Mass transit extension to Dulles Airport opens at tough time
It’s taken 60 years and billions of dollars, but mass transit is finally coming to Dulles International Airport outside the nation’s capital
CHANTILLY, Va. (AP) — It's taken 60 years and billions of dollars. One man went to prison over shoddy construction. Now, mass transit is finally coming to Dulles International Airport outside the nation's capital.
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority will open the second and final phase of its Silver Line Metrorail extension on Nov. 15. The six new stations will for the first time connect the airport and the outer suburbs of Loudoun County to the region's flagship mass transit system.
But the extension comes at a tough time for Metro. Ridership remains at roughly half of what it was before the COVID-19 pandemic in a region where more people continue to work from home than anywhere else in the country. Metro also is working to regain the public's confidence in its safety and reliability after multiple derailments and collisions over the years, including a 2009 crash that killed nine people.
Metro has faced enormous hurdles in building the Silver Line, although planners envisioned a line connecting the then-rural Dulles airport to the city when it was built in 1962. Land was even set aside for that purpose.
