The D.C.–Dulles Line, designated Route 5A, was a bus route operated by the

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA ), commonly referred to as Metro, is a tri-jurisdictional public transit agency that operates transit services in the Washington metropolitan area. WMATA provides rapid transit servic ...

(WMATA) between

Washington Dulles International Airport Washington Dulles International Airport ( ) – commonly known by its former name of Dulles International Airport, by its airport code of IAD, or simply as Dulles Airport – is an international airport in the Eastern United States, located w ...

and L'Enfant Plaza station of the

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

Yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In t ...

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

and

Silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

lines of the

Washington Metro The Washington Metro, often abbreviated as the Metro and formally the Metrorail, is a rapid transit system serving the Washington metropolitan area of the United States. It is administered by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority ...

. The line operated every 30–40 minutes on weekdays and 60 minutes on weekends along the

Dulles Toll Road State Route 267 (SR 267) is an expressway in the US state of Virginia. It consists of two end-to-end toll roads – the Dulles Toll Road and Dulles Greenway – as well as the non-tolled Dulles Access Road, which lies in the median o ...

Interstate 66 Interstate 66 (I-66) is a 76.32 mile east–west Interstate Highway in the East Coast of the United States, eastern United States. The highway runs from an interchange with Interstate 81 in Virginia, I-81 near Middletown, Virginia, on its w ...

, Richmond Highway and Interstate 395 between these two locations with no intermediate stops, with the exception of the Herndon–Monroe Park & Ride and

Rosslyn station Rosslyn station is the westernmost station on the shared segment of the Blue, Orange, and Silver lines of the Washington Metro. It is located in the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington County, Virginia. Rosslyn is the first station in Virginia ...

. The trip was approximately 50 minutes long.

Service

Service operated every 30 to 35 minutes between L'Enfant Plaza station and

on weekdays, and 60 minutes on weekends. WMATA used 2006 Orion VII CNG (07.501) suburbans numbered 2701–2730 based out of Four Mile Run Division to operate the route. However, other buses can be used on the route if the Orion VII CNGs are running on other routes or going under maintenance. Each bus has suburban seating with overhead luggage racks. After the Orion VII CNG retirements, the route used 2016-2020 New Flyer XN40 buses.

Stops

Background

The 5A originally operated under the “North Reston Express Line” in the 1970s before being discontinued in the 1990s being replaced by a combination of

Fairfax Connector Fairfax Connector is a public bus service provided by Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, and is managed by the county government. The bus system provides service within Fairfax County, and connects to Metrobus (Washington D.C.), Metrobus, ...

routes. Service began on December 4, 2000 to connect service to Dulles International Airport from Downtown Washington, D.C. The line is unique for being the only WMATA bus line that runs to

Loudoun County Loudoun County () is in the northern part of the Virginia, Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. In 2020, the census returned a population of 420,959, making it Virginia's third-most populous county. The county seat is Leesburg, Virgi ...

, has a connection with any Virginia non-commuter services, and is responsible for providing a regular link between the two services. The original $1.10 one-way fare was seen as a bargain compared with other transportation modes in the area, including Shenandoah Valley Commuter Bus. In 2014, it was reported that the 5A line was partly responsible for Dulles Airport monthly ridership record. WMATA also provides higher levels of service on the line in special times of need, especially on certain holidays. All route 5A weekend service was suspended due to WMATA's response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

beginning on March 21, 2020. Weekend service was fully restored on August 23, 2020. On September 10, 2020 as part of its FY2022 proposed budget, WMATA proposed to reduce time frequency on route 5A service in order to reduce costs and low federal funds. Although, WMATA planned to eliminate route 5A and replace it with the Silver Line service on its previous proposals. Due to rising cases of the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

Omicron Omicron (, ; uppercase Ο, lowercase ο, ) is the fifteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. This letter is derived from the Phoenician letter ayin: . In classical Greek, omicron represented the close-mid back rounded vowel in contrast to '' o ...

variant, the service was reduced to its Saturday service on weekdays. Full weekday service resumed on February 7, 2022. Following the 5A's elimination, there has been calls from the public to restore the 5A when Metrorail is closed, due to late night arrivals and departures at Dulles. Although WMATA did proposed a service to Dulles during overnight hours in its Better Bus Draft Visionary Network, the proposed route did not go through during its final 2025 Redesign Network.

Silver Line

In 2010, WMATA started a public planning forum, to create the Silver Line route to run to Dulles Airport. The Silver Line would bring riders access via train to serve in Maryland, Washington D.C. and the northeastern portion of Virginia. This project is under Phase 2 of the Silver Line, as Phase 1 runs up to Wiehle–Reston East station. Construction of Phase 2 started in 2014; it was scheduled to open in 2020. Metro officials then announced that the second phase may not be ready for service until about September 2020. Metro later re-evaluated the timetable for the second phase's launch and anticipates it would be ready for service on April 1, 2021, after the agency determines a budget for the 2020–2021 fiscal year (and having taken the impact of the

). Opening of Phase 2 was further delayed for July 2021 and later November 2022.

Dulles Airport station

Since November 15, 2022, Washington Dulles International Airport has on its own Metro station, as the station was built as part of Phase 2 of the Silver Line project. The station was originally planned to be underground, but the plans call for an above-ground station, which will be located next to daily parking garage 1 of the airport. The station is connected to the terminal building using the then-existing pedestrian tunnel which connects the hourly and daily parking lots and parking garage 1 to the baggage claim level of the airport terminal; it is equipped with

moving sidewalks Moving Sidewalks were an American rock band formed in 1966 from Houston, Texas. They released several singles and an album, before bassist Don Summers and keyboardist Tom Moore were drafted into the army, bringing the band to an end. Vocalist/gu ...

. The Dulles International Airport Metro station opened on November 15, 2022 and replaced the 5A on November 16.

References

External links

Metrobus
{{DEFAULTSORT:D.C.-Dulles Line 5A Transportation in Virginia Dulles International Airport Loudoun County, Virginia Fairfax County, Virginia