Washington DC: Rail transit

[ardecila]

A 20-cent tax? Tax on what? It surely can't be 20 cents on the dollar?

[202_Cyclist]

A 20-cent tax? Tax on what? It surely can't be 20 cents on the dollar?

Herndon, VA, which is on Phase II of the Dulles metro extension has a special assessment district to help finance construction costs, with property assessed an additional 28 cents per hundred dollars.

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/...per=66&cat=104

I assume in Alexandria, this is an additional 20 cents for hundred dollars of assessed property value.

[202_Cyclist]

Purple Line planners move on to details



By Katherine Shaver
Washington Post
Friday, January 7, 2011; 9:27 PM

"Ed Dabolt hopes any Purple Line station near his Hyattsville neighborhood will be modern and inviting. Chevy Chase residents want a bridge to allow children, joggers and cyclists to safely cross a Purple Line's tracks, and the University of Maryland is pushing for a train tunnel beneath its College Park campus.

As the Maryland Transit Administration analyzes a Purple Line light rail line between Bethesda and New Carrollton, the focus is narrowing from the larger vision to the nitty-gritty details: where, exactly, stations should be, what kind of landscaping and sound walls should buffer nearby residents, and how pedestrians and vehicles should cross train tracks.

Negotiations are well underway on the project's two most controversial details: how trains would travel through the University of Maryland campus and along the Georgetown Branch Trail between Bethesda and Silver Spring. This month, the MTA also will begin holding work sessions with residents along the 16-mile route to examine the trains' impacts and how they might be reduced..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...T2011010706433

[ardecila]

Neat. This is the fun part.

"We're trying to hold the cost down to $1.7 billion. What kinds of cool stuff can we throw in for that?"

Of course, there's always the threat of community opposition and legal action, just to add some excitement.

[202_Cyclist]

Greater Greater Washington has a good discussion of the potential Potomac Yard infill station on the Yellow/Blue lines.

Alexandria anxious for Potomac Yard Metro in 2016
http://greatergreaterwashington.org/...metro-in-2016/

[paytonc]

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

Why didn't the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority and WMATA build the first section to Tysons and then start on the extension to Wiehle Ave in Reston after this is completed instead of working on everything at the same time? I assume it is because of financing issues and perhaps political constraints.

Several considerations come to mind:
1. It's about half the total distance of the extension
2. The assumption is that the terminal station needs a big park & ride and bus interchange, which can't be done at Tysons West, but Wiehle already has a big P&R
3. I guess they wanted to at least sort of get to Reston.

Originally Posted by waltlantz

Does anyone think that in the near future, VRE and MARC would warrant off peak service in lieu of Metro expansion? Like the Metra in Chicago or Philly's SEPTA?

I would hope so: commuter rail offers lower capital and operating cost for lower density areas. Re-routing freight traffic around the metro to open up track capacity for commuter trains could prove to be quite cost-effective. Metro heavy rail is not a one-size-fits-all solution, but people in this region seem to treat it that way. One issue is that, unlike Chicago or Philadelphia or Boston, DC's suburbs grew up entirely around interstates and not around railroad-town suburbs -- so there aren't ROWs where we need them. The current commuter rail lines miss many huge activity centers, and (as was found when doing the alternatives analysis for the Silver Line) once you're acquiring new ROW you might as well go for higher-capacity modes than commuter/regional rail.

[ardecila]

The capital region is overwhelmingly in support of TOD, far more than any other American metro area. I'm sure that if commuter service was upgraded to a higher frequency, the suburban governments would encourage TOD.

Of course, part of the problem is that there are really only four lines into DC, and two of them already have Metro lines paralleling them for significant distances.

[Nexis4Jersey]

Originally Posted by ardecila

The capital region is overwhelmingly in support of TOD, far more than any other American metro area. I'm sure that if commuter service was upgraded to a higher frequency, the suburban governments would encourage TOD.

Of course, part of the problem is that there are really only four lines into DC, and two of them already have Metro lines paralleling them for significant distances.

But that still leaves a ton of stations on the Penn , Camden , and Brunswick line that have room for TOD. NJ and a few others states have TOD'd up the lines in the suburbans and its beens successful.

[ardecila]

I can see WMATA turning to commuter rail technology as a feeder for the Metro lines. BART has already run into this problem, and in lieu of extending the BART line at absurd cost, they're just building a DMU line instead, with a super-convenient cross-platform transfer in Bay Point.

The rail trails, like the W&OD, would be tricky to rip up in the developed suburbs, but there wouldn't be nearly as much opposition out in the sticks. I could see WMATA using these for suburban extensions.

[202_Cyclist]

@ardecila:

Reps. Jim Moran and Gerry Connelly sponsored legislation this congress (HR 55) to study extending the Orange Line Centerville and the Yellow and Blue lines.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.55:

[202_Cyclist]

@ardecila:

Reps. Jim Moran and Gerry Connelly sponsored legislation this congress (HR 55) to study extending the Orange Line Centerville and the Yellow and Blue lines.

[Nexis4Jersey]

Thats ridiculous , Regional Rail should connect cities and towns outside the DC core.... Its also cheaper to build and has the same amount of capacity..... I don't why they haven't poured more into MARC and VRE ....

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

@ardecila:

Reps. Jim Moran and Gerry Connelly sponsored legislation this congress (HR 55) to study extending the Orange Line Centerville and the Yellow and Blue lines.

Nah, skip this. Sink the money into upgrades to VRE service. Other than increasing the frequency, the other no-brainer is improving the connections between VRE and Metro. There should be direct passageway connections at King Street, Crystal City, and L'Enfant Plaza, just like there is at Franconia.

Hell, they could probably build another section of the Purple Line between Dunn Loring and Van Dorn next to the Beltway. It'd cost less.

[orulz]

Extending the yellow line 8 miles down US 1 to Fort Belvoir is IMO probably the most promising radial extension of the Metro. First, Fort Belvoir is going to explode with BRAC. The area is fairly built out, but there's plenty of old commercial development down there that's ripe for redevelopment like the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor was back in the 1970s.

[waltlantz]

I frankly don't see how you would build the Yellow line out towards the base.

I live in the area, there isn't a viable alternative for people to traverse route 1 if that's the place that's gonna be mucked up by construction.

I agree that they should bump up the VRE service.

[jamesinclair]

Anybody have updated on the H street streetcar project?

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by waltlantz

I frankly don't see how you would build the Yellow line out towards the base.

I live in the area, there isn't a viable alternative for people to traverse route 1 if that's the place that's gonna be mucked up by construction.

I agree that they should bump up the VRE service.

Well, if it is like the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor, then you'd just bore a subway tunnel under Route 1. Construction wouldn't affect drivers at all, except at the locations of stations (probably 3 or 4 sites).

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by waltlantz

I frankly don't see how you would build the Yellow line out towards the base.

I live in the area, there isn't a viable alternative for people to traverse route 1 if that's the place that's gonna be mucked up by construction.

I agree that they should bump up the VRE service.

Well, if it is like the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor, then you'd just build a subway down Route 1. Construction wouldn't affect drivers at all, except at the locations of stations.

I don't think it'll end up like Arlington, though. The housing isn't dense enough (yes, Arlington was fairly dense before Metro) and there's no support for increased density or pedestrian friendliness. Just look at the map... tons of streets have been severed in two to prevent through traffic, and the fences don't even let pedestrians through.

[novawolverine]

^^Route 1 could look to the plans for Rockville Pike's redevelopment as a model.

Originally Posted by orulz

Extending the yellow line 8 miles down US 1 to Fort Belvoir is IMO probably the most promising radial extension of the Metro. First, Fort Belvoir is going to explode with BRAC. The area is fairly built out, but there's plenty of old commercial development down there that's ripe for redevelopment like the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor was back in the 1970s.

I also think extending the Orange Line to Fairfax Corner/Fair Lakes would be a promising extension. I don't think it should go all the way to Centreville, though. Seems like that the politicians feel that if we're going to do an extension at all, it's better to make it a sizable one rather than a dinky one. Same can be said for the Yellow Line, I completely understand the desire to link Ft. Belvoir w/ the metro, but I would personally be content with an extension out to Hybla Valley and the commercial development down there rather than have it go all the way out to the base.

[novawolverine]

And I'm all for putting more funds into commuter rail, it is long, long overdue and can have a similar TOD affect. For outer suburbs and exurbs, people don't want dense development. The sort of development spurred by a commuter rail station is better suited for a place like Centreville or Lorton or Woodbridge and other places that people propose ought to have a subway stop.