News and notes from Reston (tm).

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Shocker: Silver Line Delayed Again, Sun Continues to Rise in the East

Kicking off with the predictably Soviet title "Airports Authority Announces Update on Silver Line Phase 1 Progress," we learn from a fancy news release that the word "update" really means "bad news" and the word "progress" really means "delay."

The airports authority didn't attempt to predict when the Silver Line would open after several additional weeks of testing that have been tacked onto the projected end of work last month, but our BFFs at the Washington Post pulled out a calendar and did some basic math:

The airports authority, which oversees construction of the new commuter line, says it needs several more weeks to complete work. Its most recent estimate had been that it would finish up at the end of November.

Because the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which operates Metrorail, estimates it will need 90 days to conduct its own tests, passengers are unlikely to ride the line until the end of March.

This is the second announced delay; the initial estimate had been that passengers would be riding the Silver Line by the end of 2013.
Hey, who's counting? Besides these guys, we mean.

Apparently the reason for the delay this time is additional testing on the "automated train-control software." At great personal risk, we've obtained EXCLUSIVE hidden camera footage of the testing:



Add a few more nondescript high-rises and a Wal-Mart to that set, and they'll have perfectly captured the unparalleled Parisian beauty of Tysons, the end.

4 comments:

  1. That's not surprising. As I was heading down the Access highway towards the airport at about 5:30 this evening, there was some funky looking train car creating a shower of sparks at the rails. It looked like it might have been grinding something.

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    1. The mills of bureaucracy grind exceeding slow, and they grind exceeding coarse. But occasionally they do grind.

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  2. How does that saying go? If you build it, the trains won't come?

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  3. Rose By Any Other NameDecember 5, 2013 at 11:06 AM

    Speaking of Parisian Beauty, have you tried to manuver around Tysons Corner shopping center this past week, with all the early Xmas shoppers? Not exactly the Paris in the springtime, is it? (Omigod, she said "X"mas as in X-men! Must be part of the War on Christmas! yuk yuk). Unfortuinately, the Silver Line will do nothing--as in NOTHING--to significantly improve the traffic situation there, especially given all the new construction planned for the area.

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