Silver Streak or Silver Sneakers?

To celebrate the second weekend of its service, Chris and I made the trip out to Northern Virginia and DC to give the new Silver Line a whirl. Given the sheer terror of my time as a commuter on the Red Line (especially in the months after the horrible crash where we all learned what “telescoping” meant and nine individuals perished), my hopes were not high. Yet, what I found reminded me of home, for it seemed almost as smooth as the SkyTrain that offers a similar level of not-quite-light but not-quite-heavy rail transit.

The Silver Line opened on July 26^th after several years of hot debates, delayed construction, and hot debates over delayed construction. For all the headaches involved, it’s a wonder that we can build anything on this type of scale with these types of goals when so many agencies are involved. There was hardly enough pie for everyone to get their slice. But once we got through the throngs of tourists unable to figure out how to use a Smartrip Card and the bathrooms that were locked but didn’t seem locked at the Wiehle-Reston East station, the trip on the train for the four-remaining Silver-only stations was a pleasure.

My greatest concern with the Silver Line is that it only increases the severity of the bottleneck at Rosslyn (and others agree and explain the situation very well!). Unlike other stations in the system that have three lines meeting, at Rosslyn they must do it all on the same track. Because of the spacing between trains and the demand on the peripheries of each respective line, the only word that comes to mind to describe those commuting through Rosslyn is “hell.” For the Blue Line in particular, I imagine the delays have only grown. Likely reminiscent of Red Line commuters who really, really want to get to Forest Glen, Wheaton, or Glenmont  but can’t get any further than Silver Spring if their lives depended on it, but worse.

But as these thoughts get frantic and negative, we were suddenly at one of the Farraguts trying desperately to get to the other Farragut to get onto the Red Line. The Red Line, not wishing to disappoint me, had a train break down at Gallery Place and no trains were running toward Shady Grove. After 30 minutes at the other Farragut with no trains coming, we turned around to go back to the original Farragut and get on the Silver Line back towards the safe arms of suburbia. Thankfully, due to the invisible, magic “transit tunnel” between the Farraguts, there was no financial toll for the 30 minutes in Metro Limbo, but we made the return trip much faster than expected. Returning to the original Farragut, within moments we were headed back out to Wiehle-Reston East and the day began getting substantially better from there.

On this journey, in one of the newest cars in the fleet, I saw my first glimpse of Metro’s tongue-in-cheek advertisements urging commuters to look alive because the love of their life may also be riding the Silver Line. I don’t know if it was my frustration or delirium from being outside of the mountains, but I found it absolutely hilarious.

I took this trip on a Saturday and was really impressed with the balance of traffic I saw heading both into and out of DC. Some things I was expecting. For example, I expected Tyson’s Corner to be the same kind of hit that Metrotown Station is on the Expo Line in Vancouver. You can’t go wrong with frequent rail transit to a major entertainment destination (especially if it’s the wintertime and there’s precipitation).  But I did not expect Wiehle-Reston East to be such a bustling hub of activity. Most of the construction here is not even complete (they’ve got all kinds of transit-oriented-design goodies planned here), yet it was probably the busiest station, rivaling even Tyson’s Corner. This is evidence to me that the line is desired and will see use. I hope that in five or ten years the only question remaining in the minds of those that pushed for this is, “why couldn’t we have this super nice thing sooner?”

Of course, for all of the promise of the Silver Line, it is still part of the overall Metro Rail system. I think my concerns about the bottleneck at Rosslyn are real. But Metro has an opportunity to set their best foot forward with something new and fresh that hasn’t had time to be ruined by neglect, vandalism, and bureaucracy. I hope they take it for all it’s worth and turn over a new leaf!