Silver Line Playbook: Riding the new D.C. Metrorail extension to Dulles (Guest Commentary)

The new stop at Dulles, with the terminal in the distance. (Courtesy Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority)

A highly anticipated, and expensive gift for Virginia – $3 billion (including $250 million in cost overruns) – came in for a landing just before Christmas. That was the opening of Washington, D.C.’s final Metrorail Silver Line link between downtown Washington and Dulles International Airport (IAD). The project was managed by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

Previously, Dulles, whose Space Age/elegant terminal was designed by celebrated Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen (1910-1961), had the dubious distinction of being the world’s only capital city airport not served by a mass transit railway. And due to the airport’s isolation, 25 miles and a 40-minute drive from downtown, Dulles has historically experienced less customer traffic than both of the area’s other regional airports, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) and the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI).

For those who prefer Richmond International Airport (RIC) as the point of departure for foreign or domestic travel, the completed Silver Line should enhance Dulles’s lure. Rather than confronting Northern Virginia’s nerve-racking automotive traffic, long-term parking fees, or expensive taxi or Uber costs, Richmond travelers now have another option. They can catch a northbound train at either of Richmond’s two Amtrak stations and deboard in Alexandria. From there, it’s only a few steps to the connecting Metrorail, and then a 55-minute, $4 sprint to Dulles.

On a recent afternoon, while some were storming Northern Virginia shopping malls, a curious companion and I rode the nascent Silver Line to Dulles. Boarding the Metrorail at the above-ground Blue Line’s Van Dorn Street station in Alexandria, we assumed the attitude that “it’s the ride, not just the destination.” We didn’t have a plane to catch, right?

Courtesy MWAA

I was thrilled as the almost-empty train glided past suburban Alexandria’s towering George Washington Masonic National Memorial, an Art Deco ziggurat that looms from a hillside near Alexandria’s commodious Amtrak station (which is adjacent to the King Street-Old Town Metro station).

Minutes later our train stopped at Reagan Airport where we enjoyed views of the terminal’s dramatic coffered rooftops and yellow-hued exterior. The structure was designed in 1997 by the distinguished Argentine-American architect Cesar Pelli (1926-2019). From the Reagan station we spotted in the distance a future Metro stop under construction; the Potomac Yards station will serve the major multi-use redevelopment underway at the former, sprawling railyard.

Glimpses of a forested and riverside landscape followed as we skirted the Potomac shoreline before burrowing underground and heading west. Four stops later put us at the Arlington Cemetery Metro station. We peered out to see row after somber row of upright gravestones aligned on rolling lawns. Two stops later, at the Rosslyn station, we departed our Blue Line train and took a short escalator ride down to catch the westbound Silver Line.

Awaiting our train, I marveled again at the cohesive, subterranean architecture of the D.C. subway system. The handsome stations collectively became an instant landmark when the Metrorail was opened in 1976. Although the repetitive, poured concrete, honeycomb-like wall and ceiling forms are brutalist, the effect is softened by coffered-vaulting and soft, indirect lighting. Fortune magazine hailed the system and its architecture: “A solid gold Cadillac for transporting the masses.” The architect was Henry Weese & Associates of Chicago. The crisp signage graphics were designed by Italian designer Massimo Vignelli.

After rolling out of the Rosslyn station, there were 14 Silver Line station stops before reaching Dulles. While much of Fairfax County is transversed underground, at the fifth (McLean) stop, the train surfaces and continues its above-ground path to Dulles. Here, the tree lines of residential McLean gave way to Tyson’s numbing office complexes. The glassified — and barely indistinguishable — office buildings, ranging in height from five to some 30 floors, reveal their tenants via bold corporate logos installed near the rooflines: Bohler, Booz Allen Hamilton, CAPI, Capital One, EXO,  Google, ICF, Neustar, Oracle, and Sevco.

Finally, beyond the thicket of office parks, the pavilion-like Dulles terminal comes into view. Like a diamond-in-the-rough, it sits in isolation surrounded by the airport’s 12,000 acres of mostly grassy flatlands. After our train pulled into the new, elevated Washington Dulles International Airport platform, we stepped out and faced the terminal: a million-dollar view!

A number of riders staged selfies with the terminal about a hundred yards or so in the background. An escalator from the open platform took us down and into a large concrete-walled station room with 35-foot-high walls.

This transitional point between the Metrorail and the terminal is heated, has well-appointed restrooms and four elevators. The far walls of the rectangular room are distinguished with two, 28-foot concrete columns each. Each is capped with stylized classical capitals. Also, the column shafts are encased in a sleeve of brushed aluminum that’s been cut in patterns to suggest air currents. This commissioned public art piece was executed by Cliff Garten, a Venice, California-based artist and landscape architect. If the work is handsome enough, it is also too subtle. But then, this might be just fine for weary passengers.

From this soaring space one enters a well-lighted tunnel with a slightly coved ceiling, terrazzo floors, and moving sidewalks. The latter eases the four-minute stroll to the airport’s arrival level. Other escalators and steps await to take one up to the main floor. Here, the spaces are defined by the sweeping, textured, almost tent-like ceiling of architect Saarinen’s masterwork. On this holiday weekend day there were few passengers so the architectural experience was soothing. It was weird being in an airport without a flight or passengers to greet, so my fellow explorer and I found a lobby cafe and enjoyed a favorite beverage before retracing our steps and rides.

The verdict? It was altogether a pleasant afternoon with no surprises. And the 11.5-mile Silver Line extension by Shapiro & Duncan: Mechanical Engineers, respects the iconic Weese Metro design.

But this focus on Dulles got me thinking:  How about a mid-January trip somewhere; say, to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, or Milan near the Italian Alps? Based on the cheapest, round-trip coach fares I pulled up, a round trip from Richmond to St. Thomas is $468. From Dulles to St. Thomas is $647, and leaving Baltimore/Washington to the tropical destination is $337.  Milan in late January costs $608 for a roundtrip ticket from Richmond. It is $488 for a round-trip ticket from Baltimore/Washington to Milan and wouldn’t you know it? Dulles had the lowest  fare to Milan and back, just $479. Maybe Milan and the northern Italian Alps – and the Silver line to Dulles – beckon in the new year.