Has Parking at Dulles Improved?
 

Does anyone know if the parking situation has improved at Dulles Airport? I quit using Dulles after they moved long-term parking away from the main terminal, which meant that you had to (a) catch a bus from the parking lot to the main terminal, then (b) catch a bus from the main terminal to the midfield terminal. Given the erratic schedules of those busses, it was pretty frustrating and I gave up. But I've been hearing rumors that they are building or have built parking garages near the main terminal. True?

I park in the outlying Gold lot. Takes a 15 min bus ride into the terminal.

The shuttle busses to mid terminal have timers over the entranceway now, and leave at less than 5 minute intervals. Takes less than 5 min to mid terminal.

This seems a better system than ORD, for example, where my transfers UA to UA were over a 15 min walk.

There is also a brand new multi-storey covered car park built with a covered walkway directly into the main terminal (wrong end of the Terminal for UA!). No idea about charges but you can see photos etc on the Dulles website:

http://www.metwashairports.com/dulles

Any recent experiences with the economy parking? Specifically, is there a miserable, packed bus ride along the lines of JFK?



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Life's a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death! - Auntie Mame

www.angelfire.com/ny3/globalgourmets

Never parked at JFK. Park a lot at IAD. New entrance to the far econo lot. Take the first right into lots, take the first right after entering the lots. Drive to the free spaces next to the pickup cubes. Think that's the Gold and Purple lots. Sometimes they are not both open.

Buses run more frequently than every 15 min. Takes 15 min, now that they have traffic lights along the way.

I have never had a full bus, or a line.

Do not bother parking in the closer in econo lots (blue, green, and maybe some other color), as the trip takes the same amount of time, and everybody thinks that's the best place to park.

There are now two daily garages at IAD, the first has been open for a few months and the second either opened this week or will on Monday 1/6/03. $15/day. Normally a short wait - 5 minutes or less, waited for about 10 minutes for the bus on Sunday night.

You can park at the end of the existing daily garage (it will be the second one you pass on the way to the terminal) and take a walkway - haven't done it yet so I don't know if it is just a hallway or a moving walkway.

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Cheers,
Jeff

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro"... HST

[This message has been edited by FreakwentFlier (edited 01-03-2003).]

It has been several months since I parked in the IAD garage, but back then (and I think still) there was no hallway or moving sidewalk. It was an outdoor sidewalk. Might have been covered.

Parked there 3 weeks ago. Walkway still not covered but not far from terminals (the ramp next to the terminal, not across the road from hourly parking).

Use parking fee kiosks to save time exiting ramp.

Daily Parking Ramp, IME, has never been full.

I live on Reston, so I taxi to and from IAD. $25 each way including a fat tip. An overnight trip I park in the short-term parking. $15/day. Non-locals to Reston/Herndon may consider using municipal parking at Reston Town center, and taxi or hotel shuttle to IAD.

ECONOMY parking is max $9/day. Shuttles run about every 5 minutes during much of the day.

DAILY parking is in garages 1 & 2 is max $15/day with walkways or shuttle bus to main terminal. Daily garage 1 has underground walkway with a sequence of 3 moving sidewalks to main terminal - daily garage 2 has elevated walkway (covered to rain and sun protection) from its 3rd level to west end main terminal's ticketing/departure level (UA is at the east end of the terminal).

HOURLY parking lot in front of main terminal is $4/hour to a max of $36/day.

VALET parking is inside the Hourly lot.

Today it was more like 20 minutes for the GOLD buses to show up (this was around 4 pm). :mad: The shuttles are totally mis-managed at Dulles for their remote lots, with the wrong # and type in each of the lots. The drivers are not allowed to bypass a stop, even if a bus is already stopped there. Today, after waiting those 20 minutes, 2 GOLD buses showed up together!

I hadn't considered this option, I might try that the next time I take a weekend trip.