Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Silver Line Officially Receives FFGA

After years of work, Northern Virginia will be getting a new Metro Line. The Silver Line officially received a Full Funding Grant Agreement worth $900 million this morning, when Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood signed it.

Construction on the project has already begun, but this agreement means that the project will be able to move forward. Phase I is expected to open in 2013 and will add 5 stations in the Tysons Corner and Reston Areas. The line should eventually be extended to Dulles Airport, but that is part of Phase II, which will still need to go through the FTA funding process.

Phase I of the Silver Line will run from Wiehle Avenue in Reston to Tysons Corner in the median of the Dulles Access Road. In Tysons Corner, it will travel along Routes 7 and 123, with four stops in Virginia's largest job center. It will return to the Dulles Access Road median and continue to I-66. It will join the Orange Line between East Falls Church and West Falls Church and will run with the Orange (and later the Blue) Line from East Falls Church to Stadium-Armory station in the District of Columbia.

For a look back on the ups and downs of the Silver Line see some of my previous posts:

2 comments:

Erik said...

I wonder how the new Orange/Blue/Silver tracks will be? I can't imagine three lines on the same two tracks. But maybe it will work if they cut down some Blue/Orange frequency to add Silver.

Matt' said...

I didn't include this link in the original post, but to understand the Blue/Orange/Silver Lines' operations after Silver opens, see: http://tracktwentynine.blogspot.com/2008/11/understanding-blue-line-reroute.html