Tag: METRO

I’ve been cheating on my own blog!

I’ve been harboring a secret for the past few weeks and been dying to post about it but had to wait until it went live. I am now a weekly feature writer for the DC architecture and property blogDC Metrocentric. Its one of the reasons O haven’t posted on here very much, that and just plain laziness. I’ve spent quite a bit of time trying to develop a writing identity for that site. I will be analyzing and criticizing local architecture within the beltway. If anyone has any suggestions I would welcome the input.

You can find my first post, a criticial analysis of the architecture of the Metro system, live on the site now. Feedback would be greatly appreciated.

The Metro, The Metro, The Metro’s on Fire!

So this past week there were a number of fires and closings of stations within the DC Metro system. While the fires and the maintenance issues that caused them (and many more during the previous years) are one issue, the greater issue at hand is that these incidents completely incapacitated the Red and Orange lines. On a system with three major corridors downtown serviced by 5 lines, the loss of two (one of which runs alone on its corridor) is tantamount to a 50% loss of service. This is unacceptable in the 21st century, and especially in the Nation’s Capitol, where a 30 mile commute can take 2 hours by car.

On Sunday, The Washington Post ran an article identifying the double track system as the achilles heel in the Washington Metro. I have to agree with them. One of the greatest strengths of the NYC subway is that it can divert around stations and segments of tracks which are under repair or out of service. With the current system if a single track is out of service all trains must share a single track to bypass the problem. If both tracks are incapacitated by jumper or a fire than the whole system shuts down.

The problem with this article is that it gives no suggestions on how to improve the system besides creating a dedicated source of funding. In addition, while I am a proponent of increasing the capacity and coverage of the Metro system I worry that continued expansion without a remedy of the double track system will just lead to a rail analogous of the beltway and poor road planning in the area. It would be my suggestion that in addition to building the Dulles extension and a ring line, extra tracks should be added to all of the current lines. In an effort not to disturb stations, the two additional lines should function as bypass lanes for future express trains – they could be tunneled below the existing stations. While this seems outlandish, they are already talking about tunneling to put a line in Georgetown.

She’ll be riding on the Metro when she lands …

Today The Washington Post reported that the rumors of the demise of the Dulles Metro Extension were greatly exaggerated. Of course, this does not mean that the funding is free and clear, it just means that the project has not been scrapped and it will continue, with certain requirements to be met.

For those unfamiliar, this project is a rail extension for the WMATA run METRO’s Orange Line. The new line would run out to Dulles Airport, the main international terminal for DC, which is currently only reachable by Bus, taxi, or personal vehicles. This extension would also service the towns between the end of the orange line and the Dulles Airport, a heavily developed stretch of land that currently has very heavy commute times into and out from the city.

This is some of the best news for Northern Virginia and the DC metro area in a long while. There has been rampant speculation in the housing and development markets in regards to locations of future metro stations; this was all in great danger of collapsing after some recent articles warning of the possible death of the project due to federal oversight and fears of a bloated budget. If the speculation did not pan out, this could have triggered another horrible fall in the local housing markets, and could have meant many more foreclosures. Also, the extension will provide greater rail access farther west from the city than is currently available and may help alleviate some of the beltway and commuter traffic. If this project is successful it will bring with it hope that commuter rail solutions to traffic in Northern Virginia could be a reality and that the fable purple line (a ring line around the city) might one day be constructed.