The people movers at Dulles International Airport were the technology of the future – in 1962. They’re slow, uncomfortable and occasionally dangerous, as illustrated by this week’s accident that injured at least 18 people. Yet bureaucratic inertia and years of political timidity mean they’re unlikely to go away anytime soon.
The people movers at Dulles International Airport were the technology of the future – in 1962. They’re slow, uncomfortable and occasionally dangerous, as illustrated by this week’s accident that injured at least 18 people. Yet bureaucratic inertia and years of political timidity mean they’re unlikely to go away anytime soon.
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA), which operates IAD and Reagan National, has long defended what they call mobile lounges. Rather than build new infrastructure to move passengers, its board decided in 2023 to spend $16.4 million refurbishing the shuttles. The authority’s leaders say the noisy and goofy-looking vehicles will be essential for the next 15 to 20 years.
This is madness. Six decades ago, these vehicles were meant to take passengers directly from the main terminal to their planes. That did not pan out. Fifteen years ago, Dulles built an underground train system that partially connects the terminal and concourses, reducing the reliance on mobile lounges. It’s beyond time to finish connecting the concourses.
Concourses C and D were built as temporary structures – in the 1980s. One might argue that every building erected by humans is ultimately temporary, but airports should not be places for philosophical meditation on the fullness of time.
The international airport for the capital city of the richest and most powerful country in the history of the world should be better than a slapdash combination of temporary buildings and outdated vehicles, kept on life support with periodic rehab programs. If new facilities are completed, Dulles passengers will never again sigh in quiet resignation and gird their loins for the mobile lounges when they see their flight assigned to a “D” gate.
President Donald Trump, along with some allies on Capitol Hill, wants to move on from the people movers. His pick for the MWAA board is Trent Morse, the former deputy director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office and a passionate hater of these hulking monstrosities. Senators, including Commerce Committee chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas), received Morse’s modernization ideas warmly.
Yet the president only gets to nominate three of the 17 MWAA board members. Virginia’s governor picks seven, Maryland’s governor picks three and D.C.’s mayor picks four. Don’t expect big changes.
If reforms aren’t completed, the antiquated people movers will help make a powerful case for privatizing the airport authority. No private business would ever allow something so inefficient to outlive its usefulness for this long.
The post Dulles people movers cannot go away fast enough
appeared first on Washington Post.
