Silver Line (Washington Metro)
The Silver Line is a rapid transit line of the Washington Metro system, consisting of 39 stations in Loudoun County, Fairfax County and Arlington County, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Prince George's County, Maryland. The Silver Line runs from in Loudoun County, Virginia to Largo and New Carrollton in Prince George's County, Maryland. Five stations, from both lines' eastern terminus at Largo to, are shared with the Blue Line alone; five stations are shared with the Orange Line alone from both lines eastern terminus at New Carrollton to ; thirteen stations, from to, with both the Orange Line and Blue Lines; and five stations from to with the Orange Line alone. Only the 11 stations from to are exclusive to the Silver Line. Five of these 11 stations began service on July 26, 2014 as Phase 1, and six began service as Phase 2 on November 15, 2022.
The portion of the Silver Line between its split from the Orange Line and is entirely in Fairfax County, Virginia and was constructed as Phase 1 of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project. Phase 2 expanded the line another to Ashburn in Loudoun County via Dulles International Airport. The $6.01 billion, 23.1-mile Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project is Metro's largest expansion by route mileage since its inception in 1976.
Trains run every 10 minutes during weekday rush hours, every 12 minutes during weekday off-peak hours and weekends, and every 15 minutes daily after 9:30pm.
History
Planning
Early Dulles extension proposals
The U.S. federal government, which owned and operated Dulles International Airport before Congress created the MWAA, built the Dulles Access Road in the 1960s to connect the airport to Washington, D.C., by way of Virginia State Route 267. As the access road was built, the authorities opted to reserve the median of the road for some form of rail transit, and the nearby West Falls Church was designed so that the line could eventually be extended in this direction. The original 1968 Metrorail plan included an eventual extension to Dulles airport. In 1969, U.S. Senator from Virginia William B. Spong Jr. tried unsuccessfully to have the extension to Dulles be built as part of an early stage of the system rather than having it be built some time in the future. A $130,000 study of the feasibility of a Metrorail extension to Dulles was authorized that year; the study, published in 1971, estimated that 30,000 people would ride the extension each day.In the 1980s, U.S. Senator Paul Trible and U.S. Representative Frank R. Wolf again proposed that the federal government study extending Metrorail to Dulles Airport. A $500,000 grant to study the feasibility of extending Metrorail to Dulles was announced in late 1994. The Virginia General Assembly authorized the Commonwealth Transportation Board in 1995 to provide for "additional improvements to the Dulles Toll Road and Dulles Access Road corridor including, but not limited to, mass transit, including rail and capacity-enhancing treatments from surplus net revenues of the Dulles Toll Road". The same year, a panel composed of Virginia state and municipal officials proposed a $1.6 billion Metrorail extension to Dulles Airport, which would also include stops in Loudoun County, Herndon, Reston, and Tysons. This extension, if built, would branch off the Orange Line. The Loudoun County government also proposed setting aside space for a rail maintenance yard in an attempt to convince Metrorail officials to approve the extension.
In 1998, Raytheon engineers and constructors proposed to build and operate a Dulles Corridor Bus Rapid Transit system. In January 1999, the Tysons-Dulles Corridor Group offered a competing BRT proposal that would ultimately extend the rail line to Ashburn. There was also a proposal for a circular Metrorail extension with seven stops in Tysons, along with an express bus traveling from Tysons to Dulles. These proposals prompted the Virginia Department of Transportation to evaluate the merits of BRT and heavy rail public transit in the corridor.
Significant progress and approval
Local residents and officials had talked of a Metro extension to Dulles since the Washington Metro began service in 1976, but significant planning did not begin until 2000. The Dulles Corridor Rapid Transit Project "scoping" process began in April 2000 with a series of meetings with local and federal officials, designed to collect the necessary authorities for the project. Local and federal law required extensive Analysis of Alternatives – the two most likely being bus lanes or inaction – and of the environmental impact. The rail-only line won over the other alternatives. Initial environmental hearings, which closed on August 28, 2002, were positive. Although planners originally considered ending the first phase at Tysons, state officials decided that the first phase would end at Reston's Wiehle Avenue, partially to reassure the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority that the line would eventually run to Dulles Airport. The project received formal approval on June 10, 2004.In February 2005, the CTB approved a 50 cent increase in the Dulles Toll Road toll rates, effective May 22, 2005, and "reaffirm that no less than 85% of existing surplus Dulles Toll Road net revenues shall be dedicated for mass transit and rail in the Corridor" and provided "that all additional toll revenue generated from the May 22, 2005 toll adjustment shall be dedicated to the Project." Between July 1, 2003, and November 1, 2008, when the toll road was transferred to MWAA, over $138 million in net surplus toll revenue was provided to MWAA for the Silver Line project.
Financing
Although the original financing plan called for a 50-cent toll increase on the Dulles Toll Road to finance the Silver Line, the increase in projected costs resulted in the MWAA Board approving an increase in the surcharges. Effective January 1, 2010, the fare surcharge was increased to 50 cents at both the main plaza and ramp plazas, with additional 25-cent increases in main-plaza tolls set for 2011 and 2012. These toll surcharges are designed to support MWAA's 52.6% share of the projected $5.25 billion combined cost of Phase 1 and Phase 2. MWAA has justified these toll increases as necessary to meet an estimated $220 million in annual debt-service costs projected by 2020. These toll revenue requirements were based on the assumption that the federal government, although it contributed $900 million to Phase 1, would not contribute funds for Phase 2.As a result of the surcharge increases, the toll in 2012 was $2.25, or 16 cents per mile. The toll increase proposal drew 221 public comments and opponents outnumbered supporters by about 3 to 1. However, as the cost estimate grew from $5.25 billion to $6.8 billion, no final decisions have been reached to address the projected shortfall.
Tysons Corner tunnel dispute
As part of the preliminary engineering process from 2000 to 2004, WMATA explored the possibility of twin tunnels running from the east of the station to the west of the station, with all four stations on that stretch to be below ground. Planners rejected that option on the grounds that "it would cost $3.5 billion, which is approximately $422 million higher than the cost for Alignment T6. Alignment T13 would also have a greater potential for cost escalation than other alignments evaluated in the Draft EIS because underground construction poses risks that cannot be completely identified prior to construction. Most of the significant risks relate to unknown subsurface conditions such as soil conditions, utilities, hazardous materials, and archaeological resources." Instead, they favored an alignment that relied on aerial structures, with just a short tunnel, running only between the Tysons Corner and stations with all four stations being at or above ground.Starting in 2005, WMATA engineers explored the possibility of tunneling under Tysons with a large-bore tunneling machine, providing space for two tracks and stations within a bore with a diameter of 40 feet or more. The contractor found that there would not be a significant cost reduction and proposed staying with the short tunnel option.
After allegations that the design contractor had inflated costs for the tunnel in order to avoid sharing the job with an outside tunneling contractor, the long tunnel concept was revived in April 2006. The allegations led to calls for an outside cost estimate to determine more realistic tunnel costs. On May 15, 2006, Virginia Transportation Secretary Pierce Homer announced the creation of an advisory panel headed by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The panel had about two months to evaluate options for completing the line through Tysons, with the results presented to the state on July 27, 2006 and published on July 31, 2006.
On September 6, 2006, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine announced his decision in favor of an elevated track through Tysons. In his statement, Kaine said he believed a tunnel would be the best option, but decided against it, citing a fear of losing federal funding for the project.
Shortly after Governor Kaine's decision, the Greater McLean Chamber of Commerce formed a coalition of tunnel supporters, called Tysons Tunnel, Inc. and put forth a technical proposal to help revive consideration of building a tunnel through Tysons. The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation hired an independent consultant to assess the coalition's proposal. However, the consultant's report – sent to Secretary Homer on March 7, 2007, stated that "here is a significant risk that the project cost of a Large Bore Tunnel would not meet the Federal Transit Administration's cost-effectiveness ratio criteria, which could compromise federal funding for the project".
On November 26, 2007, Tysons Tunnel, Inc. filed a lawsuit against the United States Department of Transportation and the Federal Transit Administration in the Eastern District of Virginia challenging the denial of their petition to reopen and consider additional evidence regarding the benefits of a tunnel over the aerial option. Gary Baise, the Republican challenger to Gerry Connolly's Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairmanship, represented Tysons Tunnel. By 2010, Tysons Tunnel, Inc. ceased operations.