After waiting through years of planning, construction, and delays in opening, Metro began service along the Silver line on July 26, connecting Reston and Tysons Corner directly to downtown Washington without transferring.
People stood in long lines in Reston to ride the the first train open to the public. While dignitaries and political leaders praised those who had worked on the project and thanked themselves over and over again, the smiles on the faces of those first passengers best told the story of the excitement of those who caught that first train.
Since opening day when ridership numbers passed most expectations, the number of people riding the Silver Line trains has been impressive.
Metro officials, elected officials, and those who built the project for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority all say the new line is off to a solid start. Metro reported that nearly 220,000 trips were taken to or from the five new Silver Line stations during the first week of operations.
Those numbers are expected to grow as residents adjust to the new system and learn how to get to and from the stations. The end of summer vacations and the start of the school year will mean more riders.
At mid August, Metro said 15,942 passengers were boarding at new Silver Line stations daily. That’s two-thirds of the long-term goal of 25,000 boardings after a year of service.
Those numbers don’t surprise elected officials who have long supported the project and believed in the transformation that it would bring to Tysons Corner.
Fairfax County Board chairwoman Sharon Bulova, who has touted the successful opening and what the new line means for Virginia and the metropolitan region, quoted the Washington Post’s traffic guru Bob Thomson (otherwise known as Dr. Gridlock) to describe the Silver Line. “This new train thing is going to be big. No planner’s document, no artist’s rendering matches the understanding conveyed by taking transit through Tysons Corner, out to the western suburbs and back to the middle of the D.C. region. Creating train access for shoppers to gigantic malls at Tysons is like telling 16th century European merchants that they have a sea route to the Spice Islands. They’ll figure out the rest. For commuters, there’s new, car-free access to job centers previously reachable only by braving some of America’s most soul-sapping drives,” Thomson wrote after his first ride.
