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LaHood touts DC Silver Line as a 'gold star' project
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood touted the inclusion of the extension of Washington, D.C.'s MetroRail to Dulles International Airport in a recent list of good transportation projects for the environment on Wednesday.
The San Francisco-based Sierra Club included the rail line in a list of 50 good and bad transportation projects that was released earlier this week.
The extension, which is currently under construction and scheduled to open by the end of 2013, will be identified on future Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (WMATA) maps as the Silver Line.
LaHood said in a blog post on the Department of Transportation's website that the project was not just good for the Washington, D.C., area — he said it would benefit the whole country.
"Metrorail is not just the Washington area’s metro system," LaHood wrote. "It is America’s metro system. People from every state in the country — and from every corner of the world — use Metro in our capitol [sic] city. We need to connect the region's busiest international airport to America’s metro system — and the opportunities that come with it."
LaHood said the Silver Line project would ease traffic congestion in northern Virginia's populous Tysons Corner area.
"The extension will serve Tysons Corner, Virginia's largest employment center, and the Reston-Herndon area, the state's second largest employment concentration," he said. "And it will provide a one-seat ride from Dulles International Airport to downtown Washington."
LaHood said the new Metro line was necessary because "[C]urrently, Tysons Corner functions like a suburban city, with a population that quadruples during the workday.
"Local leaders hope to attract more people to live in Tysons Corner in addition to just working there," he wrote. "Plans are underway to urbanize Tysons Corner by adding multiple modes of transit, bike lanes, pedestrian-friendly streets, and a robust mix of uses."
LaHood added that the Silver Line would help Tysons.
"The Silver Line will help Tysons Corner, and it will also help preserve the rural nature of western Loudoun County by absorbing growth in higher density development around the two stations in the eastern part of that county," he wrote.
Construction of the first half of the Silver Line is expected to be completed by August 2013. WMATA has said the agency will have to test the new stations and track, which are being built by the panel that oversees Washington's regional airports, before it begins carrying passengers on the new route.
