McLean station (preliminary names #Tysons East, Tysons–McLean) is a #WashingtonMetro station in #FairfaxCounty, #Virginia, on the #SilverLine. The station is located in Tysons, with a McLean postal address. It began operation on July 26, 2014.
#SilverLine
Ten years ago today, the car-clogged, concrete sprawl of Tysons Corner became less distant from my walkable, leafy corner of Arlington when Metro finally opened the first phase of its Silver Line extension.
July 26, 2014 was a day long awaited. It had taken years of political maneuvering to get this project past obstruction and outright opposition from windshield-perspective politicians in Washington, Richmond and even Northern Virginia, followed by years of seeing the mostly-elevated segment inch through Tysons and beyond as construction delays pushed its planned opening from 2013 into 2014.
After all of that, boarding the first revenue-service westbound train on that Saturday–still one of the nerdier things I’ve done, which I realize is saying a lot–and then enjoying the view gliding above traffic felt like an epic win.
Knowing that I could take the train to the occasional work or social event in Tysons instead of taking my chances with traffic on I-66 and routes 7 or 123 represented an immediate upgrade to my NoVa logistics.
It took me a little longer to realize how having Metro get within seven miles of Dulles Airport would ease getting to and from IAD. And then I had to wait another eight years, vastly more than I would have imagined before the pandemic and even on our way out of it, to see the Silver Line reach Dulles itself.
I enjoyed that one-seat transit ride to Dulles yet again Thursday morning, which also gave me time to contemplate how that view from above Tysons has changed and how it hasn’t. While the McLean stop has undergone a remarkable level of urbanization that now features the tallest building in Northern Virginia, the Tysons station has seen less of a transformation–and the view to the south of Greensboro and Spring Hill has barely budged in that decade.
Meanwhile, walking outside the immediate vicinity of those stops can be as miserable as ever.
The scenery looked considerably better near the Wiehle-Reston East and Reston Town Center stations, where transit-oriented development has taken off without having so much of each neighborhood already chopped up by six- or eight-line roads.
My perspective on the Silver Line has also changed after seeing so many other transit megaprojects in the U.S. fly off their budgetary rails–for example, the Purple Line in Maryland, which has reached the tracks-on-the-ground stage of construction after billions of dollars in overruns and remains at least three years from opening. After all the angst over financing Metro’s farthest-reaching extension into the suburbs, we got this done at a per-mile cost cheaper than almost every other new transit project in the U.S. and even some overseas.
We should take a little pride in this public work… especially when talking to New Yorkers whose far more extensive subway system still doesn’t touch any of their airports.
https://robpegoraro.com/2024/07/26/happy-10th-birthday-silver-line/
#DullesMetro #IAD #Metro #MetroToDulles #SilverLine #transitOrientedDevelopment #TysonsCornerEl #WMATA
Massholes, Rhodey riffraff keeping cops, tow drivers busy on Temple Place downtown
https://www.universalhub.com/2024/massholes-rhodey-riffraff-keeping-cops-tow-drivers
Link: DART beginnt mit dem Testen der Silver Line-Züge, die auf den lokalen Strecken erstmals in Betrieb genommen werden. Die Testläufe finden sonntags statt und werden in Segmente aufgeteilt, um sicherzustellen, dass die Züge und Systeme ordnungsgemäß funktionieren. Die Silver Line-Züge werden voraussichtlich zwischen Ende 2025 und Anfang 2026 in den kommerziellen Betrieb gehen. #DART #SilverLine #Testläufe #aigenerated #mobility http://dlvr.it/T6YQfL
Great video on birth of the Silver Line, struggles and all #wmata #silverline https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdByhKpEKfU
@corgidad the word 'just' does a lot of work in that sentence... Recommend slogging through the 2 hour (they ramble and banter, and the first 5 minutes you can skip) amusing podcast from #WellTheresYourProblem on The Silver Line if you want to get really spicy, and dig into why we have the #SilverLine that we do. https://youtu.be/1pUQnb9BgCk?t=207
Getting my first silver line experience..... Ashburn Station isn't exactly a hopping place lol.
#RosslynStation on the #DCMetro #BlueLine #SilverLine & #OrangeLine in #ArlingtonVA
3rd longest single run escalator in the western hemisphere.
3rd longest single run escalator in the western hemisphere.
We had the shortest route. Compared to last year there is literally no change in increased protection 😑
Normally I don't mind biking on Washington where one lane is bike/bus, but normally I'm not biking in morning rush hour & with a group
This #MBTA #SilverLine driver deliberately split our pack & cut us off at Newton St rather than wait the seconds it would have taken us to clear. Didn't love that! This is not a comfortable ages #8to80 bike facility. Plus always blocked by double parkers
@anuckols I started in Arlington, biked to the East Falls Church station, biked directly to every Silver Line Extension station, then my bike on the Metro to get back. Here’s the route I used (it’s rotated to fit; north is to the right) #BikeTooter #SilverLine #WMATA
6/6 Final Silver Line stations
-I found bike-friendly access to Dulles Airport Station (after surviving Old Ox Rd's 45 mph traffic gauntlet): cut thru Garage 1, use elevators
-Loudoun Gateway Station: parking garage, station, nothing more
-Ashburn station means I made it!
#WMATA #SilverLine #BikeTooter #BikeTransit #bikeVA
5/6 My Silver Line bike adventure headed into Phase 2 stations
-Herndon Station, upgraded from a bus park & ride
-seems so recent that there was barely anything here
-Innovation Center, surrounded by new housing & offices
-this is a paved sidepath, well, under all of the debris
#WMATA #SilverLine #BikeTooter #BikeTransit #bikeVA
4/6 Moving on to Silver Line Phase 2 stations (opened in 2022)
-strange multi-sided tv displays outside Wiehle-Reston East
-stopping to have a Brunch Burger at Big Buns
-Reston Town Center surprisingly does not connect well to nearby major trail @WODTrail
#WMATA #SilverLine #BikeTooter #BikeTransit #bikeVA
3/6 More Silver Line adventure pics
-The scale of this mural at the Boro by (Instagram: jessieandkatey) is what gets me
-Spring Hill station, contained within Route 7 (Leesburg Pike)
-gorgeous day on @WODTrail
-end of Phase 1 stations (opened in 2014), Wiehle-Reston East
#WMATA #SilverLine #BikeTooter #BikeTransit #bikeVA
2/6 My Silver Line adventure took me into Tysons
-Tysons station: in the middle of shiny skyscrapers popping up everywhere
-Greensboro station has some nice murals nearby, but it is sandwiched between like 1,000 lanes (slight hyperbole) of noisy & speeding traffic (truth)
#WMATA #SilverLine #BikeTooter #BikeTransit #bikeVA
1/6 Time for a bike + transit adventure in Virginia thread! I biked to every station on @WMATA's Silver Line Extension now that all of them are open #bikeVA
-started at East Falls Church (where Orange/Silver split)
-seen along @WODTrail
-1st of the Phase 1 stations: McLean
#WMATA #SilverLine #BikeTooter #BikeTransit
Ship 1124, my ride to Logan Airport tonight.
According to Wikipedia, there are only 11 of these unique #Neoplan dual mode #buses remaining in the #mbta fleet. Built in 2004-5, they use trolley poles in the #SilverLine tunnel, then switch to diesel power when outside.
Battery-diesel hybrids have been replacing them.
2/2 Dulles Airport station on the Silver Line was easy to access, happy I can now use it when I visit
-waiting for the train
-architecture info
-my chariot awaits
-nice interior
After transferring to a bus & then walking, it was cool to see kids bike/walk/rolling to the local school in my childhood neighborhood
#WMATA #ArlingtonVA #SilverLine
Quite the ratio
Client Info
Server: https://mastodon.social
Version: 2025.04
Repository: https://github.com/cyevgeniy/lmst