The DCRTP or Dulles Corridor Rapid Transit Project aims to extend the Washington Metro from the West Falls Church-VT/UVA Orange Line station to route 772 in Loudoun County, Virginia. The primary goal is to link Washington D.C. proper by rail to Dulles International Airport and the growing suburbs of Tysons Corner, Reston and Herndon. Completed in two phases, the extension would be 23 miles long, with the first phase costing around $1.5 billion. As proposed, the Orange line splits before West Falls Church, leaving 3 stations on the old branch and 12 stations on the new branch. The extension would hug the Dulles Toll Road, running above-ground at-grade, but because of the Toll Road, the train would have exclusive right-of-way. The only significant diversions from the Toll Road are the Tysons stops and the airport stop, where the Metro will alternate between subway and elevated track to maintain the exclusive right-of-way.

History

Locals had idly talked of a Metro extension to Dulles ever since the Washington Metro began service in 1976, but little came of it until recently. The Dulles Corridor Rapid Transit Project "scoping" process began in April 2000 with a series of meetings with local and federal officials, designed to collect the necessary authorities for the project. Local and federal law required extensive analysis of alternatives -- the two most likely being bus lanes or inaction -- and of the environmental impact. The rail-only line won out. Initial environmental hearings, which closed on August 28, 2002, were positive. The project received formal approval on June 10, 2004 and construction is set to begin in 2005, pending the release of the final environmental impact statement and the Preliminary Engineering orders. The first phase will end at Reston in 2009. Phase 2 will end in 2015.

Proposed Planned Stations

Station names are not final, and their locations may change slightly during construction.

• Tysons East (elevated)
• Tysons Central 123 (elevated)
• Tysons Central 7 (subway)
• Tysons West (elevated)
• Wolf Trap (to be filled in at a later date)
• Wiehle Avenue (goal by 2009)
• Reston Parkway
• Herndon-Monroe
• Route 28
• Dulles Airport (subway)
• Route 606
• Route 772 (final stop, goal by 2015)

External links

• Homepage of the DCRTP
• Washington Metro info on the project, and expansion in general
• Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation info on the project