Read more coverage on the Silver Line

Washington Dulles International Airport will celebrate its 60th anniversary on November 17.  Just two days earlier, Metro will open its station at the airport, giving Dulles its long-planned rail connection to D.C.

Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority CEO Jack Potter said the airport staff has been working hard to prepare for opening day.

“The opening of Silver Line Metro service will have a major positive impact for Dulles International Airport, its passengers, and the entire region,” Potter said in a statement. “It will bring to fruition a transportation vision decades in the making.”

Potter says more low-cost international airlines are interested in Dulles now that D.C. is just a rail connection away.

Dulles Airport and Metro’s history are closely intertwined. Dulles’ architecture and construction in the late 50s and early 60s inspired some of Metro’s plans during its development. Metrorail to the airport was originally part of Metro’s early plans, later scrapped, but brought back decades later.

Travel to Dulles will hopefully now be more seamless for passengers and employees. Previously, transit riders would have to take the 5a bus or the Silver Line to Wiehle-Reston and catch a shuttle.

Dulles was always a key national and international gateway to the Capital Region, but officials say it will now have the train service it deserves. A 2002 study anticipated that 4,300 passengers a day would make use of the station.

“America’s capital, which is the capital of the free world, should have public transit service — rail service — directly to its gateway,” says Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, who also worked on the project while he was governor in the mid-2000s. “And Dulles is the gateway to the capital of the free world.”

“It has taken a long time to get there. These are not easy projects, but it’s something that I’m enormously proud of.”

How long is the walk from the station to the terminal?

Almost five minutes on the dot.

We timed out the underground passageway, walking on the moving walkways and standing on the two escalators up to the terminal. Elevators are also available. If you’ve ever parked in Garage 1, the walk will be familiar as it follows the same path.

Take a look at the (sped up) version below.

Potter says he’s working with airlines to study the feasibility of creating a baggage check-in just outside the station so you don’t have to carry your bags the whole way. Digital display signs will be installed eventually in the terminal to give flyers an idea of real-time train arrivals. For now, lots of signage is up along the route to guide passengers to Metro.

How long will it take to get from the airport to D.C.?

Nearly an hour, depending on where you’re going. Here’s a list of some destinations and times:

• Dulles to Metro Center will take 53 minutes.
• Dulles to Tysons will take 23 minutes.
• Dulles to Rosslyn will take 39 minutes.
• Dulles to the Pentagon will take 56 minutes with a transfer to the Blue Line at Rosslyn.
• Dulles to L’Enfant Plaza will take 58 minutes.
• Dulles to Reagan National Airport will take 62 minutes with a transfer to the Blue Line at Rosslyn.
• Dulles to Union Station will take 64 minutes with a transfer to the Red Line at Metro Center.
• Dulles to Union Station will take 64 minutes with a transfer to the Red Line at Metro Center.
• Dulles to Mt. Vernon Square-Convention Center will take 66 minutes with a transfer to the Yellow or Green Line at Gallery Place.
• Dulles west to the end of the Silver Line at Ashburn is 10 minutes.

Is your stop not listed? Get transit directions to Tysons, see how long that says and add 23 minutes for your trip time to Dulles.

Is this the farthest rail link from an airport to a city center?

At nearly 30 miles from D.C., Dulles International Airport has long been derided by city-dwellers as too far to even contemplate using it. It’s unclear if the Silver Line train will change that calculation for many people.

But Dulles is NOT the farthest airport from a city center by rail or bus. Map maker Peter Klumpenhower created a diagram showing the distances between major airports and their urban cores, and as you can see, Tokyo, Japan, Seoul, South Korea, Milan, Italy, Chengdu, China, and Beijing, China all have trains that go farther distances than Dulles.

In the U.S., the closest equivalent may be Denver International Airport, which is a 40-minute light rail ride to downtown’s Union Station.

What hours will the train run?

This is where it gets tricky.

Metro is open from 5 a.m. until midnight Monday through Thursday, 5 a.m. to 1 a.m. on Friday, 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. on Saturday, and 7 a.m. to midnight on Sunday.

If you’re arriving at Dulles and heading into D.C., the first trains will likely leave Dulles at 5:10 a.m. On Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, the first trains won’t leave Dulles until 7:10 a.m. Metro hasn’t posted the station’s detailed schedule yet, so the last train times are not yet available.

Silver Line trains will run about every 15 minutes once the trains are rolling, and by next spring will improve to trains every 10 minutes during rush hour, every 12 minutes during off-peak hours, and every 15 minutes after 9:30 p.m.

International flights especially seem to have off-hours, with some arriving or departing in the middle of the night. Just because Metro is open doesn’t mean it’ll work for your itinerary. It’s critical to calculate what time you need to leave your home/hotel station and make sure you build in enough time to transfer to the Silver Line and ride out to Dulles to catch your flight. Check those first/last train times here.

Potter says the vast majority of flights arrive during the hours Metro is open.

Should you pick up or drop off your friend at Dulles now that there is a train?

Absolutely not. (Ok maybe that’s a decision you should make on your own).

What happens to the 5a bus?

The 5a bus route linked Dulles to Rosslyn, Herndon Park and Ride lot, and L’Enfant Plaza. It was a popular route with some airport users, but it will cease operation when the Silver Line extension opens, as will the Silver Line Express Bus to Wiehle-Reston.

Many riders have pointed out that train service hours might not serve everyone and some sort of overnight bus connection is needed. WMATA General Manager Randy Clarke says they’ll re-evaluate what bus demand looks like after the Silver Line extension opens. He said Metro also needs to address a bus operator shortage.

Is there any extra cost to ride to the airport?

No. While some cities charge a higher fee to take a train to the airport, Metro will charge its regular distance-based fares that range from $2-6. The farther you go, the more expensive fares are. It also has slightly higher fares during peak commuting hours. Fares are $2 after 9:30 p.m. and on weekends.

What should we know about the station itself?

It’s above ground and across the parking lot from Dulles’ main terminal. The design and color of the canopy evoke similar architectural features to Eero Saarinen’s unique swooping roof design at the Dulles terminal while still maintaining Metro’s familiar “gullwing” canopy design at other stations.

The station was built above ground and farther away from the terminal because of costs and concerns about delaying the project even further. In 2011, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority board voted to build it underground 550 feet from the terminal, but that extra $330 million cost led directors to reverse course just months later, building it 1,150 feet away at its current site.

What else can I do with this Metro station?

There’s really not too much else to walk to other than the terminal, but you can catch the Fairfax Connector Route 983 shuttle to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center. It is a gigantic hangar facility with tons of big historic planes like an SR-71 Blackbird, as well as a Vietnam War era Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopter, better known as the “Huey”.

What else can you tell us about the history of Dulles and Metrorail?

• Dulles and the current Silver Line were part of the early back of the napkin designs for the Metro system in the late 1960s as a future extension. Fairfax County appointees decided that service should go to actual towns, like Vienna, at the time instead of a newly-established Tysons Corner and an “underused airport,” according to Zachary Schrag’s Metro history, “The Great Society Subway.” It wasn’t until the late 1990s when Metrorail’s original vision was near completion, that attention turned back to the Dulles Toll Road route.
• The modern design of Dulles Airport, built from 1958-1962, was a departure from classic Washingtonian architecture and that helped give way to the Metro’s iconic design that came into focus in the 1960s. Many of those that had hands in Dulles’ architecture later worked on Metro design at the National Capital Transportation Agency advisory board.
• Dulles is partly the reason Metro has elevators, according to Schrag’s book. Former Metro General Manager Jackson Graham wanted to move the most people with the greatest efficiency at the least cost. Elevators in the system would cost $65 million and he insisted people who use wheelchairs could use escalators safely. Graham, a former major general in his 50s, tested out his theory, trying several braces, crutches, and wheelchairs at Dulles Airport’s escalators. WMATA’s architect noted that all he did was prove that “if everybody who had to use a wheelchair was Jackson Graham, we wouldn’t need elevators.” Elevators, of course, won out making Metro one of the country’s most accessible transit systems.