Washington DC: Rail transit

[202_Cyclist]

waltlantz:

I understand how Tysons will develop.

What I am failing to see is how vaunted TOD will work in places like Reston, Herndon and beyond with stations in the middle of the Toll Road.

There is already a large transit oriented development under construction at Wiehle Avenue, at the terminus of the first phase of the Silver line extension.

http://www.comstockpartnerslc.com/Reston.php

[waltlantz]

Well with Dulles rail being built, I guess the next thing to do is fix problems in the core.

We've already talked about the Columbia Pike streetcar. Do you think there are other corridors that could warrant streetcar/tram like service?

Maybe Route 7 to Tysons? Or between Fort Belvior and Huntington?

[Nexis4Jersey]

Alexandria could use a streetcar to connect the Old Area with the Metro and Waterfront , aswell Amtrak / VRE.

[dgreen]

Originally Posted by Nexis4Jersey

Alexandria could use a streetcar to connect the Old Area with the Metro and Waterfront , aswell Amtrak / VRE.

It has a free trolley.

[202_Cyclist]

Amtrak envisions underground expansion to Union Station

Washington Business Journal
By Daniel J. Sernovitz
7/10/2012

"Getting from the District to New York City could get a lot easier and quicker under a plan unveiled Monday by rail operator Amtrak Amtrak Latest from The Business Journals Amtrak proposes underground expansion at Union StationAmtrak envisions N.Y. to Washington in 94 minutes by 2030 Amtrak trains change schedule for rolling through Kansas City Follow this company .

Amtrak is proposing to build a six-track, high-speed rail station under Union Station in D.C. The addition is aimed at increasing the rail station's capacity and could lay the groundwork for a 94-minute commute from the District to the Big Apple by 2030. The concept is part of a more ambitious push by Amtrak to increase capacity and speeds from Boston to D.C., which Amtrak considers among the busiest rail corridors in the country.

Amtrak spokesman Steve Kulm said the underground proposal at Union Station in D.C. is just conceptual at this point. That means it is not yet funded and is just one of several big-ticket improvements Amtrak is planning..."

http://www.bizjournals.com/washingto...ess+Journal%29

[ardecila]

Would it be better and a hell of a lot easier/cheaper to build a new through-station somewhere else if Union Station is maxed out? They could fit one in Southeast somewhere, possibly by the Minnesota Ave metro station. This is roughly the situation in Rome with Termini/Tiburtina.

Of course, this would negate one of the advantages of HSR - city center access - but arriving in Southeast wouldn't be any less convenient than flying into Reagan, so I don't think there's a competitiveness problem. You'd have Metro access, potential VRE/MARC access, and of course the normal set of taxis and shuttles.

And, of course, this does not stop Amtrak from continuing to run premium services directly into Union Station... but the 1st Street tunnel and its meager platforms will increasingly be needed for commuter services, so trains to/from points south would use the new station, such as the extended Northeast Regionals to Richmond, Newport News and Lynchburg.

[Nexis4Jersey]

Originally Posted by dgreen

It has a free trolley.

Nah , that doesn't count , a real trolley is needed and would be used by alot more.

[cambron J]

380-ton span marks milestone for Dulles Rail project
07 17 2012 18:14
Adam Tuss
wtop.com

[202_Cyclist]

I am impressed but of course the challenge is finding the money for this. Be sure to check out the renderings for this proposal.

Amtrak to propose $7 billion overhaul at Union Station

By Jonathan O'Connell and Ashley Halsey III
July 24, 2012
The Washington Post

"Amtrak is proposing a $7 billion transformation of Union Station, intended to triple passenger capacity and transform the overcrowded station into a high-speed rail hub for the Northeast.

The plan, to be unveiled Wednesday afternoon, calls for doubling the number of trains the station can accommodate and improving the passenger experience at what is the second-busiest Amtrak station in the country, with 100,000 passenger trips per day.


(Gene Thorp/Shalom Baranes Associates) - Redevelopment plans for Union Station

The building’s corridors, concourses and platforms — many dating to the station’s 1907 opening — are regularly jammed during rush hour and major tourist events. The station’s overcrowded tracks hinder Amtrak and regional train operators from adding new trains despite growing demand..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/...y.html?hpid=z3

[dgreen]

What happens to parking at Union Station? Is it gone? Fully underground?

Anyone know how much the current garage is used?

[202_Cyclist]

Originally Posted by dgreen

What happens to parking at Union Station? Is it gone? Fully underground?

Anyone know how much the current garage is used?

Rep. Eleanor Holmes-Norton was at the July 2012 ANC 3B meeting. There was a resident from Ward 5 who attended the meeting and noted to Rep. Norton that the District plans to move the intercity buses to a location next to a school in Ward 5 from the current location in the Union Station garage. As you would expect, neighbors are not happy with this proposal.

[afiggatt]

Originally Posted by dgreen

What happens to parking at Union Station? Is it gone? Fully underground?

Anyone know how much the current garage is used?

The Union Station Master Plan Executive Summary (28 pages, 14 MB) has been posted on the Amtrak website. Worth the read for anyone interested. Quite ambitious with major improvements to pedestrian access from the west and north, integration with the H Street streetcar line, greatly expanded concourse areas, even acknowledges the need to reserve physical space for a new DC Metro line connecting at the station.

The Amtrak press release is here, but it is mostly a reprise with supporting statements of the plan.

As for the parking garage, the plan is to tear it down in Phase 3 after building a new underground garage on the east side of the tracks in Phase 2. The support pillars from the parking garage limit the space on the platforms and the garage prevents re-aligning the tracks and building longer straight platforms. The parking garage is used, although at $22 a day it is not cheap.

The plan calls for additional parking capacity in a new underground garage below Columbia Plaza and in lots controlled by the Architect of the Capitol. That is a tall order. May want to reserve the physical space under Columbia Plaza for DC Metro expansion or the southern edge of a rerouted Blue Line running SE.

[jg6544]

From the New York Times:

Ridership on Amtrak has grown to record levels in the past five years, and the railroad is responsible for 75 percent of the air-rail passenger traffic along the Northeast Corridor, up from about 37 percent in 2001.


This is for the benefit of people who don't believe people will use even rapid rail when it is offered to them.

[afiggatt]

There are many aspects to the Master Plan for DC Union Station. This plan was clearly done in close coordination with DC DOT, WMATA, and all the major stakeholders in Union Station. It would greatly improve the pedestrian access to the station from the west and north, the H street streetcar, throws in a bike and pedestrian greeenway path on the western side. And lots of new retail space and the Akridge development with new office & residential buildings over the tracks and air space to help pay for it.

One part worth noting is the recognition by WMATA that they need to plan for a second Metro line to Union Station and the plans refer to that, even if it is in the post 2028 Phase 4 of the station projects. Quoting the plan:

"Currently WMATA ’s busiest station, 68,000 metrorail passengers utilize Union Station each weekday. Today, the greatest points of congestion within the station surround the Metrorail’s access points. The Master Plan incorporates Metrorail’s near-term station improvements at the north mezzanine and provides a new pedestrian network at the Metrorail mezzanine level that offers convenient connections to all of the passenger concourses and to 1st Street and NoMa via the West Concourse. The Master Plan also recognizes that at some point in the future the Metrorail Red Line will reach its capacity at Union Station, and anticipates new Metrorail capacity serving Union Station. WMATA , operator of the Metrorail, has initiated long-range planning for a possible new line serving Union Station, but a preferred alignment has not yet been identified, and thus the Master Plan allows for future pedestrian connections to a new Metrorail station in any of several possible configurations."

The new lower level HSR tracks would also be designed so they could be extended to the south for future extensions of HSR to VA, NC, and the southeastern US. So, the plans are taking the many parts of big picture into account: DC Metro expansion, Southeast (true) HSR, the streetcar system, the near term needs for capacity expansion of Concourse A which gets very crowded with the current level of passenger traffic.

Ridership on the Northeast Regionals is up +7.2% for the first 8 months of the fiscal year. Ridership on the Acela is flat, most likely because Amtrak is charging what the market will bear. Add in ridership growth on the Virginia Regionals, service starting to Norfolk in December, the LD trains, MARC. amd VRE, Union Station is going to get increasingly congested in the near term. So Phase 1 for Concourse A improvements and expansion would be from 2013-2017 under the title "Immediate Action".

[202_Cyclist]

VRE ridership soars again

July 25, 2012
Washington Examiner
By Kytja Weir


"Virginia Railway Express logged record ridership last year, as the service celebrates 20 years of shuttling riders from Northern Virginia to D.C. jobs.

The commuter train service's ridership grew by 5.6 percent in the fiscal year that ended June 30 from the previous year, jumping from 4.5 million trips to 4.8 million, according to the chief executive officer's monthly report.

The rise is not as big as last year's 12 percent jump but comes after years of steady increases..."

http://washingtonexaminer.com/vre-ri...rticle/2503157

[Swede]

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

Rep. Eleanor Holmes-Norton was at the July 2012 ANC 3B meeting. There was a resident from Ward 5 who attended the meeting and noted to Rep. Norton that the District plans to move the intercity buses to a location next to a school in Ward 5 from the current location in the Union Station garage. As you would expect, neighbors are not happy with this proposal.

That sounds like a bad idea. It being good to have the main intercity bus terminal at the main rail station of a city is not that hard a concept to grasp.

[afiggatt]

Originally Posted by Swede

That sounds like a bad idea. It being good to have the main intercity bus terminal at the main rail station of a city is not that hard a concept to grasp.

The plan calls for the new expanded bus terminal to be at the north end of the station complex, at the end of the center concourse. Shown in the layout diagram. However, the north end location places it in the vicinity of the school, but not that close. The school is near the tracks, a enclosed bus terminal over the tracks should not be a big deal.

Just getting some initial knee jerk reactions to something new from the locals.

[Swede]

ah, that makes more semse classic nimby-reaction too. A new enclosed bus terminal on the other side of busy rail tracks? not gonna harm the school much, no.

[afiggatt]

While I was searching for DC Metro planning material, I came across this 14 page January, 2012 "Appendix 1: Phase I Strategies" presentation that nicely summarizes in one place, all the alternate routes, extensions, interline connectors, new lines, possible infill stations that were analyzed for (by?) the Technical Advisory Group over the past several years. I think they are supposed to generate a written report summarizing the findings with recommendations for further analysis.

Page 2 is the base case assumptions of projects that are expected to be completed by 2030: Silver Line, Purple Line from Bethesda to New Carrollton, the initial Northern VA and DC streetcar lines, Potomac Yard infill station, and so on. So the passenger traffic and flow analysis starts with those included (and obviously a number of assumptions on passenger traffic on the yet-to-be-built lines).

Some of these analyzed routes are obviously very expensive and extremely unlikely to be built such as the Beltway Line or extending this or that line way the heck out there, but it makes sense from a covering the bases standpoint to be able to say, yes, we did look at that idea.

The more interesting ideas are the alternate Blue and Silver Line reroutes on page 4, the Brown Line on page 5, some of more reasonable extensions on page 7 & 8, the possible interline connections, potential infill stations on page 10, extending the Purple Line way pass New Carrollton (as a more affordable partial Beltway Line substitute), Streetcar extensions.

Certainly a lot of ideas in there to discuss if people want to do so.

[Beta_Magellan]

What really strikes me are the potential reroutings on page 9 that go to Tyson’s Corner/Dulles—intriguing that only adding (or are they already there?) a few wyes could allow for trains to bypass DC (or, in one case, connect Tysons to the Pentagon to DC). I don’t know if these would pencil out in terms of operating costs and new ridership, but it’s pretty incredible to see how easily WMATA could serve non-District commuters. This sort of inter-suburban service is a holy grail to a lot of agencies, but they usually aren’t able to effectively serve such markets with rail or even bus. The density of DC’s secondary centers and configuration of existing rail assets makes inter-suburban rail—not just rail, but Metro—possible, though.