Metro officials have often said that the two-track design of the rail system precludes the possibility of express train service. However, Metro is now investigating the possibility of express train service, "similar to the J and Z lines in New York City." I have never been to New York but from what I can tell at nycsubway.org, the J and Z lines sometimes have two tracks, sometimes three (please correct me if I'm wrong.)
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massysett | 9:54 AM |
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The proposed summer timetable for CalTrain shows several "Baby Bullet" express trains with skip-stop service. It sounds like this line is primarily 2-track with some passing sidings, though I do not know for certain.
http://www.caltrain.com/pdf/Planning_for_the_Future/weekday_timetable_7_1_05.pdf
The big question is- does WMATA have sidings for the tracks in question? Can it build them? Especially underground, that seems quite difficult.
The J and the Z do skip-stop. There are a handful of stops where the Z stops during rush hours, and the J stops all other times (the Z is a rush-hour only train). Both trains stop at major stations in Brooklyn/Queens, and both trains, of course, stop at all of the origin stations in Lower Manhattan.
Imagine all Reds stopping at Union/Dish/Gallery/MetCen/FaraNor/Doops, and then Red 1 stopping at Woodley, Van Ness, and Friendship, while Red 2 stopped at Cleveland and Tenley. Both would stop at Bethesda.
On the topic of Caltrain, it's two tracks along most of the line but expands to four tracks in at least two places, which allows a few rush hour trains to pass locals and stop only at six or seven stations (the line has many more stations in communities bummed that they didn't get an express stop). For example, a pair of express tracks runs between the local tracks in one of the Santa Clara stations, so an express train can roll past a stopped local. I understand the Baby Bullet is very meticulously scheduled to allow this passing of trains to occur.
By the way, BART also has no regularly scheduled express trains. However, I read a local news article a couple of years ago saying that the extension from Colma (the town of graveyards south of San Francisco) to the SF airport included an express track that would be used on weekday mornings to speed trains past three stations to the airport station. That was the last I heard of that. Since then, the airport runs have been retooled because the whole extension turned out to be a financial and ridership mess.
What sort of headways are WMATA operating to? If they're running trains at 5-10 minute intervals, I'd agree that a combination of expresses and locals won't fit. But if the expresses and locals are each something like 30 minutes apart, there are plenty of lines in Britain that do that.
Tim,
In the city, the trains generally run 4-12 minute headways, depending on the time of day. Late at night, they go to 15-20 minute, depending on the line, but I can't see much benefit to running express trains at night.
I think the benefit of express trains is going to come when they build the extension out to Dulles airport, which will be quite a ride from the city. An express from downtown to Dulles would be quite useful; I'm not sure if an express from the current end of the red line (shady grove) would be quite as productive.
