It’s been a while since I’ve traveled through Washington Dulles, but the next time I fly through, it’s not going to feel the same. I’m going to miss the mobile lounges.
Since January 26, the airport has changed the way passengers move from terminal to terminal. Out with the old, in with the new.
In: The Aerotrain, an inter-terminal subway. Out: The moon-buggy-style mobile lounges, oversized buses on hydraulic lifts that ferried passengers from one terminal to the other.
Sure, they were smelly, loud, and rather slow. There wasn’t much “lounging” in a lounge, either. Waiting for a lounge to get moving when you had a connecting flight was tortuous.
And yet… I liked them. Maybe that’s because I’ve always liked the tarmac-level view of the airport. Maybe it was the carpeted walls. Maybe it was the retro flavor. Maybe it was just… different.
Sure, the new train will be faster, cleaner, more efficient, and not prone to traffic jams. But a little piece of aviation history is on the way out.
(Edit: Via April in the comments, the lounges aren’t gone quite yet… but the AeroTrain is operational.)
Here’s a video for those who never experienced it. And a bonus info sheet (PDF) on the history of the buggies.
R.I.P. mobile lounges.
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March 17th, 2010 at 9:51 pm
Oh, never fear, they’re still around. Rode one in mid-February to get from an international flight to customs.
March 17th, 2010 at 10:01 pm
They’re still used to get to D (some United flights), and for international arrivals (except United flights):
http://www.metwashairports.com/dulles/882.htm
March 17th, 2010 at 10:03 pm
I stand corrected! Thanks, April.
Bonus history, from the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority website:
March 17th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
Thanks, N766AN for the link!
March 17th, 2010 at 10:08 pm
I love traveling, haven’t been to Dulles in a while though, it’s cool to see the changes. Thanks for posting!
March 18th, 2010 at 9:20 am
I forwarded this to my father who replied with an interesting story:
I rode my first lounge in 1963 on the way to Chicago. There were three or four daily flights in and out of Dulles back then. Much was written in the papers about the mistake that it was to have built a third airport out in the boondocks, for a city already too well serviced by National and BWI. Along the Dulles Access Road there was nothing but vegetation. No exits until the airport. If your car broke down: Good luck! Before even CB radios, and long before cellphones, with nary another car coming or going, you could die from thirst and starvation. At Dulles the lounges were few, four at the most. They came and went half-full at best. Brand new; spic-n-span clean; they felt spacious and futuristic. The lounges docked at the gates located right behind the check-in counters in the terminal – only the main building existed in those days – and the counters were located immediately in back of a wide open waiting area. Riding onto the tarmac and up against the airplane, each lounge offloaded passengers directly on board. Departing Dulles at night felt like being in outer space: A lone buggy venturing into pitch darkness, rolling slowly away from the terminal’s magically suspended sloping roof to reach the dimly lit mother ship. Coming home at night felt like arriving in the twenty-first century. Those were the days.
March 18th, 2010 at 2:05 pm
I remember arriving at Dulles from the UK, deplaning on to one of these when I was extremely tired and thinking that they’d blacked the windows out….
March 20th, 2010 at 8:22 pm
The new train has one major drawback in my experience of using it for two separate trips out of IAD. The distance to be covered at each end of the ride seems to make the whole proceeding more protracted and harder work for the traveler than the mobile lounges. Another issue – there seems to be choke points at narrow escalators that in busy times would slow the traveler in a hurry; too, predictability of time to gate may suffer because at least there was an indicator of the next departure of a mobile lounge. My overall reaction was that sadly the whole design of the access/egress for the train was incredibly poorly executed. The train seems slower than other airports with similar systems.
March 23rd, 2010 at 4:33 am
Yes, but they were rather frustrating when either late for a flight or coming home. I must say though something uniquely Dulles, and despite all of that I’ll miss them a bit next time I fly through there.
May 18th, 2010 at 11:09 pm
Love the ode to the moon buggies and the video. On a flight to Dulles over the weekend (May 15-16) I confidently assured another passenger that the mobile lounges were finished. Upon arrival I discovered that I had to take the mobile lounge from A to D.
June 1st, 2011 at 10:02 pm
Can someone tell me about how many flights came into Dulles daily in 1963? This is part of a mysterious family research project. I know someone who insists they flew from El Paso Texas to Dulles in the summer of 63. For a host of personal reasons I don’t think this actually happened. Thanks.