I was reading from WMATA's website a couple of days ago and noticed that WMATA is considering to possibly discontinue the 5A bus since the new Sliver line will open soon. Any thoughts on this? I don't think it's a good idea.
I agree. I think it is a bad idea because the Silver Line will stop at Reston and will not reach Dulles Airport when it first opens. Patrons who use the 5A to reach Dulles will have to transfer from the Silver Line to a bus for the remainder of the trip to Dulles. They will lose their "one seat" ride carrying luggage. I vote for continuing the 5A until the Silver Line is completed to Dulles around 2015 (or later).
Or just keep the 5A opened for good. It gets great ridership. At least one would have options, kinda like how the 38B travels along the Orange line on the Northern VA side of the route.
It gets great ridership now because there's not very many other options. The Washington Flyer bus is expensive and Fairfax Connector's route 981 only reaches Tysons Westpark. What makes the 38B have high ridership is the fact that it's a local route - serving everything between each metro station. I'm kind of on the fence of whether or not to discontinue the 5A when the first segment of the Silver line opens. Do also keep in mind that a significant number of 5A riders are commuters between DC and Herndon-Monroe P&R, and once that Herndon-Monroe metro station opens, people will switch over to metrorail. Is it really faster to take the metrorail from L'Enfant Plaza to Herndon P&R than taking the 5A? Probably not, considering that the Silver line has many stops in between, but the idea of having an express metrorail line to get there just sounds more appealing.
If anything, the 5A should probably just end up like the 13F/G, where it only operates when metrorail isn't.
I have not seen a 13 bus in person for years, not since the 16X and 7Y routes replaced them. You're right, the Silver line probably won't be any faster. At least with the 5A, that bus only has about 5 or 6 stops on that long 15-20 mile route.