This series has been amazing! As someone who moved out of the DMV area recently, these videos help me feel like I’m at home again and give me new appreciation for where I grew up.
While I get their reasoning regarding Wolf Trap, it would've encouraged people to attend concerts there, and having a station just for leisure or nature isn't a bad thing either! The Metro-North Railroad for example has stations dedicated for hikers, Appalachian Trail on the Harlem Line, and Manitou and Breakneck Ridge on the Hudson Line! The Empire Builder serves Glacier National Park, Amtrak's Ski Train goes to the Winter Park ski resort from Denver Union Station seasonally, and the legendary Thurmond station in West Virginia serves the New River Gorge! Worth mentioning at both Dulles and Innovation Center, there is a bus connection for those who want to visit the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Center which has some pretty interesting stuff like an Air France Concorde, Space Shuttle Discovery, and the Enola Gay! The fact they destroyed that African-American majority village for Dulles reminds me of how Seneca Village was destroyed when Central Park in NYC was being constructed. But agreed, basing the design of Dulles station off of the neighboring iconic terminal was chef's kiss design! Besides Dulles, Eero Saarinen also designed JFK's iconic TWA Flight Center and St Louis's Gateway Arch! He was a pioneer in the concept of the mobile lounge! Dulles's mobile lounges each weigh 76 tons with a maximum cruising speed of 26 mph and can carry to and from the terminal building up to 90 people. Their purpose was to radically restructure the idea of airports. By the early 1960s, airports had transformed to ramifying systems of hallways. As planes grew larger, they needed more space as they lined up next to each other along the airport building. And as flying grew more popular, airports needed to have more and more gates. The result was that terminal buildings sprouted long protrusions called fingers. Hundreds of feet long, they accommodated jets very comfortably. The finger-style airport was a purgatory of walking because airports went from being able to walk straight from the entrance of a simple terminal onto your plane, now you were reduced to wandering through a structure built for giants. So when Dulles opened in 1962, it did not have fingers. Instead, after passengers checked in on one side of the terminal building, they crossed to a row of doors that opened onto a fleet of mobile lounges. While the aircraft, some one or two miles off on the tarmac, were prepared, flyers relaxed in swank waiting areas, enjoying cocktails from nearby stands. Construction of the airport began in 1958, but Saarinen sadly did not live to see its completion in 1962 as he passed in 1961 Dulles's designers thought that by shuttling from the main terminal directly to a midfield jet ramp, they could save passengers from long walking distances amidst weather, noise, and fumes on the ramp. The advent of the jet bridge and construction of the two midfield concourse buildings at this airport negated the benefits of the system. As passenger numbers at Dulles grew, they realized it was impractical to use mobile lounges. Remote concourses were constructed, and the fleet of mobile lounges was used as a shuttle between the concourses and the main terminal. Thus the AeroTrain was eventually built in 2010, while mobile lounges have continued to be used to reach Concourse D before replacement Concourses C and D are built and the AeroTrain is expanded to become a continuous two-way loop. Besides Dulles, mobile lounges have been used at Montréal-Trudeau, Philadelphia International, Benito Juárez International Airport in Mexico City until 2007, JFK International, the infamous Mirabel International until passenger services ceased in 2004, Paris Charles de Gaulle, and King Abdulaziz International Airport in Saudi Arabia. Early in the space shuttle program, NASA used the Plane Mate system of mobile lounge to move astronauts directly from the orbiter to crew facilities. A modified vehicle obtained from BWI in Baltimore was used for shuttle landings at California's Edwards Air Force Base. A similar vehicle was used at the Kennedy Space Center to take astronauts directly from the orbiter to the Operations and Checkout building.
The only problem with Metro-North's leisure stops is that they have severely limited service and both are treated as flag stops meaning the train will keep going if nobody wants to get off or standing on the platform.
When you think of all the money spent on art and poetry installations, it's really a shame that they didn't allocate some of that cash to put in a station at Wolf Trap, which by the way has a terrible parking situation and is slow and dangerous to drive out of at night. Using the excuse that the station couldn't spur development in the area misses the point. Public transportation's purpose is to get the public from one place to another quickly and safely, not to fill the pockets of real estate developers.
@@pavelow235I think the zoning is there for the most part but the demand isn't. People aren't really excited to live 25 miles outside DC or if they do, they prefer the suburban lifestyle.
I don't mind Loudoun Gateway being a park-and-ride. Park-and-rides means less people driving to or in a city, and thus also means less traffic and pollution! They can be super convenient for rural/suburban areas outside of big cities. Aix-en-Provence station on the TGV in France for example is a huge park-and-ride, there's buses between the station and the city itself that has 15-min headways (the station is 15 km NE) and to Marseille Airport, and this helps rural folks have HSR access without having to drive into the city, thus it's less cars on city roads. But you can still attempt to create a town center! Ronkonkoma on the LIRR has a ton of parking as it has been the easternmost electrified LIRR station since 1987, and when it was electrified, people ditched the diesel branches in favor of driving to Ronkonkoma. Ronkonkoma also serves Long Island MacArthur Airport. To solve Ronkonkoma being so car-oriented, Suffolk County has recently opted to transform the station’s surroundings into an actual community with two different big TOD projects, Station Yards and Midway Crossing. Station Yards was built on the north side of the station next to an existing garage and is a 53-acre site with 1,450 residential units, retail, office space, and hospitality space. Midway Crossing on the other hand takes it a big step further, with a 15-year four-phase plan for the site south of the station that’s over 170 acres! This removes the station’s southern lot and a compost facility and transform it into a convention center, garages, hotel, a life sciences cluster, parks, 330K square feet of retail, and a dedicated pedestrian corridor connecting the station with the airport. With the airport relocating its terminal to the north side, making it a direct “train to plane” link. So not only would you be able to walk right to the airport from the station, but people will take the train to conventions! The site has a goal of achieving a net-zero carbon footprint by 2040. Tysons was once known as Peach Grove! It was then called "Tysons Crossroads" after the Civil War. Tysons was named after William Tyson, originally from Cecil County in Maryland, who purchased a tract of land from A. Lawrence Foster. Tyson served as postmaster of the now discontinued Peach Grove Post Office from 1854 to 1866. Until the 1950s, Tysons was a quiet rural intersection flanked by a few small stores and a fruit stand operated by the Tyson descendants, who sold apples and apple cider from the corner of their property. In 1963, the Tysons area moved from a country crossroads to a giant commercial urban area with the awarding of contracts at the interchange of VA Route 7 and VA Route 123. The names Wiehle and Reston comes from Carl A. Wiehle and Robert E. Simon. Carl A. Wiehle and William Dunn bought 6,449 acres in northern Fairfax County along the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad line in 1886, later dividing the land between them, with Wiehle retaining the acreage north of the railroad line. Wiehle envisioned founding a town on the property, including a hotel, parks, and community center, but completed only a handful of homes before his death in 1901. Wiehle's heirs eventually sold the land, which changed hands several times before being purchased by the A. Smith Bowman family, who built a bourbon distillery on the site. By 1947, the Bowmans had acquired the former Dunn tract south of the railroad, for total holdings of over 7,000 acres. In 1961, Robert E. Simon used funds from his family's recent sale of Carnegie Hall to buy most of the land for his own community. Simon officially launched Reston on April 10, 1964 (his 50th birthday) and named the community using his initials, hence RESton. He laid out seven "guiding principles" that would stress quality of life and serve as the foundation for its future development. His goal was for residents to live, work, and play in their own community, with common grounds and scenic beauty shared equally regardless of income level, thereby building a stronger sense of community ties
This series has been a pleasure. Growing up around DC I think a lot of us have experienced riding just your usual line 90% of the time and not knowing much about the rest of the system. Looking forward to what you have next.
@@bapplesEven Heathrow's stations aren't quite perfect despite being underground as the Heathrow Central Station (for Terminals 2 & 3), especially the one for the Heathrow Express & Elizabeth Line, is a bit of a walk from Terminal 2 just like the Dulles Metro Station despite being underground from what I've seen in videos (although I prefer airports with railway stations that are a bit of a walk - at least within 5 minutes - over major airports that don't have rail links or major airports that have rail links that are more than 1 mile away, require an extra people mover to get to the train and which have long walks between the terminal & station that are exposed to the weather). I think in the future, Dulles Airport could at least redesign their elevated station so that the platforms are completely enclosed/sheltered and have platform doors (much like Dubai), although the Metro would have to be completely automated for that to happen.
Dulles Airport is probably the only airport that I have ever seen with an architectural beauty similar to old train stations, that makes them worth a visit just to see the station. I had the pleasure of riding the metro out to see Dulles for the first time in September 2023.
I'm proud to have a limited edition silver line smart trip card from when the phase 1 opened! It's amazing to finally be able to take metro to Dulles, something I dreamed about for years ever since I was a kid. Thanks so much for this series. Metro has a fond place in my heart as I grew up using it on elementary school field trips to DC. I sadly moved further away into Virginia and thus use it much less nowadays, but I've been inspired by videos like these to go back and explore parts of the system that I never got to use as a kid. Excited for whatever you do next!
It makes me really happy to hear you've been inspired to ride it more, definitely one of goals of the series :) and that's awesome you've got a Phase I card!
7:12 One minor thing you missed (though it's not part of the station proper) is the giant video art display above the breezeway between the two buildings at the north entrance of Wiehle-Reston East. This continually rotates a display of various things (including an aquatic scene with fish/sharks as seen here) and really sets a unique tone for entering the station from this side. Great video and great series! Thanks Andy!
All six lines are complete now, it was fantastic seeing this even as someone who lives nowhere close to DC at all. Though I am wondering if you are gonna do Bonus Secrets one of these days for the DC Metro?
I love this series, when I lived there and traveled I never really got to take in all of the art and history that surrounds the stations, thank you for revealing all there is to take in!!!
I don’t usually comment on any videos I watch but, this series is amazing! Living in the DMV my whole life and seeing the growth of the best metro system in the country makes me very proud to be from the DMV! Thank you!
The mesh instead of glass for the bridges is good. The bird strikes against the bridge at Franconia Springfield can get pretty depressing in the right light 😜
Andy, thank you for your dedication in creating the most superb series on the Metro out there. The ending compilation scene was so bittersweet! Looking to seeing what content will lie next for the channel.
A few other secrets of the Silver line. The columns that carry Silver line flyover bridges over the Orange line tracks and the westbound lanes of VA I-66 are sitting on foundations and pilings that were built at the same time VA i-66 was being built back in late 1970s into the 1980s. When WMATA built the Orange line during the early 1980 they also included provisions for the future Silver line junction. The plan back then had the junction under the Haycock Road overpass east of the West Falls Station. When plans to build the Silver line came to fruition, the junction was mover east under the Great Fall Street overpass. Evidence of the junction provision location still exist today. The gaps in the third rail under the Haycock Road overpass is where the point of the Junction turnouts would have been. The Silver line Junction turnouts and adjacent double crossover are in a train control segment of their own carved out of ends of the East Falls Church and West Falls Church train control segments. The third track between the main line tracks north of the junction of the Dulles Connector Road VA-267 and VA I-66 is a lead track to Falls Church Yard. The Sliver line has feature that is exists exclusively on the Silver line. Unlike the rest of the 106 mile system where electrical power runs from nearest utility substation over double redundant power line to the passenger station and traction power substation. The Silver line has a double redundant power line bus that runs parallel to the Sliver line from Falls Church Yard to Ashburn. All of the power loads on the Silver are connect to this bus. The bus connect to utility grid at Falls Church, Tysons Corner, Reston, Herndon, Dulles Airport and Ashburn. The 5 connections of the bus to utility grid eliminated the need for 25 additional connection to the utility grid. The elevated structure that branches away from the mainline south of the Loudon Gateway station are the yard lead to Dulles Yard. The Yard leads are roughly a mile long, making them the longest lead between a yard and the main line in the system.
Huge Congrats on finishing this series! It was such a joy to learn about the metro that I grew up riding since I was a teenager. My thought with ditching the glass enclosed walkway over 66 is that it is due to the walkway acting like a greenhouse and getting super hot. I'm not sure if it would, given proper insulated windows and roofing, but I know that not all parts of the Metro system are well ventilated or cooled down, and it get can get very hot at times.
Yay the silver line video is finally here! Really awesome series! I learned a lot, especially about all of the cool artwork that’s out there. Those ridiculously long walkways to most of the silver line stations not even protecting from noise or elements feels like such a missed opportunity.
Wiehle-Reston East is one of my favorite stations. It proves you can implement transit best practices and ToD while still having car infrastructure present. Its a gateway between two worlds.
@@jyutzler I think it was overall a good, but not perfect project. Tysons needed stations (4 was likely overkill, but it's alright). Commuter/Regional rail past Tysons would have made more sense, maybe on the old dominion rail right of way around there. The Dulles connection either way is incredibly useful regardless. Given some land use improvements and increases in track speed (possibly epxress trains? That might be asking too much), the growth in Loudoun and Fairfax can make the project worth it.
@@DanHominem The Dulles connection stinks (too slow, too far from the terminal), we were better off with buses and easily could have run more of them. The Tysons investment has been completely squandered. It is too late for express trains. At current rates, Loudoun and Fairfax are at least 50 years away from developing enough around their stations to make their stations worth it. Look at Huntington. It is 40 years old and still barely developed. These infrastructure builds are only useful if the localities are on board and they aren't.
I want to thank you for this video and this series! I lived in DC for 8 years and moved away to attend grad school. I (hopefully) will be returning this summer. Your videos bring a warm sense of home when I'm feeling down about missing DC. Please keep creating DC content. Thank you!
Absolutely love that you took the time to make this whole series! This has been an absolutely lovely series to keep tabs on Andy. Thank you for sharing all of this information with us. Very much looking forward to what you have in store to share next!🎉
As a user of the Silver Line, i absolutely love this video. Ashburn’s “empty plots” are currently being redeveloped as we speak. Thank you so much for making this series! I hope you continue with other transit systems 😉
Fantastic series! I definitely learned so much about DC’s Metrorail history, from hidden tracks to Columbia Pike, Space Dogs, “Fake” Fire-stations, the beautiful art installations and so much more. Thank you for creating this amazing series.
This is such a cool video! I personally love trains and going on the DMV metro. There's always a site to see, and you really get the feeling that the DMV is a huge interconnected civilization just waiting to be explored :)
Awesome video! I’ve checked your channel more times than I like to admit for your Silver Line video. East Falls Church is my stop and I love that you started there!
@@andyontrackI really wish they built the Wolf Trap metro stop in lieu of the least used Loundon Gateway. We hike with our dogs at Wolf Trap all the time, and it would be wonderful if there was a metro stop there so more people could enjoy nature and get to a large music venue just from jumping on the metro! I wonder if there were concerns about homeless camping out there or something like that.
Yes! My wife used to work at Greensboro and Super Chicken was the highlight of any visit to her office. BTW, though as the crow flies she worked very close to Greensboro, walking to her office from the Silver Line was an arduous 18 minute long journey due to poor pedestrian access.
until the next time, we'll be eagerly awaiting whatever you have planned next. this truly was a great series and deserves infinitely more views than you've received. Fantastic information and GREAT production TBH. Thanks for your time and effort!
Well done! Such a great series. I'm glad you finished it. Public transporation is so important to our society. It's nice to stop and smell the metro from time to time. 💚
LOL, not kidding this is the second time that I revisited your videos this year where the next day there was a new one. I’m serious, yesterday I was thinking of leaving a comment on the Yellow Line vid asking when your next one was coming out. Thank you again so much for this wonderful content and I hope to see much more from you in the months and years to come.
I’ve only taken phase 1 of the silver line. I flew into Dulles, took the temporary silver line express bus to While-Reston East, and continued on my way. But the segment that I did see was really fun, although with recency bias! Even the newest line has some really cool secrets, like a cancelled station! I also noticed on my ride that there was a really long time before Spring Hill station. I was more forgiving of how long it took to build when I realized just how long the line is! The silver line I think has the most mileage of any line! It’s crazy how Ashburn is on the same line as Smithsonian, despite having a completely different environment! Loudoun Gateway is kind of a joke, but I think the intention was to allow people that live west of the airport to get to the metro without needing to take the highway. Hopefully as time goes on, more people try the metro rather than navigate crazy DC traffic!
The thing that’s a bummer about the silver line in Tyson’s is that the rest of the city is so car-dependent that many of the stops only make sense if you’re going to the mall or to your job in one of the fancy office buildings along the line. Even businesses that are only a block or two off the metro line feel completely inaccessible because you need to cross several six-lane roads to get to them
These are my favorite stations: Wheaton = the super long escalators. Dulles = Tunnel and Terminal, and you get up close to the Appalachias. Huntington = Inclined Elevator. Gallery Pi Chinatown = Bustling Downtown Neighborhood with sports arena, and the Chinese archway. Alexandria Yards (or whatever that new yellow line station is called) = super long sky bridges. And Friendship Heights = the Star Trek Teleporter lobby.
2 days late, but here’s a fun fact about some MARC Penn Line stations: Odenton Station was originally built around half a mile north or so of it’s current location, the Pennsy railroad relocated it to provide a better park and ride location, as cars were becoming increasingly popular. Seabrook, on the other hand, is a very new station, one that replaced the Pennsy’s Capital Beltway station, which was inherited by Amtrak, but only MARC operates trains here, same as the midpoint between Seabrook and Odenton, Bowie State, located on the BSU campus, the OG station was actually west of it’s current spot, in the town of Bowie, but was relocated to accommodate the new alignment entering Union Station, as was Cheverly, from the Pennsy’s time, Cheverly lies on a freight line that bypasses DC and originally linked to a terminal on the Nat’l Mall.
The Silver Line opened on my birthday and I still have one of the grand opening pennant flags that they were giving out that day at the Wiehle station! Naturally, the plan is to take a trip to Ashburn to celebrate the tenth year and phase 2 sometime soon!
this is very cool! i've never been to DC and doubt i will go any time soon, but i loved to take a look. i especially like how you highlighted the public art installations
Yes! Love metrobar--especially now that you can actually drink in the car itself! As for the Museum of Illusion I really want to go just for that upside-down car haha
@@andyontrack Awesome! Maybe if you do an update or variety video you could feature some of these neat DC metro based locations. The MLK library featured the Metro pop-up store last winter, I hope they bring it back!
The line might make you cross many lanes to reach the train, but the connection to Tyson's Corner really gives a nice park area. Unfortunately, my mom has actually been slightly further than I have on the Silver Line (she had an acting job in Reston in 2017-2018 and took Amtrak from 30th St to DC Union, then Red to Silver and Uber within Reston). She got tired of driving or taking the train before I got to go down
Man WMATA does NOT skimp on their station designs, these look superb. I think the only real criticisms that can be made are that it's unfortunate that the line is largely highway-median (although it really does look like they did their best to mitigate the worst of the unpleasant noise with the station design) and that all of the stations seem to have COLOSSAL parking garages. The art is so good though, I love that WMATA puts such a focus on including artwork into the designs of their stations. I do wonder what compelled WMATA to use mesh over the highway though, I wonder if they avoided using glass because it would be too challenging to maintain
Yeah! The Silver Line is interesting because it was really built for the Pre-Covid World, but I think Metro will turn this line around, they have already added TOD near some of the stations and future TOD is being developed and planned for others.
I'd love to see you cover the purple line when it (hopefully) opens in 2027. I went to middle school by Wayne & Dale so I'd love to see you cover it. I love this series it was so calming and am excited to see what comes next.
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
This series has been amazing! As someone who moved out of the DMV area recently, these videos help me feel like I’m at home again and give me new appreciation for where I grew up.
Thank you so much! So glad you enjoyed the series :)
As someone somewhat new to the area this series has been an amazing way to get to know this place better 😊
I just moved out too, and it’s nice to take a look at the Metro I once had
Next series? MARC stations, the one Baltimore subway line ?
NJTransit!
@@Ok-lu8gx thats mad far
And if he does the subway might as well do the light rail too
Don’t forget VRE!
THE COMPLETION IS HERE!!!
Now that I’ve seen the video, excellent work bro. I’ll never ever forget the phase II opening.
@@PiplupJames thanks so much! That was a great day :)
While I get their reasoning regarding Wolf Trap, it would've encouraged people to attend concerts there, and having a station just for leisure or nature isn't a bad thing either! The Metro-North Railroad for example has stations dedicated for hikers, Appalachian Trail on the Harlem Line, and Manitou and Breakneck Ridge on the Hudson Line! The Empire Builder serves Glacier National Park, Amtrak's Ski Train goes to the Winter Park ski resort from Denver Union Station seasonally, and the legendary Thurmond station in West Virginia serves the New River Gorge! Worth mentioning at both Dulles and Innovation Center, there is a bus connection for those who want to visit the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Center which has some pretty interesting stuff like an Air France Concorde, Space Shuttle Discovery, and the Enola Gay! The fact they destroyed that African-American majority village for Dulles reminds me of how Seneca Village was destroyed when Central Park in NYC was being constructed. But agreed, basing the design of Dulles station off of the neighboring iconic terminal was chef's kiss design! Besides Dulles, Eero Saarinen also designed JFK's iconic TWA Flight Center and St Louis's Gateway Arch! He was a pioneer in the concept of the mobile lounge! Dulles's mobile lounges each weigh 76 tons with a maximum cruising speed of 26 mph and can carry to and from the terminal building up to 90 people. Their purpose was to radically restructure the idea of airports. By the early 1960s, airports had transformed to ramifying systems of hallways. As planes grew larger, they needed more space as they lined up next to each other along the airport building. And as flying grew more popular, airports needed to have more and more gates. The result was that terminal buildings sprouted long protrusions called fingers. Hundreds of feet long, they accommodated jets very comfortably. The finger-style airport was a purgatory of walking because airports went from being able to walk straight from the entrance of a simple terminal onto your plane, now you were reduced to wandering through a structure built for giants. So when Dulles opened in 1962, it did not have fingers. Instead, after passengers checked in on one side of the terminal building, they crossed to a row of doors that opened onto a fleet of mobile lounges. While the aircraft, some one or two miles off on the tarmac, were prepared, flyers relaxed in swank waiting areas, enjoying cocktails from nearby stands. Construction of the airport began in 1958, but Saarinen sadly did not live to see its completion in 1962 as he passed in 1961
Dulles's designers thought that by shuttling from the main terminal directly to a midfield jet ramp, they could save passengers from long walking distances amidst weather, noise, and fumes on the ramp. The advent of the jet bridge and construction of the two midfield concourse buildings at this airport negated the benefits of the system. As passenger numbers at Dulles grew, they realized it was impractical to use mobile lounges. Remote concourses were constructed, and the fleet of mobile lounges was used as a shuttle between the concourses and the main terminal. Thus the AeroTrain was eventually built in 2010, while mobile lounges have continued to be used to reach Concourse D before replacement Concourses C and D are built and the AeroTrain is expanded to become a continuous two-way loop. Besides Dulles, mobile lounges have been used at Montréal-Trudeau, Philadelphia International, Benito Juárez International Airport in Mexico City until 2007, JFK International, the infamous Mirabel International until passenger services ceased in 2004, Paris Charles de Gaulle, and King Abdulaziz International Airport in Saudi Arabia. Early in the space shuttle program, NASA used the Plane Mate system of mobile lounge to move astronauts directly from the orbiter to crew facilities. A modified vehicle obtained from BWI in Baltimore was used for shuttle landings at California's Edwards Air Force Base. A similar vehicle was used at the Kennedy Space Center to take astronauts directly from the orbiter to the Operations and Checkout building.
Love all of these great facts! And yes, a Wolf Trap station would've been great for concerts + nature.
The only problem with Metro-North's leisure stops is that they have severely limited service and both are treated as flag stops meaning the train will keep going if nobody wants to get off or standing on the platform.
When you think of all the money spent on art and poetry installations, it's really a shame that they didn't allocate some of that cash to put in a station at Wolf Trap, which by the way has a terrible parking situation and is slow and dangerous to drive out of at night. Using the excuse that the station couldn't spur development in the area misses the point. Public transportation's purpose is to get the public from one place to another quickly and safely, not to fill the pockets of real estate developers.
The shear amount of unused parking along the entire Metro system, but especially the Silver Line, makes my eyes water.
@@illhaveawtrplz :,( it’s true
Agreed, should have been zoned for 50 story skyscrapers.... depending on what Dulles airport says is max height for the surrounding areas.
@@pavelow235I think the zoning is there for the most part but the demand isn't. People aren't really excited to live 25 miles outside DC or if they do, they prefer the suburban lifestyle.
I don't mind Loudoun Gateway being a park-and-ride. Park-and-rides means less people driving to or in a city, and thus also means less traffic and pollution! They can be super convenient for rural/suburban areas outside of big cities. Aix-en-Provence station on the TGV in France for example is a huge park-and-ride, there's buses between the station and the city itself that has 15-min headways (the station is 15 km NE) and to Marseille Airport, and this helps rural folks have HSR access without having to drive into the city, thus it's less cars on city roads. But you can still attempt to create a town center! Ronkonkoma on the LIRR has a ton of parking as it has been the easternmost electrified LIRR station since 1987, and when it was electrified, people ditched the diesel branches in favor of driving to Ronkonkoma. Ronkonkoma also serves Long Island MacArthur Airport. To solve Ronkonkoma being so car-oriented, Suffolk County has recently opted to transform the station’s surroundings into an actual community with two different big TOD projects, Station Yards and Midway Crossing. Station Yards was built on the north side of the station next to an existing garage and is a 53-acre site with 1,450 residential units, retail, office space, and hospitality space. Midway Crossing on the other hand takes it a big step further, with a 15-year four-phase plan for the site south of the station that’s over 170 acres! This removes the station’s southern lot and a compost facility and transform it into a convention center, garages, hotel, a life sciences cluster, parks, 330K square feet of retail, and a dedicated pedestrian corridor connecting the station with the airport. With the airport relocating its terminal to the north side, making it a direct “train to plane” link. So not only would you be able to walk right to the airport from the station, but people will take the train to conventions! The site has a goal of achieving a net-zero carbon footprint by 2040.
Tysons was once known as Peach Grove! It was then called "Tysons Crossroads" after the Civil War. Tysons was named after William Tyson, originally from Cecil County in Maryland, who purchased a tract of land from A. Lawrence Foster. Tyson served as postmaster of the now discontinued Peach Grove Post Office from 1854 to 1866. Until the 1950s, Tysons was a quiet rural intersection flanked by a few small stores and a fruit stand operated by the Tyson descendants, who sold apples and apple cider from the corner of their property. In 1963, the Tysons area moved from a country crossroads to a giant commercial urban area with the awarding of contracts at the interchange of VA Route 7 and VA Route 123. The names Wiehle and Reston comes from Carl A. Wiehle and Robert E. Simon. Carl A. Wiehle and William Dunn bought 6,449 acres in northern Fairfax County along the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad line in 1886, later dividing the land between them, with Wiehle retaining the acreage north of the railroad line. Wiehle envisioned founding a town on the property, including a hotel, parks, and community center, but completed only a handful of homes before his death in 1901. Wiehle's heirs eventually sold the land, which changed hands several times before being purchased by the A. Smith Bowman family, who built a bourbon distillery on the site. By 1947, the Bowmans had acquired the former Dunn tract south of the railroad, for total holdings of over 7,000 acres. In 1961, Robert E. Simon used funds from his family's recent sale of Carnegie Hall to buy most of the land for his own community. Simon officially launched Reston on April 10, 1964 (his 50th birthday) and named the community using his initials, hence RESton. He laid out seven "guiding principles" that would stress quality of life and serve as the foundation for its future development. His goal was for residents to live, work, and play in their own community, with common grounds and scenic beauty shared equally regardless of income level, thereby building a stronger sense of community ties
This series has been a pleasure. Growing up around DC I think a lot of us have experienced riding just your usual line 90% of the time and not knowing much about the rest of the system. Looking forward to what you have next.
Thank you so much!
I love the Silver Line but I wish the Dulles Airport station was built underground closer to the terminal as was originally planned
London got it right w their Heathrow stations
It would have been better without Phase 2 because buses could drop you off at the front door.
@@bapplesEven Heathrow's stations aren't quite perfect despite being underground as the Heathrow Central Station (for Terminals 2 & 3), especially the one for the Heathrow Express & Elizabeth Line, is a bit of a walk from Terminal 2 just like the Dulles Metro Station despite being underground from what I've seen in videos (although I prefer airports with railway stations that are a bit of a walk - at least within 5 minutes - over major airports that don't have rail links or major airports that have rail links that are more than 1 mile away, require an extra people mover to get to the train and which have long walks between the terminal & station that are exposed to the weather).
I think in the future, Dulles Airport could at least redesign their elevated station so that the platforms are completely enclosed/sheltered and have platform doors (much like Dubai), although the Metro would have to be completely automated for that to happen.
Dulles Airport is probably the only airport that I have ever seen with an architectural beauty similar to old train stations, that makes them worth a visit just to see the station. I had the pleasure of riding the metro out to see Dulles for the first time in September 2023.
I'm proud to have a limited edition silver line smart trip card from when the phase 1 opened! It's amazing to finally be able to take metro to Dulles, something I dreamed about for years ever since I was a kid.
Thanks so much for this series. Metro has a fond place in my heart as I grew up using it on elementary school field trips to DC. I sadly moved further away into Virginia and thus use it much less nowadays, but I've been inspired by videos like these to go back and explore parts of the system that I never got to use as a kid. Excited for whatever you do next!
It makes me really happy to hear you've been inspired to ride it more, definitely one of goals of the series :) and that's awesome you've got a Phase I card!
7:12 One minor thing you missed (though it's not part of the station proper) is the giant video art display above the breezeway between the two buildings at the north entrance of Wiehle-Reston East. This continually rotates a display of various things (including an aquatic scene with fish/sharks as seen here) and really sets a unique tone for entering the station from this side.
Great video and great series! Thanks Andy!
@@bas3q oh that’s really cool! It’s a great welcome for people arriving at the plaza/TOD
All six lines are complete now, it was fantastic seeing this even as someone who lives nowhere close to DC at all. Though I am wondering if you are gonna do Bonus Secrets one of these days for the DC Metro?
Yes, absolutely!
I love this series, when I lived there and traveled I never really got to take in all of the art and history that surrounds the stations, thank you for revealing
all there is to take in!!!
Thank you so much!
I don’t usually comment on any videos I watch but, this series is amazing! Living in the DMV my whole life and seeing the growth of the best metro system in the country makes me very proud to be from the DMV! Thank you!
Thank you for watching!
I've been waiting for this one ever since the Secrets of the Red Line video! Great way to start my Tuesday.
Oh wow!
WE ARE SO BACK!!!
I've actually been anticipating this for months!!
Haha glad to finally deliver!
The mesh instead of glass for the bridges is good. The bird strikes against the bridge at Franconia Springfield can get pretty depressing in the right light 😜
Andy, thank you for your dedication in creating the most superb series on the Metro out there. The ending compilation scene was so bittersweet! Looking to seeing what content will lie next for the channel.
Thank you so much for your kind words! Stay tuned!
A few other secrets of the Silver line. The columns that carry Silver line flyover bridges over the Orange line tracks and the westbound lanes of VA I-66 are sitting on foundations and pilings that were built at the same time VA i-66 was being built back in late 1970s into the 1980s.
When WMATA built the Orange line during the early 1980 they also included provisions for the future Silver line junction. The plan back then had the junction under the Haycock Road overpass east of the West Falls Station. When plans to build the Silver line came to fruition, the junction was mover east under the Great Fall Street overpass. Evidence of the junction provision location still exist today. The gaps in the third rail under the Haycock Road overpass is where the point of the Junction turnouts would have been.
The Silver line Junction turnouts and adjacent double crossover are in a train control segment of their own carved out of ends of the East Falls Church and West Falls Church train control segments.
The third track between the main line tracks north of the junction of the Dulles Connector Road VA-267 and VA I-66 is a lead track to Falls Church Yard.
The Sliver line has feature that is exists exclusively on the Silver line. Unlike the rest of the 106 mile system where electrical power runs from nearest utility substation over double redundant power line to the passenger station and traction power substation. The Silver line has a double redundant power line bus that runs parallel to the Sliver line from Falls Church Yard to Ashburn. All of the power loads on the Silver are connect to this bus. The bus connect to utility grid at Falls Church, Tysons Corner, Reston, Herndon, Dulles Airport and Ashburn. The 5 connections of the bus to utility grid eliminated the need for 25 additional connection to the utility grid.
The elevated structure that branches away from the mainline south of the Loudon Gateway station are the yard lead to Dulles Yard. The Yard leads are roughly a mile long, making them the longest lead between a yard and the main line in the system.
Thank you, these are great bonus secrets!!!
Bittersweet to see it finish but this was an awesome series!
Thank you so much! :) and don’t worry, there’ll be more “secrets” videos in the future!
Huge Congrats on finishing this series! It was such a joy to learn about the metro that I grew up riding since I was a teenager.
My thought with ditching the glass enclosed walkway over 66 is that it is due to the walkway acting like a greenhouse and getting super hot. I'm not sure if it would, given proper insulated windows and roofing, but I know that not all parts of the Metro system are well ventilated or cooled down, and it get can get very hot at times.
I agree about the greenhouse over 66 at WFC, that and those windows are really nasty dirty. I'll take the breeze and noise over that.
Yay the silver line video is finally here!
Really awesome series! I learned a lot, especially about all of the cool artwork that’s out there.
Those ridiculously long walkways to most of the silver line stations not even protecting from noise or elements feels like such a missed opportunity.
Fantastic series! I was reading and following along on my phase 2 flag from opening day. I hope to see you again with more local transit history!
Thank you--and yes, we have plenty of stuff in the works! :)
I haven’t watched it yet but i know its gonna be a banger!
Haha thanks Sammy!!!
Hi
I legit think you oneupped Geoff with this series.
Magnificent work.
Wiehle-Reston East is one of my favorite stations. It proves you can implement transit best practices and ToD while still having car infrastructure present. Its a gateway between two worlds.
It's the only good station on the line. The rest are garbage. The way it was implemented, the Silver Line was a wasted 8 billion dollars.
@@jyutzler I think it was overall a good, but not perfect project. Tysons needed stations (4 was likely overkill, but it's alright). Commuter/Regional rail past Tysons would have made more sense, maybe on the old dominion rail right of way around there. The Dulles connection either way is incredibly useful regardless. Given some land use improvements and increases in track speed (possibly epxress trains? That might be asking too much), the growth in Loudoun and Fairfax can make the project worth it.
@@DanHominem The Dulles connection stinks (too slow, too far from the terminal), we were better off with buses and easily could have run more of them. The Tysons investment has been completely squandered. It is too late for express trains. At current rates, Loudoun and Fairfax are at least 50 years away from developing enough around their stations to make their stations worth it. Look at Huntington. It is 40 years old and still barely developed. These infrastructure builds are only useful if the localities are on board and they aren't.
I want to thank you for this video and this series! I lived in DC for 8 years and moved away to attend grad school. I (hopefully) will be returning this summer. Your videos bring a warm sense of home when I'm feeling down about missing DC. Please keep creating DC content. Thank you!
Thank you so much for the kind comment! Hope you find your way back to dc, and yes, there’ll be more content soon! :)
Absolutely love that you took the time to make this whole series! This has been an absolutely lovely series to keep tabs on Andy. Thank you for sharing all of this information with us. Very much looking forward to what you have in store to share next!🎉
Thank you so much! :)
As a user of the Silver Line, i absolutely love this video. Ashburn’s “empty plots” are currently being redeveloped as we speak. Thank you so much for making this series! I hope you continue with other transit systems 😉
Thank you--and that's the plan! :)
Great video. We will be watching the whole series!
Awesome, glad you enjoyed it! :)
Wow! I've been waiting for this video! Thank you so much Andy! This is interesting!
Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed it. :)
This was a very good series. Thanks for all the hard work.
Thank you!
Fantastic series! I definitely learned so much about DC’s Metrorail history, from hidden tracks to Columbia Pike, Space Dogs, “Fake” Fire-stations, the beautiful art installations and so much more.
Thank you for creating this amazing series.
@@TheGAMWolferz thank you so much for watching!
This has been a great series, I enjoyed watching
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
This is such a cool video! I personally love trains and going on the DMV metro. There's always a site to see, and you really get the feeling that the DMV is a huge interconnected civilization just waiting to be explored :)
I can't wait to go back to DC. Your whole series has been so informative, and I'm excited to visit again in the future with an informed eye
Thank you so much! Also as a former Philadelphian I really enjoy your videos!
@@andyontrack that's a high honor! Thank you!
Awesome video! I’ve checked your channel more times than I like to admit for your Silver Line video. East Falls Church is my stop and I love that you started there!
Glad I could finally deliver! Thanks for watching!
@@andyontrackI really wish they built the Wolf Trap metro stop in lieu of the least used Loundon Gateway. We hike with our dogs at Wolf Trap all the time, and it would be wonderful if there was a metro stop there so more people could enjoy nature and get to a large music venue just from jumping on the metro! I wonder if there were concerns about homeless camping out there or something like that.
Yes! My wife used to work at Greensboro and Super Chicken was the highlight of any visit to her office. BTW, though as the crow flies she worked very close to Greensboro, walking to her office from the Silver Line was an arduous 18 minute long journey due to poor pedestrian access.
until the next time, we'll be eagerly awaiting whatever you have planned next.
this truly was a great series and deserves infinitely more views than you've received. Fantastic information and GREAT production TBH. Thanks for your time and effort!
Thank you for your kind words! :)
What an incredible series!!! Thank you, Andy; we as a region needed this!!!
Thank you for your kind words--and for giving the very first comment on Secrets of the Red Line--what a journey! :)
@@andyontrack Dawwwww!!!!!❤️
Really enjoyed the series and can't wait for the next one!
Thanks so much!
Well done! Such a great series. I'm glad you finished it. Public transporation is so important to our society. It's nice to stop and smell the metro from time to time. 💚
Thank you so much!
LOL, not kidding this is the second time that I revisited your videos this year where the next day there was a new one. I’m serious, yesterday I was thinking of leaving a comment on the Yellow Line vid asking when your next one was coming out. Thank you again so much for this wonderful content and I hope to see much more from you in the months and years to come.
What? That's crazy lol, and thank you for watching (somewhat prophetically, I might add)!
Fantastic series! Really enjoyed! Now it's time for an "End of the Line" series as well.
I’ve only taken phase 1 of the silver line. I flew into Dulles, took the temporary silver line express bus to While-Reston East, and continued on my way. But the segment that I did see was really fun, although with recency bias! Even the newest line has some really cool secrets, like a cancelled station! I also noticed on my ride that there was a really long time before Spring Hill station. I was more forgiving of how long it took to build when I realized just how long the line is! The silver line I think has the most mileage of any line! It’s crazy how Ashburn is on the same line as Smithsonian, despite having a completely different environment! Loudoun Gateway is kind of a joke, but I think the intention was to allow people that live west of the airport to get to the metro without needing to take the highway. Hopefully as time goes on, more people try the metro rather than navigate crazy DC traffic!
The thing that’s a bummer about the silver line in Tyson’s is that the rest of the city is so car-dependent that many of the stops only make sense if you’re going to the mall or to your job in one of the fancy office buildings along the line. Even businesses that are only a block or two off the metro line feel completely inaccessible because you need to cross several six-lane roads to get to them
come to atlanta! the MARTA is not as expansive as the DC Metro but would still be interesting to hear your perspective!
These are my favorite stations:
Wheaton = the super long escalators.
Dulles = Tunnel and Terminal, and you get up close to the Appalachias.
Huntington = Inclined Elevator.
Gallery Pi Chinatown = Bustling Downtown Neighborhood with sports arena, and the Chinese archway.
Alexandria Yards (or whatever that new yellow line station is called) = super long sky bridges.
And Friendship Heights = the Star Trek Teleporter lobby.
2 days late, but here’s a fun fact about some MARC Penn Line stations: Odenton Station was originally built around half a mile north or so of it’s current location, the Pennsy railroad relocated it to provide a better park and ride location, as cars were becoming increasingly popular. Seabrook, on the other hand, is a very new station, one that replaced the Pennsy’s Capital Beltway station, which was inherited by Amtrak, but only MARC operates trains here, same as the midpoint between Seabrook and Odenton, Bowie State, located on the BSU campus, the OG station was actually west of it’s current spot, in the town of Bowie, but was relocated to accommodate the new alignment entering Union Station, as was Cheverly, from the Pennsy’s time, Cheverly lies on a freight line that bypasses DC and originally linked to a terminal on the Nat’l Mall.
Thank you so much man this is such a cool series, if there is any more metro content or even bus content WE LOVE U IN THE DMV
@@yarsamimi7928 thank you so much!!!!! :)
The Silver Line opened on my birthday and I still have one of the grand opening pennant flags that they were giving out that day at the Wiehle station! Naturally, the plan is to take a trip to Ashburn to celebrate the tenth year and phase 2 sometime soon!
Amazing video, amazing series, amazing channel. So glad we have channels like you in DC!
Thank you so much!
this is very cool! i've never been to DC and doubt i will go any time soon, but i loved to take a look. i especially like how you highlighted the public art installations
Thanks so much! And if you ever get the chance to go, take it! It’s a great city
Thank you Andy!!!
A great conclusion to a great series!
Really enjoyed every video of the series! Thank you from an Orange Liner
Thank you!
Babe, wake up! New Secrets of the Metro just dropped!!!
The whole series of this segment was Metro-TASTIC! ❤️🧡💙💚💛🩶
Wow, what an amazing series! I can’t believe it’s done.
Same here! Feels a bit surreal tbh
Thanks Andy this was awesome 😎
You’re welcome! Glad you enjoyed it :)
Glad you brought up the mesh on the overpases, bane of my existance and I think putting up glass would notably increase ridreship
Amazing series. I’ve loved every video so far!
Thank you!
Still can't believe I saw u on the metro lol
Keep it up Andy, these are so informative.
@@mannymelo949 it was my pleasure! Thanks so much :)
Ah! Can't wait to watch this after work!
Let's move Loudoun Gateway to Wolf Trap! What a shame. Great video series! I learned a lot from you.
Fantastic series, loved every episode
Thank you!
You should do a series riding to all of the Metro Stations.
That would be a lot of fun! Are you thinking like a little video per station, or more of a speedrun kind of thing?
Love this series!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great work on this series!
Thanks for watching!
Now we just have to wait 3* years for secrets of the purple line.
WOW U WERE IN A MILES IN TRANSIT VIDEO?? SO COOL!!
YAAASSS NEW SECRETS OF METRO!!!!
WOOHOO!!! ❤️🧡💙💚💛🩶
This is so awesome i've only ever really rode on the red line in my 20 years of living here so I don't get to see other lines as usual
Glad you enjoyed it! :)
I loved the video. Next time, I will stop to check out the artwork.
Thank you! And yes, great artwork--and plenty soon to come!
Andy, have you been to the Metro bar in DC next to the Alamo Drafthouse? The Museum of Illusion also has an upside car which is kind of fun!
Yes! Love metrobar--especially now that you can actually drink in the car itself! As for the Museum of Illusion I really want to go just for that upside-down car haha
@@andyontrack Awesome! Maybe if you do an update or variety video you could feature some of these neat DC metro based locations. The MLK library featured the Metro pop-up store last winter, I hope they bring it back!
Love that Splash gear!
Haha thanks David! ;) great fleece, great program.
Fantastic job as always!! Very befitting of the rest of the series! Well done and I'll be looking forward to future work from y'all!
Thank you so much! :)
I’m a simple man. I see a new Andy on Track video, I click.
Great video!
Thanks!
The line might make you cross many lanes to reach the train, but the connection to Tyson's Corner really gives a nice park area. Unfortunately, my mom has actually been slightly further than I have on the Silver Line (she had an acting job in Reston in 2017-2018 and took Amtrak from 30th St to DC Union, then Red to Silver and Uber within Reston). She got tired of driving or taking the train before I got to go down
Love this channel!!!
The wait is finally over! Are there other topics you might cover?
Babe wake up new Andy on track video just dropped
banger vid as always!!!
Thank you!
awesome video! keep it up!
Thank you!
I love you Andy thank you
Man WMATA does NOT skimp on their station designs, these look superb. I think the only real criticisms that can be made are that it's unfortunate that the line is largely highway-median (although it really does look like they did their best to mitigate the worst of the unpleasant noise with the station design) and that all of the stations seem to have COLOSSAL parking garages. The art is so good though, I love that WMATA puts such a focus on including artwork into the designs of their stations. I do wonder what compelled WMATA to use mesh over the highway though, I wonder if they avoided using glass because it would be too challenging to maintain
Yeah! The Silver Line is interesting because it was really built for the Pre-Covid World, but I think Metro will turn this line around, they have already added TOD near some of the stations and future TOD is being developed and planned for others.
I love this series 🦺🔥🔥🔥
Thank you! :)
I love these videos
Thanks so much! :)
Love this
The production quality of this is epic! I live in the NOMA neighborhood and just found your channel in my recommended. Just earned a new sub
Thank you so much! :)
I miss Super Chicken when I worked out there. I agree with you it is one of the best Peruvian chicken places.
I'd love to see you cover the purple line when it (hopefully) opens in 2027. I went to middle school by Wayne & Dale so I'd love to see you cover it. I love this series it was so calming and am excited to see what comes next.
Yes, definitely want to cover the Purple Line! "Hopefully" is the right word here haha
Yayyy the series is done 🎉
@@SomeRamdomAhole it feels a little surreal!
What a wonderful video to eat my lunch to!
Oh ive been WAITING for this
Cheverly station users rise up! No longer the least used metro stop 😤
Haha true--Cheverly dethroned!
1:27 the Jeremey from Miles in Transit cameo
It's here!
cool series
Thanks!
He's back
Wake up babe, new Andy on track secrets of the metro just dropped