"New" IAD security--designed to fail
 

Last two Sunday nights in a row I had a late night departure out of IAD. Both times, same scam. Very few pax around, natch, but take the escalator down to security and it's a madhouse, with loooooooong lines in front of ID checker podium.

Why? Same story both times. Only 4 security lines open, so ID checkers check a few people, then get the signal to "stop the line," as the back-up at each of four (4) open security lines gets too long. Some of the idle TSA's hanging around the ID checker podium actually depart (!) to help out the security lines. No one's ID is checked for quite a while, as line grows longer and longer.....

The "new" (now 7 months old) security set-up is too small (not enough space for lines to form at security lanes) to accomodate small Sunday night crowds due to lame TSA staffing. MWAA and TSA team up to FAIL.

Two Sundays ago, elapsed time from hitting bottom of escalator to passing through security: 43 minutes.

Last Sunday: 28 minutes.

Even though I arrived at the airport more than an hour before departure, I had to hustle to make each flight (thanks to f'd up Aerotrain, with the long walks from security to train to gates from the train--and no train at all to D gates).

MWAA sucks.

Also, BTW, unrelated (except that again, MWAA sucks)--on return trip, I arrived after 10:30 pm Thursday night. Took 45 minutes from plane wheels hitting tarmac to reaching car in parking lot. Why? After long walk to Aerotrain depot, found empty and "out of service" Aerotrain. Eventually, a staffer came down and sent empty train on its way. Then a second Aerotrain arrived. Also out of service. By now, platform was getting veeeeery overcrowded. Finally, third train arrived, filled with pax.....and waited, and waited, and waited, and finally departed.

Other pax tell me late night arrival hijinks with endless waits for operating Aerotrains is SOP at IAD.

MWAA (and TSA staffing officers)--baaaah! Humbug! New security lines, new Aerotrain, same old miserable IAD, worst airport in America.

Only thing I would change from what you've posted is that it's a good thing, IMO, that D gates still uses the people movers. I got out of there about 20 minutes quicker than when I used the train from C - both based on late night arrivals.

And that other pax was spot-on with the late night arrival issues and the Aerotrain ... it's a total cluster and the people mover, even on an intl arrival, was never as jam packed as the train was and we still left people on the platform :td:

I agree with you about the people movers to D. And I am surprised to say that, as nobody groused more than I did about the people movers. Now I have a new appreciation for them--"better than Aerotrain."

Sheesh

Does anybody have an e-mail address for MWAA? The scene I witnessed on the Aerotrain this morning was just madness. The train pulled out from the main terminal platform completely packed. When it arrived at the A gates, there were people waiting to make the transfer for A to C. For whatever reason at the A platform you board and depart the train from the same side - people exiting for A hadn't even finished getting off when the train doors started to close. I think only a couple people made it on at A to continue to C. At C the mass dump of humanity walking down the platform to exit the station caused a delay in people getting off from the back of the train, which nearly caused them to get stuck on the train as it pulled out of the station. Of course people were throwing luggage and elbows to force the train doors open - I'm sure they'll have lots of mechanical fixes to make in the near future.

This happened to me a few weeks ago, at around 6:30 in the morning. People used to complain about long security lines at IAD, but the longest line I have ever experienced there was a few weeks ago. The sad thing is that the checkpoint stations are there. There is no excuse not to have more of them open and staffed at peak hours.

IAD Isn't fun ....
 

Left on an 8:15 am UA flight this morning -- arrived at the airport about 6:55 am. Ten minute wait to get IDs checked and then another 15 minutes standing in line for the scan. And then a long wiat for the Aerotrain and the long walk. I literally had only minutes to spare before boarding began!

What I really don't get, though, is that after you go through the "premium" ID line, the lines to go through the scanners face the wrong way, so you need to squeeze by one or two lines and then make a 180 degree turn. I remember hearing promises that airports designed post 9/11 security would mitigate the problems and make security less of a travel hassle. Someone forgot to pass the word to MWAA.

That's what I mean. Designed to fail.

Long and longstanding UA thread about the setup: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=998104

I completely agree. Having recently traveled through this new nightmare of a security setup, I actually long for the old serpentine lines up in the departures area. Don't get me started about the train. Never before did I think I would long for moonbuggies.

Alas, I'd be stunned if anyone at MWAA cares or reads this post and has any reaction. They think everything is new and gleaming and thats enough.

One of things on a basic "design" idea was that just as a matter of safety, you really shouldn't have escalators that continuously dump people into an area that could "fill" up. There's really no place for people to move forward and out of the way if people kept pouring down the escalators and TSA was backed up. There's a better chance of winning the lottery than TSA realizing this and getting someone to get up to the top of the escalators and "stop" people from heading down to screening. I see this done all the time at several Washington Metro Subway stations when a big game at Verizon Center or Nationals Stadium lets out. Metro knows the platforms can get overloaded, so they post cops/Metro supervisors at the top of the escalators to keep people from going down to the platforms until a train is loaded and the platform is clear for more passengers. I could never imagine TSA having such foresight to be ready for such a situation.

As an aside, I found the TSA folks at the new checkpoint to be highly inexperienced. It seemed every single item going through the scanners required a supervisor to come over and take a look. It may have been a "new" TSA worker, but I seemed to notice it at more than one scanning station. And, of course, there were not enough supervisors to go around. You get the picture.

A complete disaster, three steps back, whatever you want to call it.

Thanks for the link to the lengthy exchange among UA flyers regarding the total clusterf* that is the renovated IAD security setup / Aerotrain. Obviously a lot of common sense reactions, complaints, even suggestions have been made over a long period of time, and as far as I can tell, zero effort by MWAA to address the problems. Demoralizing! Appalling!

This is the reason why, even though we live closer to IAD than DCA, we will almost always pick DCA over IAD...

I may have to add myself to the list of DCA, IAD is out of control this afternoon w/ 50 people on the 1K/Business line for UA and the security lines are slow moving and long. and the wx is delaying a few flights out of IAD too :(

Why aren't you in the Diamond Line? If that is also overflowing, then I can understand the complaint but you know the downstairs sux, why bother with it at all?

I have only used IAD a couple of times this year and have had no trouble at all using the security checkpoint downstairs near the baggage carousel. I walk right in with almost nobody ever in front of me.

Have I just been lucky traveling late mornings or is there a better way to go at the busier hours?

That's the diamond lane and the place to go when its open