Originally Posted by
IAD22066
IAD will be fifteen stops away from Washington DC when the rest of the Silver line is completed. I don't know how long that trip will take but I can't imagine anyone in DC taking that trip unless they are doing international travel and can't get a ride. A cab costs about $60.
If you're heading from DC to the West Coast, you can fly from DCA, switch airplanes at DEN, then travel the rest of the way. I wonder if persons inside the beltway would consider a layover in DEN better than a trip out to and then through Dulles.
If John McCain can get more DCA slots for US Airways, it seems Nancy Pelosi could get more DCA slots for united.
I get all that - I had to do DC -> SFO for meetings last year, and ended up renting a car from PHL and driving it down to DC (dropping it at IAD) and flying on to SFO. The car rental made more sense after factoring the cost of an Amtrak ticket + the expense of getting from 18th & K to IAD in the early afternoon rush (from what my research told me, about $60 from where I was). So I realize that Dulles isn't close to the city by any stretch of the imagination.
But completion (or hell, even the concept) of the Silver Line presents a convenient excuse for UA to say "We don't have to expand at DCA - the Metro will bring the pax to us at IAD". (Remember, these are the same people who think inconsistent IFE, a totally FUBARed boarding process and watered-down elite recognition are 'changes we'll like'. I don't hold their opinions in very high regard.)