![]() ![]() If the choice were between that much track to serve existing corridors and adding new corridors, my preference is for the latter. ![]() These 126 new Metro stations would not increase accessibility very significantly considering how much new track would be laid: a full 129 miles. Regional employment centers are in the middle of these corridors and most of the constituent stations have significant concentrations of jobs and/or people. There are just a few “core” zones where no infill stops could be added: the four stations at Tysons the set of stations between Ballston and Court House Rosslyn to Stadium-Armory U Street to National Airport on the Yellow Line and to Anacostia on the Green Line and NoMa to Dupont Circle on the Red Line. In all, with a local-stop system, 231,000 more people would be within a half mile of a Metro station and 85,000 jobs would be within a quarter mile. Some stations are pretty good, too: 53 St-Lincoln Heights on the Blue and Silver has a ton of homes nearby, and Longfellow Street just north of Fort Totten is right outside Providence Hospital.Ī Belmont Street stop between Columbia Heights and U Street would have almost as many homes nearby as Columbia Heights itself – which keeps its top slot as first in the city. Hop off Kingman Island for a picnic get groceries at Snider’s from the Montgomery Hills stop get off right in front of the National Zoo. When visualized, the local stop idea looks pretty attractive. Image by the author.Ĭlose-up of Northeast MARC infill. Image by the author.Ĭlose-up of inner Red line. Image by the author.Ĭlose-up of Dulless infill stations. Image by the author. In all, Metro got 126 new stations, MARC got 10, and VRE got one (which is also already a WMATA transfer stop, Luckett).Ĭlose-up of lower Blue/Yellow line. While I added Metro’s infill stations with almost no regard for usefulness, I did place infill stations on the commuter trains that might be worthwhile, mostly along MARC’s Camden and Penn lines. To determine express versus local service, I looked at jobs within a quarter mile and people within a half mile of all stations, and kept all-train service in the areas with high concentrations of both. To see what this parallel universe might look like, I drew up a different map (see the full-sized version), keeping the stations that exist today and adding infill stations about every half mile. So I decided to ask the opposite question: What would the Metro system look like if it had been built with more local stops, like New York City’s system? Among other things, Metro already runs trains that are effectively express, with generally long distances between stations (see a Washington rail geography map I created with current Metro, MARC, and VRE stations). In 2016, DW Rowlands wrote with clarity on why express tracks wouldn’t actually be that useful. Plus, it could get us closer to Metro running 24/7, just like New York City’s system. A second pair of tracks would allow Metro to skip past the Ballston-Rosslyn corridor towards Farragut, or Eastern Market and Smithsonian if you’re coming from the opposite direction. With the Silver Line finally open to Ashburn - its terminus as far from DC as the end of VRE’s Manassas Line - a lament has risen again: Where are Metro’s express tracks?įor the downtown-bound commuter, the seemingly endless number of stops on the way is a drag, particularly if traffic is flowing swiftly on the highway outside the window.
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