that the Orange will begin to fail (customers unable to board trains) in 2006.

Before anyone spends a dime on Dulles rail, they'd better come up with a plan to handle this congestion. Otherwise, the bottleneck will be so bad, no one will use the rail to start with.

I also think rail to Dulles from downtown may not be all that popular. The number of stops from DC to Dulles will likely be close to 20. The trip will easily take an hour. Many people don't want to sit on a train that long.

ORD has for years suffered from a similar problem. The Blue Line from the Loop takes too long and many people still drive/taxi.

Isn't there a punch line to an old joke in this post?

 

[sfb]

Ukridge,

You simply must try to fly into DCA sometime. Yes, I know, it's not exactly an easy jaunt from LHR. Nonetheless, the connection between airport and railway has to be among the best in the nation at that airport.

Other decent airports for rail connectivity are ORD, ATL (not that there are many places one can go on MARTA), PHL, EWR, SFO, and PDX (same problem as ATL).

I'd add that BOS has decent rail connectivity aside from the fact that the airport bus system definitely leaves something to be desired. The new Airport station on the MBTA Blue Line just opened two weeks ago and it's quite nice (especially when compared to the dreary, run-down station it replaced) though the connectivity to the terminals seems to have been an afterthought (the bus ride is now considerably longer). Still, I've gotten from the gate to my office in Cambridge in 30 minutes, and that includes three changes of bus/train.

I'd think the proposed Silver Line in Washington would have to run as an express from Falls Church as well.