Washington DC: Rail transit

[mrnyc]

^ apparantly it will be!

Tourists are about to have an easier way in and out of DC

Forrest Brown, CNN • Updated 1st November 2022


(CNN) — Travelers heading into or out of the District of Columbia via Washington Dulles International Airport will have something extra to be thankful for this November.

A long-awaited final extension of the Metro's Silver Line will connect the Virginia airport directly to the heart of the DC tourist zone with station stops such as L'Enfant Plaza near the National Mall.

It's scheduled to open to the public on Tuesday, November 15, according to a news release from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

That means people can get their Smithsonian fix over the Thanksgiving holidays totally via public metro and not mess with roadways.

Traffic from Dulles, which is about 28 miles (45 kilometers) from the White House, can be notoriously clogged and time-consuming.


more:
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/w...les/index.html

[cambron J]

Metro customers invited to ride the first passenger train to six new Silver Line stations
WMATA Press Release
11 07 2022

First Silver line passenger train to Largo departs Ashburn at 1:54 PM

First Silver line passenger train to Ashburn depart Largo at 12:51 PM

Both trains will arrive at Wiehle-Reston East at 2:02 PM

[Busy Bee]

About damn time.

[202_Cyclist]

This is definitely exciting news but will there be cake and balloons?

[cambron J]

202_Cyclist
This is definitely exciting news but will there be cake and balloons?

By tradition WMATA will be passing out pennants to commemorate the opening.

[202_Cyclist]

Originally Posted by cambron J

202_Cyclist
This is definitely exciting news but will there be cake and balloons?

By tradition WMATA will be passing out pennants to commemorate the opening.

Indeed! My friend gave me a pennant from the opening of the Phase I of the Silver line.

[OhioGuy]

Opening day for the silver line extension to Dulles and beyond has finally arrived.

Silver Line extension opening Tuesday afternoon with link to Dulles

With chilly conditions and under gray skies, officials gathered Tuesday morning at Dulles International Airport to celebrate the opening of the Silver Line extension hours before passengers begin to board trains at new stations.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Virginia Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both Democrats, were among those expected to attend the ceremony, the first of several events planned Tuesday marking the launch of the long-awaited rail extension.

Metrorail service to Dulles and Loudoun County is set to launch about 2 p.m. Tuesday, a transit expansion decades in the making that will open after years of construction delays.

The $3 billion, 11.5-mile second phase will add six Metro stations, including three in Fairfax County, an airport station in time for the Thanksgiving holiday and two others in Loudoun. A Dulles station has been sought since the airport opened and coincides with the its 60th anniversary this week.

The new map:

source

[jmecklenborg]

It looks like a walkable new urbanist development is u/c at the terminal station:
https://www.google.com/maps/search/d.../data=!3m1!1e3

[LAsam]

Travelers can finally take the Metro from Dulles to core DC! That's a huge improvement to the system... definitely will take advantage of that next time I'm in town.

[OhioGuy]

I will still always be inclined to fly to/from DCA rather than IAD but I'll be more open to IAD now with the direct rail connection. Even though it will take about triple the time to reach the core of DC from IAD compared to DCA, at least there's no further transferring at Wiehle between train & shuttle bus. It's a one seat ride. If prices are only about $50 cheaper to fly to/from IAD, I would likely still opt for DCA. It would need to reach upwards of $100 or more difference to make the extra travel time worth it for me.

[202_Cyclist]

Originally Posted by OhioGuy

I will still always be inclined to fly to/from DCA rather than IAD but I'll be more open to IAD now with the direct rail connection. Even though it will take about triple the time to reach the core of DC from IAD compared to DCA, at least there's no further transferring at Wiehle between train & shuttle bus. It's a one seat ride. If prices are only about $50 cheaper to fly to/from IAD, I would likely still opt for DCA. It would need to reach upwards of $100 or more difference to make the extra travel time worth it for me.

A couple of times we flew back from Europe. You can fly 4,000 miles across the Atlantic in eight hours and then the next 25 miles to get from Dulles to DC took another two or three hours. I am glad those experiences are hopefully over.

[mrnyc]

i would still prefer to train it to dc from ny (i really miss the pre-9/11 lga delta shuttle ease), but a more convenient new option is great for price shopping.

[202_Cyclist]

Originally Posted by mrnyc

i would still prefer to train it to dc from ny (i really miss the pre-9/11 lga delta shuttle ease), but a more convenient new option is great for price shopping.

I flew from New Haven - BWI last month for $6 ($21 with taxes).

[William Van Alen]

Doing some digging on old proposals today and came across this proposal for a full-blown DC Streetcar network. Does anybody know the status of this? I know H Street was built and that Maryland is working on the purple line, but other than that I wasn't aware of any other ongoing streetcar projects in DC. Just curious

[202_Cyclist]

Originally Posted by William Van Alen

Doing some digging on old proposals today and came across this proposal for a full-blown DC Streetcar network. Does anybody know the status of this? I know H Street was built and that Maryland is working on the purple line, but other than that I wasn't aware of any other ongoing streetcar projects in DC. Just curious

There are plans to extend the H Street streetcar to Benning Road, NE. Other than that, unfortunately, the expansive streetcar network proposed in 2000s is largely stalled.

https://www.benningproject.com/

[wanderer34]

Originally Posted by William Van Alen

Doing some digging on old proposals today and came across this proposal for a full-blown DC Streetcar network. Does anybody know the status of this? I know H Street was built and that Maryland is working on the purple line, but other than that I wasn't aware of any other ongoing streetcar projects in DC. Just curious

The streetcar proposal back in 2009 looked nice and there’s another chance that DC can pull it off again. With the Silver Line officially completed and DC having links to three major airports in the DC-Baltimore area, it would be fitting that DC have a streetcar/light rail network which can rival SF and Boston.

My old city doesn’t even have the guts to really expand it’s own light rail/trolley system due to corruption and mismanagement, but I can see that DC is trying to
upgrade it’s mass transit system and now that the Silver Line is completed, my only hope is that Metro can expand again and alleviate one of the lines that runs downtown (https://wtop.com/tracking-metro-24-7...ure-ridership/).

The only negative for me is that the new Blue Line would be a circle line and that would negate any station from being a terminal and I like mass transit lines to have termini, whether heavy rail or light rail. This isn’t Moscow, this isn’t Beijing, and it’s not Glasgow, plus connecting National Harbor to Huntington with an underwater terminal would be a waste of money anyways, as most commuters usually go either towards downtown DC, or to Tysons and Arlington.

Either way DC gets a notch above Chicago in my book. It’s no NYC, but DC, the third largest CSA behind only NYC and LA, has the second best Metro in America!

[cambron J]

wanderer34
. . . connecting National Harbor to Huntington with an underwater terminal would be a waste of money anyways . . .

The segment of the Blue line loop between National Harbor and Huntington proposed by WMATA would make use of the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge as the left shoulder of the inside roadways are designed accommodate future rail transit.

[wanderer34]

Originally Posted by cambron J

wanderer34
. . . connecting National Harbor to Huntington with an underwater terminal would be a waste of money anyways . . .

The segment of the Blue line loop between National Harbor and Huntington proposed by WMATA would make use of the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge as the left shoulder of the inside roadways are designed accommodate future rail transit.

I meant to say tunnel as opposed to terminal in my last post, my fault! Anyways, I don’t really see the feasibility of looping the entire Blue line, especially considering that there isn’t designated termini for layovers and rest for the train engineers. I’d prefer to Blue line to be similar to the Red line or the Yonge line in Toronto: a U-shaped line with two termino as bookends as opposed to creating a circle line.

The only cities with a loop is Chicago’s El, Detroit’s people mover, and Philadelphia’s subway-surface trolleys, and even so, Chicago has a 7 X 5 city block loop as opposed to Moscow, Beijing, and Glasgow, which has a unique city loop much bigger than Chicago’s. Plus the loop serves as a terminus for many of Chicago’s El lines while the proposal to loop DC’s blue line doesn’t.

Once again, I’d like to see the Blue line follow the Red line and WMATA create another U-shape line in the DC Metro. Besides, I don’t know too many people from SW and SE DC that would utilize such a line to Alexandria, especially since the main use of the Metro is to get to downtown DC and even to Tysons and Arlington, which serves as the area’s CBD, not to Alexandria.

I won’t go as far as saying the circle line is a bad idea, but it’s not too wise considering that there’s no termini for rest and for turnovers. Plus having termini gives commuters time to reach for the train and not rush to catch a train since the train will be waiting an average of 10 minutes if termini are built as opposed to creating a circle. The availability of seats in a terminal is another reason why having a terminal is much better.

[Qubert]

My personal proposal would be making the Silver line run express under I-66 after East Falls Church then under K st with stops at Foggy Botton, Farragut, McPherson Sq, Mt Vernon Sq, then turn south under Captial St NW, then turn down Massachusetts to stop at Union Station (thus relieving the Red Line), continue south down 2nd St NE/SE and then turn down L st SW with stops at Navy Yard and Waterfront, then take over the Yellow Line bridge and replace the Yellow south of L'Enfant to Huntington.

Pros:

Creates Metro's first express line for some of the farthest reaches of the system. Orange line pax from Vienna benefit through the transfer at East Falls Church and Silver line pax wanting Arlington can switch to Orange.

The Green Line is now totally seperate, allowing a tremendous increase in service to the southern sections.

Relieves the Red by having Union Station pax be able to access the CBD via the westbound Silver.

Gives pax in Alexandria/Springfield/Crystal City a direct connection to Union Sta and Navy Yard

[wanderer34]

I believe that, once again, the Silver Line does a fantastic job for a subway to the IAD. According to Google Maps, it takes about 1hr & 9min to reach the airport (https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Metr...201080601d!3e3), not the fastest during off-peak hours as the automobile is the fastest, but during rush hours (7 AM to 12 PM and 3 PM to 8 PM weekdays), it beats waiting on the infamous DC traffic and I’d rather take an hour to IAD then waiting up to two hours during weekday traffic!

Here’s similar map of NYC to JFK (https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Worl...13489f11f0!3e3), which takes about 1hr & 10 min from WTC, a map of Chicago from the Loop to ORD (https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Unio...ff9ed093d1!3e3), which takes up to an hour.

I believe it’s up there with Chicago and New York when it comes to frequency and it’s a major improvement for commuters and businessmen who don’t want to spend extra money on a taxi, limo, or even and Uber or Lyft just to get to and from DC!