IAD B Concourse gate name changes coming
 

Gates B14-B35 will be designated as A14-A35 on/about 9/1/09.

1. When you take the walkway from the Main Terminal and arrive at the top of the escalator, the "A" gates will be to the left and the "B" gates will be to the right.

2. The new Aerotrain station under the A/B bridge will be labeled the "A Concourse" station (serving gates A1-A35). The new Aerotrain station near the west end of the B Concourse will be labeled the "B Concourse" station.

Good to know - thanks.

Any ETA on the trains?

I would imagine not much later.

The Aerotrain has been running 7/24 for several weeks now to test all the hardware and electronics. The system must run for 30 days without a problem to be accepted for passenger service. A couple of days ago I was told that it was then in day 8 of the current cycle. Any malfunction causes the 30 day cycle to restart.

That is welcome news. Keep us posted on those trials, Annandaler...

Is that the gates number has been change? When the tram will be start service the passengers? How it going for running the trains doing lately?

I had heard end of August for the trains, but looks like maybe it's up to September now with the gate switching/renaming.

I am so ready to get rid of the current people movers!

No way any construction project at IAD will work from the get-go ... from broken escalators, walk-ways and leaking cielings - just no way!! :)

lauti - for you and others who are in such a rush to get rid of the people movers, I really don't think most have truly thought out the difference and just why they think one will make that much of a difference over the other once the entire system is in place. You need to be transported from point A to point B, you will still have to wait for that transport, still have to wait for the time it takes to travel between the points (not sure if it will be bi- or single- directional tracks, so you might have to traverse the airport to get from B to main terminal, for example) and the crowds, etc -- while they don't do a good job of management of the people mover transportation, it's improved dramatically and I don't have faith that they'll do the trains right as a replacement, its just a grass is greener wish at this point.

There is so much spin with IAD management that I buy very little they say. Like when the tunnel first opened and they removed the signs that indicated a people mover was still available to B, then trumpeted how no one was using the people mover. Duh! No one knew it was an option, and still fewer knew just how long a walk it was. I passed many people who had to take breathers and were having trouble in the underground walkway saying they'd never have gone that way if a) they knew how long it was and b) if there was an alternative available.

It's a 2-track system, so you take the train in the direction you need to go. (http://www.mwaa.com/dulles/d2_dulles...train_system_2) The trains will run at 2 minute intervals - which contrasts nicely with the 5-15 minute intervals for the mobile lounges. The trains will not have to wait for planes entering or leaving their gate areas - as the mobile lounges often have to.

There will be two security screening areas a level below the Arrivals/Baggage level - and behind it. Access to the each of the two security screening areas will be via a pair of escalators down from the Ticketing/Departure level, and another pair of escalators down from the Arrivals level. Those escalators are roughly behind the existing East and West escalator banks in the Main Terminal.

From security screening, down another escalator to the Main Terminal train station.

It will be interesting to see how the loads get balanced at the two security screening areas...

It is fairly clear to those of us who need to come into DCA or IAD regularly that MWAA is one of the worst managed and least passenger-friendly airport agencies. It is also obvious that nobody on the Authority ever does enough traveling to know what travelers' real needs might be and to transmit any of those needs to its employees.

It is a group that continuously appears to fall victim to the plans of vainglorious architects and engineers to the point that one might suspect goings-on of a nature that will not be discussed any further but which permeate the political atmosphere in DC.

Uh, yeah. Especially when CLEAR went belly up. MWAA decided it would be a good idea to curtail the hours of the black diamond lane downstairs because they felt usage would drop.

IAD will still be an ugly, inconvenient mess even with the new underground tram system. This is the most hopeless airport in the nation.

Run by the most incompetent airport authority in the nation.

The re-flagging of B14-B35 as A14-A35 will be delayed until a time closer to the train operation starting.

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

Surprised? Not!!