AeroTrain delayed again, to at least November (unofficially)
 

While waiting in the security line at IAD on Friday, I overheard a security guard talking to some other passengers in the line. He mentioned the AeroTrain and its requirement of 30 day trouble-free operation for formal acceptance and operation, which I had heard before in this forum. He then added that "yesterday, they had another problem, there was some water spilled that might not have been the train, but they had to stop the system to investigate so that counts and resets the cycle." He also added that they've never gotten beyond day 17 without a problem.

Assuming his information was correct, the day with the fault was October 1st, the cycle started on October 2nd, and so the system will be done with testing no earlier than November 1st.

At this rate, who knows if it will open in 2009?

Wirelessly posted (goingaway's phone: BlackBerry8900/4.6.1.231 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

Lol - move along, no surprise here

Kinda Like EWR
 

Reminds me of the EWR never ending saga

(still encountering unexplained events)

I was through IAD yesterday and it looked like they weren't even close to being ready.

Forgetting about the "30 day test run", I'm seeing a lot of ladders and construction materials. Maybe a lot of that stuff is out because now they have 30 days more.. but it seems that even if it passed the 30 day test, they still wouldn't be ready.

*Edit: Thought I'd ask this here......

When I was at IAD, I was in B concourse at 10:30pm. Do you think it would be quicker to get on the mobile lounge, wait for people to get on, drop the mobile lounge down, drive to the main terminal, rise the lounge up... OR.. walk the other way and use the underground walkway? I normally get dropped off around B73.. so the lounge door is close, but in my mind I feel the walkway is quicker. Thoughts?

I seldom expect public works projects to be anywhere near on schedule. Just MHO.
That said, I saw some huge projects in Hong Kong got done sometimes even ahead of schedule & below budget.

As far as the lounge vs walkway, I always use the lounge, therefore offer no opinion about a comparison.

From B73 it is at least 15 minutes walking (back through the B Concourse to the Underground Walkway, and then through the walkway) to get to the Main Terminal.

From B73 it is perhaps 2 minutes walk to the Mobile Lounge at the west end of the B Concourse. The drive takes no more than 4-5 minutes, including the "up-and-down" part. So unless the lounge isn't going to leave for more than 10 minutes, the lounge is almost always going to be faster. At 10:30pm the lounges still should be operating no more than 8 minutes apart, I believe.

Thanks for the insight. I have a handful more times I'll be at IAD during this time window, so next time I will time it using my phone. The transit and up/down part is, for the most part, quick.. it's the wait that kills it. It feels like a long time because the driver likes to wait for a good portion of the flight to get on board. I'm not aware of anyone else landing when we do, so I think most of the people on board are from my flight.

As far as you're aware, is the underground walkway even an option? TSA doesn't close this and force people to use the mobile lounge? I know there is a person at a desk down there (at least during 'core' operating hours).

I am not aware of the TSA (or IAD staff) closing the moving walkway to A/B at any point during the day, though the latest I've used it is around 11pm.

The walkway from B to Main is open 7/24.

Looks like it's questionable whether AeroTrain will even open this year:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...102202492.html

The articles references "A December start date," but it's not clear if they just mean a 'before 2010' start date. "Testing delays" is also pretty vague.

I looked for it the other day and didn't see anything moving, pretty sure I waited long enough that at least one if not both sides should have had an arrival.

Absolutely no surprise here from my perspective. IAD construction is as poor as always, it's just usually the passenger who needs to deal with the resulting issues (broken escalators, moving walkways, dripping cielings, etc). With the train, they have to fix it before we are allowed on - I like it!

No movement yesterday as far as I could tell.

The new security system is very pretty but takes twice as long to get through. Yay.

BEHOLD... fellow FlyerTalkers.. I have conducted part one of the experiment; Walkway v. Mobile Lounge.

I decided to try walking from Gate B73 to the underground walkway and back up to where the mobile lounges drop people off. From the B73 gate area to the drop off area in the main terminal; 7 minutes and 15 seconds.. and that was walking a little fast.

Conclusion: Do not try this at home. My feet hurt.

Are you missing an emoticon at the end ? :confused:

Congratulations on evangelizing. There are statements that are so
hard with irony that an emoticon isn't needed.