Partly cloudy skies. Low 61F. Winds light and variable..

Partly cloudy skies. Low 61F. Winds light and variable.

The new 90-acre railyard is being built just west of Dulles International Airport and connects with the Silver Line extension. Dulles' runways are visible at the top of this aerial photo. 

The new 90-acre railyard is being built just west of Dulles International Airport and connects with the Silver Line extension. Dulles' runways are visible at the top of this aerial photo. 

The long-delayed Silver Line Metro extension to Dulles International Airport and Ashburn will most likely open in late spring, Silver Line communications manager Marcia McAllister said this week. 

“Hopefully passengers will be riding trains to Dulles, and beyond, in late spring,” McAllister said during a Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce virtual event called “Metro Monday.”

Also during the meeting, transportation officials discussed plans for cashless toll booths and increased tolls on the Dulles Toll Road, as well as for a new concourse at Dulles. 

McAllister said that although the Metro train station at Dulles is ready to open, it is not safe to enter, and warned airport patrons from doing so. When the station opens, it will have a pedestrian tunnel with a moving walkway connecting to the airport. Passengers will also be able to take a bus to the terminal.

Transportation officials also detailed plans to change the Dulles Toll Road to an electronic, cashless system this year. Drivers will be able to pay using their license plate, an EZPass or an app on their phones. The license plate system, which requires users to sign up with a credit card tied to their license plate, is expected to be ready in the middle of the year, said Richard Golinowski , Vice President and Dulles International Airport Manager with the  Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which manages the toll road.

Golinowski also said that he expects toll fares to rise in 2023 to offset the cost of the Silver Line expansion. Exact amounts of the increase were not specified.

With the airport’s passenger levels steadily increasing after a sharp drop after the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, airport officials are now looking toward the future. 

Eventually, the airport plans to build a new concourse south of the existing C/D concourse and demolish the existing A concourse. The airport will hold public hearings on the expansion in the next few years, though the project is expected to take decades to fully complete. 

Golinowski expects that Dulles will have about 80% of its 2019 passenger volume in 2022. The passenger volume should increase even more in subsequent years, especially among vacationers who have been putting off travel due to the pandemic.

“There’s a lot of potential, there’s a lot of hope for the coming years,” Golinowski said. “We really think we’re going to have a lot of people back to travel. People have a lot of pent-up desire to travel.”

Golinowski also highlighted measures Dulles took in 2021 to combat the pandemic, including installing ultraviolet-light disinfecting panels at gates. The airport also plans to investigate touch-free TSA procedures and contactless food delivery at gates.

Metro General Manager and CEO Paul Wiedefeld shared his “extreme disappointment” in confirming that the long-delayed Silver Line extension to …

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Great Dulles Airport gets a train and the residents in Western Fairfax get tolls inside and outside the beltway. Thank you now Rep. Wexton for yet again reaching into my pocket with private equity funding.

What a bizarre accusation. Rep. Wexton is not responsible for tolls *anywhere*.

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