I like the 351! It’s not at all frequent enough, but it’s a decent express route otherwise. Are you familiar with the LC Transit numbering scheme? It’s one of the most intuitive schemes I’ve seen!
I think Ashburn deserves an extra point or two for being proof that there is at least one American metro area willing to do the forward-thinking thing and build a metro station in the middle of an empty field! For too long, other countries have beaten the US at building transit to the middle of nowhere, but now we have our own train to a cornfield! But seriously, building mass transit in a built-up area is expensive, and up-zoning single-family areas is contentious and often unpopular with the people who already live there. It’s much easier and cheaper to build the transit in an empty field. That way, the transit is cheap and you can just build the dense, walkable, transit-oriented development from the beginning, instead of trying to fight the NIMBYs to retrofit it later. Doing that is actually a very forward-thinking move that will help Ashburn develop into a small city in its own right instead of just more suburban sprawl.
It is "Wheelie", but it's funnier because Sammy was raised here. I can't bust his chops too much because there are plenty of Maryland place names I probably say wrong and I was born and raised here.
Right after this station opened, I was visiting in Leesburg and wanted to go to Silver Spring, MD, where I lived from 1978-1986, to see the relatively new public library there. (It had actually opened 7 years earlier, but this was my first opportunity to see it.) I took the Metro from Ashburn (after driving about 10 miles on a toll road) to Metro Center and then switched to the Red Line. I noticed when we got to Rosslyn, it was an hour after we left Ashburn. When I used to lived in Silver Spring, I commuted from there to Rosslyn in the early days of Metro, so this gave me an idea of just how far out Ashburn is.
A station 26 miles out could benefit from some express services to get into the city faster, but WMATA has never built the quad tracks such service would require. Stop at the terminus, Dulles, and maybe one or two more stations before you get to the Silver / Orange merge at East Falls Church. The airport, in particular, would benefit from a faster connection to city center.
@@qjtvaddict It is theoretically possible to take a semi-circular route to Dulles using the existing VRE tracks to Manassas and splitting off and going north. Obviously expensive and semi-redundant now with the SL, but they could probably go faster door to door even with all the usual VRE stops. I don't think there is any other plausible way to achieve this given the current built environment. They're not going to revert the W&OD Trail back to rail.
@@jyutzler I think they could run express trains with the existing double track line, maybe with a few added crossovers. It could probably be done with ATC, using short passing sidings or by passing local trains on the opposite platform while they stop. Shorter trains could potentially be used for this (Philly uses 2-car trains for some of its express trains), maybe 2 or 4 cars?
@@29downtheline Sorry, this is an insane idea. Even if it could be done safely (dubious), it would not be feasible to orchestrate sharing tracks even with 12 minute headways.
@@jyutzler It wouldn’t lend itself to good frequency, that’s for sure. I also think it’s unrealistic to expect Metro to do this anytime soon (or at all). I think their best immediate course of action is raising line speeds (unfortunately it was only built for 65mph trains west of Reston). The Silver Line definitely needs to be faster, though.
I remember the first time I got off at Spring Hill station, back when it was relavtively new. I got plopped into an underdeveloped intersection that was not pedestrian friendly. They didn't even have an active taxi service there. That was the first-ever time I used Uber.
Yeah, I just did a cursory look, it looks like there's sidewalks all the way but I'm not sure how safe they feel to ride on especially for a new cyclist. As someone who lives in the suburbs I'm very used to riding on sidewalks so I don't think I'd have too much issues but I could see why some people wouldn't like it.
Honestly Ashburn deserves _some_ praise for actually having development around it -- and future development potential -- compared to (cough cough) Loudoun Gateway...
Apparently, the issue with Loudoun Gateway is that there was supposed to be a planned urbanist town center when the stop was first selected. But because it took so long the owner of land around there sold it to data center developers instead.
Loudoun County has almost ten years of building permits approved. In 5 years these areas will not look anywhere like they are now. Loudoun Gateway is scheduled to have a massive development within walking distance of it. It will have 20 story buildings in it.
2 месяца назад+11
Hey!!! Great video! I wouldn't say Ashburn is a 3, probably a 4 or 5 due to its potential (Miles didn't know about all that :)) but yes, the station is a generic terminus without much around it. Buses at Ashburn get little to no ridership. Loudoun County's transit study didn't even publish numbers for Metro-connection routes, and I rarely see *anyone* on them. Less ridership --> less service, and that is a death spiral.
Also, to put it bluntly, the demographic that moves to, or lives in, Loudoun county, is hardly very transit oriented. I'm glad it's there and finally finished but it was planned quite poorly in my opinion. There were too many stops...and long time WMATA riders I know agree w/me. They should have had: Ashburn, Dulles, Herndon, Reston (Town Center), Tysons, East Falls Church. Local commuting around Reston and Tysons should have been by a circulator bus service, not having the train stop 6 additional times.
@@Salmagundiii I would have been okay with Tysons having multiple stops if they reconfigured the street grid to turn Tysons into a truly urban area, but they declined to do that. The way it is built now, I agree it's pretty bad. I agree with Reston having a single station served by a circulator or trolley. I'm fine with it being Wiehle instead of RTC because the RTC station is a 10 minute walk away from the town center anyway so most people would rather take a shuttle from one site or the other. Loudoun Gateway and Innovation never should have been built. That money was flushed.
I was living in Maryland at the time when the Bush II administration kiboshed the Silver Line. To resurrect the project the Northern Virginia business community did two things: 1. They got rid of the tunnels. 2. They gave the platforms only *limited* shelter from the elements.
@@sammymarrco47 As *I* recall, the overhead platform shelter was proposed to be bigger, but the Bush II administration demanded further budget cuts. But maybe I'm misremembering.
Ashburn is nothing... The Washington and Old Dominion ran to Bluemont, VA, which was at the foot of the Blue Ridge. The Ashburn station is only marginally closer to Leesburg, VA as the MARC station at Point of Rocks, MD, with tolls. Its main benefit is number of trains.
Well, they're trying to make it more of something by building more near it. And I would say that this is a completely separate system from some sort of commuter rail-esque system that would try to copy the w and od. The only reason the Metro was extended this far out was because of Dulles airport, if Dulles did not exist where it exists then it probably would have ended in reston.
One of the unusual features of the Silver line is that the vehicle maintenance facility is about 1/2 mile from the main line. Most LRT/Metro train yards are either built on the main line or along an extension after the last station (e.g.,, Los Angeles Line B/D, that stores train south of Union Station), but not the Silver line.
@@sammymarrco47 - That's my point. The Brentwood yard on the WMATA Red Line is next to the track. The only "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" rail transit yard I can think of outside of NYC is the one for Line C in Los Angeles. But Division 22, to use the official name, is still off to the side of Line C, while the WMATA Silver Line's yard is a thousand yards away. Ride the San Diego Blue Line and you will feel like you're threading your way through a freight yard, with freight cars and locomotives and carhouses and workshops and San Diego LRVs of all eras around you, even PCC's for the "Silver Line" heritage trolley excursion that operates on weekends. Chicago's Howard Yard is another place where you get an eyeful when you roll through, especially on the Purple Line into Evanston.
I feel like a quick fix (and way to make money) to the empty parking garages for Metro would be to offer some long-term parking options for Dulles that include your transit fare in the parking price. This would likely require paper fare cards again, but it could be doable.
Interestingly, the private garages at Ashburn and Wiehle-Reston East already do this! Supposedly WMATA also has long term parking spots at Wiehle as well, but not any at Ashburn, to my knowledge!
Do u use Metro when u go to DC? I live near data center construction and I see West Virginia license plates on the cars, it's crazy that people drive that far especially doing such a physically intensive job.
@@sammymarrco47 From Charles Town WV to Ashburn Metro South garage is 45 minutes. West Virginia borders loudoun county. It is not that far. It is 50 minutes to Reston. There are people that do that every day. People can not afford to live in Loudoun.
Wonderful station review! I think the garage would be more full if there wasn’t abundant free parking two blocks away from the station. I also wonder if the fare evasion number is off, because I think Ashburn is one of three easiest stations for fare evading (don’t worry, I’m not speaking from personal experience). The emergency gate has no latch or alarm, so people can just open it and walk through with no problem. It’s a very questionable design choice. I wish Leesburg had better bus connections to the Metro. Weirdly enough, depending on what part of Leesburg you’re in, driving to Innovation Center and getting the Metro to DC from there can actually be faster. It’s also unfortunate because Leesburg has a passable bus network for its size that just isn’t well-integrated with the Metro. (I still hold that the Silver Line should have been extended all the way to just south of Raflo Park in Leesburg). Leesburg is only connected to the Metro by express bus, but much of the of the town’s bus ridership is on local routes. The 70 is kind of the big east-west LC Transit route, but it misses the Metro by miles. It at least has a connection with Fairfax Connector. Overall, 3/10 for Ashburn makes sense, but hopefully it will be better in the future!
I swear SV Phase II was one of our best transit days ever. I’ve cameo’d at least 2x (in black/gray SpongeBob coat). I hope Ashburn and especially Loudoun Gateway gets the TOD it needs🐧
I hadn't realized that it was open. I will have to give it at least one round-trip ride before I move. A pity it took so long to get the Silver Line. Metro was planned to go to Dulles Airport back when the airport was built back in the early 1960s but....nothing happens quickly with beauracracies.
@@sammymarrco47 It'll be VRE for me. I have used Metro in the past. It's just a shame because SL Phase Two stations would've been so handy earlier in my career.
I hope so too, trains are capped at 59 mph right now but some parts of the silver line are rated for 75 miles per hour. Unfortunately Metro has a tenuous safety record so getting approval to go that fast will be a long process.
I’m surprised we are calling this station “dead and desolate” every time I take it all the way to ashburn, I see SOO many people exit the train. Ashburn has been getting so much ridership these days.
Frustrating that there's already more mixed use development by that station than by Vienna/Fairfax, which is still mostly a sea of parking almost 40 years on, even after some recent housing construction. The Ashburn station is weird. It almost feels like an afterthought. Like, they didn't want trains waiting and turning around at the airport, so they just went a little bit further out and made the Ashburn station. Still, a lot of potential for growth. Wish the Silver Line had been out there when I lived in Herndon 17 years ago, that's for sure. But the local NYMBYs were still fighting it tooth and nail at the time. I kinda figured Ashburn wouldn't get much use on account of the wannabe aristocrats not wanting to mix with the poors. But I also know there are some normal folks out there who still want/need public transit, so I'm glad it's there.
@@jyutzler I think I've only been to Huntington once, and it was like 15 years ago. But I can imagine. That area seems like it's made to service highways. Shady Grove on the Red Line is another really bad one. I go there a couple times a year and I keep waiting for it to sink under the ocean of pavement. They keep saying there's going to be mixed use development at Vienna, but I've been hearing that for more than 15 years, and other than cutting down a ton of trees and building a senior living building, they've done nothing. Heck, they didn't even finish doing the refurbish from about 10 years ago, skipping improvements on the north side of the station. Long enough that the "new" covered walkways they put in on the south side are starting to fall apart. Now I'm hearing that West Falls Church is supposed to be getting a big mixed use development around it. It would just about figure that it would happen there before Vienna. I'm moving into DC next month after 17 years stuck out here in the suburbs, with very little reason to come back, so it won't be boiling my noodle as much. I'd still like to see some improvements though, even if it'll be too late for me to get much use.
Hi matthew, I've noticed you commented on a lot of my videos. I'm happy that you're able to move to DC soon! I worked very temporarily delivering Amazon packages and I helped deliver to the apartments right near the Vienna station, they're definitely building more housing but it's not going to be mixed use, or I believe that was canceled a few years ago according to the Wikipedia page for the Vienna station.
50 minutes from DC to Ashburn during rush hour? Sure, if you're willing to pay $30+ in tolls one-way. If you're not a billionaire who can afford that kind of stuff, you're looking at closer to 70 minutes, which is not that much faster than Metro tbh.
The area around the Ashburn Station and Old Ox station is already permitted out for buildings. A large development is taking over a quarry not far from the Old Ox station. All the area south of the Ashburn station is either built, being built, or bulldozed for building. If you drive around you can see all this going on. The population growth in the next two to three years is going to be ridiculous. Most of the board of supervisors and county website has all this stuff in writing and plans displayed. As far as being far from West Virginia? I have nieghbors that drive from Martinsburg to Fairfax on a daily basis. Not to mention those who come from Washington County MD to commute down. You can sit and watch the traffic on RT 7 and 15 everyday. Majority of the land is spoken for. Just waiting for contractors to free up to build more stuff. The issue has been trying to get contractors. I have seen contractors from the mid west subbed in to help build townhouses here.
There will be plenty of housing there 5 to 10 years from now, unfortunately it will not be very affordable as Loudoun county is the richest county in the United States by household income.
@@jyutzler It seems that way now because the Orange line does not go very far west. Like I said it likely won't happen for a long time. I would agree the Silver line should end at Dulles. If it went any further west than all the way to Leesburg. Ending it in between doesn't make much sense.
@@dvferyance I think a park and ride west of Dulles makes sense, but extending to Leesburg could have been interesting, partially because Leesburg is a destination in and of itself (especially downtown and the outlet mall).
@@dvferyance You have got to be kidding me. Phase 2 cost 4 billion to build 11 miles of track and six stations. The only reason the project was done is because of the airport. There is no way they're going to spend another ~3 billion to extend it another 10 miles to Leesburg, a town of maybe 50,000 people. You can run a lot of buses for that.
@@jyutzler Since when is 50,000 a small place? Look I think it would have made sense to end the line at Dulles. But it doesn't so you might as well extend it to a place of greater significance. Leesburg has more people than Ashburn.
Loudouns transit isnt bad because nimbyism, it's just useless. Most of the routes consist of two stations connecting a park and ride to the metro station. If the routes actually served neighborhoods rather than parking lots, it would get ridership.
There are hardly any compact neighborhoods in Loudoun other than the old parts of Leesburg and Purcellville. It's pretty much impossible to make a compelling transit network for somewhere so decentralized.
Small fix, bus 351 goes to Leesburg, not 451.
I like the 351! It’s not at all frequent enough, but it’s a decent express route otherwise. Are you familiar with the LC Transit numbering scheme? It’s one of the most intuitive schemes I’ve seen!
I think Ashburn deserves an extra point or two for being proof that there is at least one American metro area willing to do the forward-thinking thing and build a metro station in the middle of an empty field! For too long, other countries have beaten the US at building transit to the middle of nowhere, but now we have our own train to a cornfield!
But seriously, building mass transit in a built-up area is expensive, and up-zoning single-family areas is contentious and often unpopular with the people who already live there. It’s much easier and cheaper to build the transit in an empty field. That way, the transit is cheap and you can just build the dense, walkable, transit-oriented development from the beginning, instead of trying to fight the NIMBYs to retrofit it later. Doing that is actually a very forward-thinking move that will help Ashburn develop into a small city in its own right instead of just more suburban sprawl.
we will see, I dont think its gonna be city sized but hopefully more walkable island in the middle of suburbia.
I think 50 minutes from DC to Ashburn by car at rush hour is way optimistic.
No, just pricey with tolls. You're looking at $40+ each way. Obviously it depends where exactly in DC you're going to or from.
Leaving work last week it took me an hour just getting out of Tysons!
@@johnnyfox8934 How much of that was 267 vs. the local roads?
I just go by what google says 🤷♂️
I used to work in the data centers you filmed, and have been on the internet roofs. You can indeed see the mountains.
cool!
It's pronounced "Wheelie", not like the coyote.
I had relatives in the DC metro so I'm familiar with the name. I thought it was pronounced "wheel" but without the "h".
It is "Wheelie", but it's funnier because Sammy was raised here. I can't bust his chops too much because there are plenty of Maryland place names I probably say wrong and I was born and raised here.
its not a name I've ever heard apart from that station and my brain just wants to say "why-lee".
@@EdwardM-t8pMost US accents today realize the word “wheel” without the “h” these days.
Right after this station opened, I was visiting in Leesburg and wanted to go to Silver Spring, MD, where I lived from 1978-1986, to see the relatively new public library there. (It had actually opened 7 years earlier, but this was my first opportunity to see it.) I took the Metro from Ashburn (after driving about 10 miles on a toll road) to Metro Center and then switched to the Red Line. I noticed when we got to Rosslyn, it was an hour after we left Ashburn. When I used to lived in Silver Spring, I commuted from there to Rosslyn in the early days of Metro, so this gave me an idea of just how far out Ashburn is.
its so far from DC!
Too bad there isn’t any bus service between this station and downtown Leesburg over the weekend. I’d head there today (Saturday).
yep, only on weekdays :(
Ashburn has potential, unlike most silver line stations in Loudoun (besides Dulles)
I went there last year. Places to eat in the midst of the “commuter village”
There are only two stations in loudoun.
the mountains you can sometimes see are the Blue Ridge, which are the boundary between VA and WV.
A station 26 miles out could benefit from some express services to get into the city faster, but WMATA has never built the quad tracks such service would require. Stop at the terminus, Dulles, and maybe one or two more stations before you get to the Silver / Orange merge at East Falls Church. The airport, in particular, would benefit from a faster connection to city center.
Ok have intercity trains act as express service
@@qjtvaddict It is theoretically possible to take a semi-circular route to Dulles using the existing VRE tracks to Manassas and splitting off and going north. Obviously expensive and semi-redundant now with the SL, but they could probably go faster door to door even with all the usual VRE stops. I don't think there is any other plausible way to achieve this given the current built environment. They're not going to revert the W&OD Trail back to rail.
@@jyutzler I think they could run express trains with the existing double track line, maybe with a few added crossovers. It could probably be done with ATC, using short passing sidings or by passing local trains on the opposite platform while they stop. Shorter trains could potentially be used for this (Philly uses 2-car trains for some of its express trains), maybe 2 or 4 cars?
@@29downtheline Sorry, this is an insane idea. Even if it could be done safely (dubious), it would not be feasible to orchestrate sharing tracks even with 12 minute headways.
@@jyutzler It wouldn’t lend itself to good frequency, that’s for sure. I also think it’s unrealistic to expect Metro to do this anytime soon (or at all). I think their best immediate course of action is raising line speeds (unfortunately it was only built for 65mph trains west of Reston). The Silver Line definitely needs to be faster, though.
Great video, terminal stations are so interesting to me. I'm also eager to see how the area around the station develops
You and me both!
I remember the first time I got off at Spring Hill station, back when it was relavtively new. I got plopped into an underdeveloped intersection that was not pedestrian friendly. They didn't even have an active taxi service there. That was the first-ever time I used Uber.
yeah its a weird area
even though it’s boring right now, this is my favorite stop in all of the metro and I have a lot of hope for it
why is it your favorite?
There's a
Yeah, I just did a cursory look, it looks like there's sidewalks all the way but I'm not sure how safe they feel to ride on especially for a new cyclist. As someone who lives in the suburbs I'm very used to riding on sidewalks so I don't think I'd have too much issues but I could see why some people wouldn't like it.
Honestly Ashburn deserves _some_ praise for actually having development around it -- and future development potential -- compared to (cough cough) Loudoun Gateway...
That's why it's a 3/10 and not 1/10.
Apparently, the issue with Loudoun Gateway is that there was supposed to be a planned urbanist town center when the stop was first selected. But because it took so long the owner of land around there sold it to data center developers instead.
yep, that's why I pointed it out, its a good start!
Loudoun County has almost ten years of building permits approved. In 5 years these areas will not look anywhere like they are now. Loudoun Gateway is scheduled to have a massive development within walking distance of it. It will have 20 story buildings in it.
Hey!!! Great video!
I wouldn't say Ashburn is a 3, probably a 4 or 5 due to its potential (Miles didn't know about all that :)) but yes, the station is a generic terminus without much around it.
Buses at Ashburn get little to no ridership. Loudoun County's transit study didn't even publish numbers for Metro-connection routes, and I rarely see *anyone* on them. Less ridership --> less service, and that is a death spiral.
Poor service hours aren’t attractive tho and won’t attract ridership. With transit you go big or go home period.
Also, to put it bluntly, the demographic that moves to, or lives in, Loudoun county, is hardly very transit oriented. I'm glad it's there and finally finished but it was planned quite poorly in my opinion. There were too many stops...and long time WMATA riders I know agree w/me. They should have had: Ashburn, Dulles, Herndon, Reston (Town Center), Tysons, East Falls Church. Local commuting around Reston and Tysons should have been by a circulator bus service, not having the train stop 6 additional times.
@@Salmagundiii I would have been okay with Tysons having multiple stops if they reconfigured the street grid to turn Tysons into a truly urban area, but they declined to do that. The way it is built now, I agree it's pretty bad.
I agree with Reston having a single station served by a circulator or trolley. I'm fine with it being Wiehle instead of RTC because the RTC station is a 10 minute walk away from the town center anyway so most people would rather take a shuttle from one site or the other.
Loudoun Gateway and Innovation never should have been built. That money was flushed.
totally agree
I was living in Maryland at the time when the Bush II administration kiboshed the Silver Line. To resurrect the project the Northern Virginia business community did two things:
1. They got rid of the tunnels.
2. They gave the platforms only *limited* shelter from the elements.
I mean the platforms are pretty similar to the ones on the orange line from what I can tell.
@@sammymarrco47
As *I* recall, the overhead platform shelter was proposed to be bigger, but the Bush II administration demanded further budget cuts. But maybe I'm misremembering.
Ashburn is nothing... The Washington and Old Dominion ran to Bluemont, VA, which was at the foot of the Blue Ridge. The Ashburn station is only marginally closer to Leesburg, VA as the MARC station at Point of Rocks, MD, with tolls. Its main benefit is number of trains.
Well, they're trying to make it more of something by building more near it. And I would say that this is a completely separate system from some sort of commuter rail-esque system that would try to copy the w and od. The only reason the Metro was extended this far out was because of Dulles airport, if Dulles did not exist where it exists then it probably would have ended in reston.
One of the unusual features of the Silver line is that the vehicle maintenance facility is about 1/2 mile from the main line. Most LRT/Metro train yards are either built on the main line or along an extension after the last station (e.g.,, Los Angeles Line B/D, that stores train south of Union Station), but not the Silver line.
The Metro has a similar facility just north of Union station for the red line.
@@sammymarrco47 - That's my point. The Brentwood yard on the WMATA Red Line is next to the track. The only "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" rail transit yard I can think of outside of NYC is the one for Line C in Los Angeles. But Division 22, to use the official name, is still off to the side of Line C, while the WMATA Silver Line's yard is a thousand yards away.
Ride the San Diego Blue Line and you will feel like you're threading your way through a freight yard, with freight cars and locomotives and carhouses and workshops and San Diego LRVs of all eras around you, even PCC's for the "Silver Line" heritage trolley excursion that operates on weekends. Chicago's Howard Yard is another place where you get an eyeful when you roll through, especially on the Purple Line into Evanston.
The maintnance facility is on MWAA property that is why it is so far away.
Ain't no way you can drive from DC to Ashburn during rush hour in 50 minutes.
I just go by what google estimates: maps.app.goo.gl/7erPMPUUdmnzAu4C6
I feel like a quick fix (and way to make money) to the empty parking garages for Metro would be to offer some long-term parking options for Dulles that include your transit fare in the parking price.
This would likely require paper fare cards again, but it could be doable.
Interestingly, the private garages at Ashburn and Wiehle-Reston East already do this! Supposedly WMATA also has long term parking spots at Wiehle as well, but not any at Ashburn, to my knowledge!
The county of Loudoun actually owns the parking garages. WMATA does not own them.
As a West Virginia resident, I love this station
Do u use Metro when u go to DC? I live near data center construction and I see West Virginia license plates on the cars, it's crazy that people drive that far especially doing such a physically intensive job.
@@sammymarrco47always use the metro when going into the city, mainly because i hate driving in big cities. The station is about 40 minutes from me.
@@sammymarrco47 From Charles Town WV to Ashburn Metro South garage is 45 minutes. West Virginia borders loudoun county. It is not that far. It is 50 minutes to Reston. There are people that do that every day. People can not afford to live in Loudoun.
Wonderful station review! I think the garage would be more full if there wasn’t abundant free parking two blocks away from the station. I also wonder if the fare evasion number is off, because I think Ashburn is one of three easiest stations for fare evading (don’t worry, I’m not speaking from personal experience). The emergency gate has no latch or alarm, so people can just open it and walk through with no problem. It’s a very questionable design choice.
I wish Leesburg had better bus connections to the Metro. Weirdly enough, depending on what part of Leesburg you’re in, driving to Innovation Center and getting the Metro to DC from there can actually be faster. It’s also unfortunate because Leesburg has a passable bus network for its size that just isn’t well-integrated with the Metro. (I still hold that the Silver Line should have been extended all the way to just south of Raflo Park in Leesburg). Leesburg is only connected to the Metro by express bus, but much of the of the town’s bus ridership is on local routes. The 70 is kind of the big east-west LC Transit route, but it misses the Metro by miles. It at least has a connection with Fairfax Connector.
Overall, 3/10 for Ashburn makes sense, but hopefully it will be better in the future!
Two blocks is two blocks, if you're going to take Metro in the first place, it's probably worth your time to pay to park right at the station.
I swear SV Phase II was one of our best transit days ever. I’ve cameo’d at least 2x (in black/gray SpongeBob coat).
I hope Ashburn and especially Loudoun Gateway gets the TOD it needs🐧
that was one of my most favorite days!
I hadn't realized that it was open. I will have to give it at least one round-trip ride before I move.
A pity it took so long to get the Silver Line. Metro was planned to go to Dulles Airport back when the airport was built back in the early 1960s but....nothing happens quickly with beauracracies.
where are u moving to?
@@sammymarrco47 It'll be VRE for me. I have used Metro in the past. It's just a shame because SL Phase Two stations would've been so handy earlier in my career.
Nice vid! Hopefully they start running faster trains out there
I hope so too, trains are capped at 59 mph right now but some parts of the silver line are rated for 75 miles per hour. Unfortunately Metro has a tenuous safety record so getting approval to go that fast will be a long process.
0:07 at least the crows are using the station!
Birds love to perch on the platforms
I thought Shady Grove station on the Red Line was close to West Virginia years ago!
It may have been a few years ago before this station opened.
Im acually planning to move to ashburn when they are completed
awesome!
Man I wish Maryland could get a silver line type thing and get a metro extension to BWI that would be amazing
nah, lets just make MARC better!
I’m surprised we are calling this station “dead and desolate” every time I take it all the way to ashburn, I see SOO many people exit the train. Ashburn has been getting so much ridership these days.
The only time I've seen Ashburn busy was on day one lol, I should see what its like at rush hour
@@sammymarrco47 yeah you’d be surprised
Frustrating that there's already more mixed use development by that station than by Vienna/Fairfax, which is still mostly a sea of parking almost 40 years on, even after some recent housing construction.
The Ashburn station is weird. It almost feels like an afterthought. Like, they didn't want trains waiting and turning around at the airport, so they just went a little bit further out and made the Ashburn station. Still, a lot of potential for growth. Wish the Silver Line had been out there when I lived in Herndon 17 years ago, that's for sure. But the local NYMBYs were still fighting it tooth and nail at the time.
I kinda figured Ashburn wouldn't get much use on account of the wannabe aristocrats not wanting to mix with the poors. But I also know there are some normal folks out there who still want/need public transit, so I'm glad it's there.
Huntington may be worse than Vienna. Fairfax County is a joke when it comes to building around Metro.
@@jyutzler I think I've only been to Huntington once, and it was like 15 years ago. But I can imagine. That area seems like it's made to service highways. Shady Grove on the Red Line is another really bad one. I go there a couple times a year and I keep waiting for it to sink under the ocean of pavement.
They keep saying there's going to be mixed use development at Vienna, but I've been hearing that for more than 15 years, and other than cutting down a ton of trees and building a senior living building, they've done nothing. Heck, they didn't even finish doing the refurbish from about 10 years ago, skipping improvements on the north side of the station. Long enough that the "new" covered walkways they put in on the south side are starting to fall apart. Now I'm hearing that West Falls Church is supposed to be getting a big mixed use development around it. It would just about figure that it would happen there before Vienna.
I'm moving into DC next month after 17 years stuck out here in the suburbs, with very little reason to come back, so it won't be boiling my noodle as much. I'd still like to see some improvements though, even if it'll be too late for me to get much use.
Hi matthew, I've noticed you commented on a lot of my videos. I'm happy that you're able to move to DC soon! I worked very temporarily delivering Amazon packages and I helped deliver to the apartments right near the Vienna station, they're definitely building more housing but it's not going to be mixed use, or I believe that was canceled a few years ago according to the Wikipedia page for the Vienna station.
50 minutes from DC to Ashburn during rush hour? Sure, if you're willing to pay $30+ in tolls one-way. If you're not a billionaire who can afford that kind of stuff, you're looking at closer to 70 minutes, which is not that much faster than Metro tbh.
I don't live in Loudoun so I always forget it's a toll road.
You never actually stated or showed that the station was closer to WV than to DC.
It's in the description
I know the trains say "wily," but it's pronounced "wheelie"
They’ve corrected the announcements on board since the line opened!
yeah ik, I get it wrong all the time because why-lee makes so much more sense in my head then wheel-lee
@@sammymarrco47 I can’t even spell it half the time, it’s so confusing
The area around the Ashburn Station and Old Ox station is already permitted out for buildings. A large development is taking over a quarry not far from the Old Ox station. All the area south of the Ashburn station is either built, being built, or bulldozed for building. If you drive around you can see all this going on. The population growth in the next two to three years is going to be ridiculous. Most of the board of supervisors and county website has all this stuff in writing and plans displayed.
As far as being far from West Virginia? I have nieghbors that drive from Martinsburg to Fairfax on a daily basis. Not to mention those who come from Washington County MD to commute down. You can sit and watch the traffic on RT 7 and 15 everyday.
Majority of the land is spoken for. Just waiting for contractors to free up to build more stuff. The issue has been trying to get contractors. I have seen contractors from the mid west subbed in to help build townhouses here.
yep, its ready to go, now build baby build!
OMG look at all of the space surrounding the station. Convert it to affordable housing and I'll live there and ride the train into DV for work
There will be plenty of housing there 5 to 10 years from now, unfortunately it will not be very affordable as Loudoun county is the richest county in the United States by household income.
Ah yes, Otis Gen 2 action.
new and clean!
sweet!
Wheeley, not whiley
I can’t lie I’m a little jealous in New York 😭
don't be jealous, transit in NYC is much more comprehensive
Morefield? More like Lessfield!
less field, more housing
Jeremy spotted \m/
me doing the Leonardo DiCaprio point at the screen when I saw this
he was a hoot!
Someday the line could be extended even further west to Leesburg but that is many years away.
Why in the world would they do that? The system is already overextended now.
@@jyutzler It seems that way now because the Orange line does not go very far west. Like I said it likely won't happen for a long time. I would agree the Silver line should end at Dulles. If it went any further west than all the way to Leesburg. Ending it in between doesn't make much sense.
@@dvferyance I think a park and ride west of Dulles makes sense, but extending to Leesburg could have been interesting, partially because Leesburg is a destination in and of itself (especially downtown and the outlet mall).
@@dvferyance You have got to be kidding me. Phase 2 cost 4 billion to build 11 miles of track and six stations. The only reason the project was done is because of the airport. There is no way they're going to spend another ~3 billion to extend it another 10 miles to Leesburg, a town of maybe 50,000 people. You can run a lot of buses for that.
@@jyutzler Since when is 50,000 a small place? Look I think it would have made sense to end the line at Dulles. But it doesn't so you might as well extend it to a place of greater significance. Leesburg has more people than Ashburn.
Please check your pronunciation of "Whiele". Thanks.
pero que si no quiero?
@GaryMead-l7g Please check your spelling of "Wiehle." Thanks. ;)
@@teaganAK Thanks. I think I'm making the world a little better and I screw it up myself. I do know how to spell it, I guess not at that moment. 🤪
Loudouns transit isnt bad because nimbyism, it's just useless. Most of the routes consist of two stations connecting a park and ride to the metro station. If the routes actually served neighborhoods rather than parking lots, it would get ridership.
There are hardly any compact neighborhoods in Loudoun other than the old parts of Leesburg and Purcellville. It's pretty much impossible to make a compelling transit network for somewhere so decentralized.
Ok build the neighborhood
Ok build the neighborhood
@@jyutzlerrun an extensive bus network and drop the commuter buses.
@@qjtvaddict Loudoun residents in aggregate are more interested in keeping taxes down than delivering a bus network few would use.
They say “for the poors”, sounds like NIMBYism to me.🙄 4:36
Loudoun County Transit has a few decent routes, regardless of what people think of the system!
@@29downthelinestart with more service to the silver line Toronto figured it out
Im saying it more as a general cultural thing, not a NIMBY thing. Not dissing bus riders at all.
@@sammymarrco47 I know you weren’t. I meant the locals.