Washington Window Shopping
DCist reports on plans to build a "Purple Line" connecting Montgomery and Prince George's Counties in Washington's inner suburbs. While it would be a good way to cut congestion on downtown Metro transfer stations by allowing people to switch at other points, would allow easier access to the University of Maryland and make it easier for PG residents to get to MoCo jobs, it strikes me that this plan may not be the best use of WMATA's limited planning funds. Instead of a growth-driver or a traffic-mitigator, it's basically an upgrade that gives users a higher-quality service where they once had lousy suburban buses or a little more driving. The East-West Highway is the main road this line would draw traffic from - it's fairly packed most of the time, but is narrow and residential in places and does not lend itself to being pedestrian-friendly in other places.
So what else could WMATA, MdMTA and VDOT be thinking about?
- Dulles Rail. This is the big one, and perhaps most likely to happen within our lifetimes. However, it has to contend with stingy Virgina politicians, the question of whether to go above ground or underground through Tyson's Corner, how Tyson's can be remade to be pedestrian-friendly (my vote goes for a network of above-road glass-enclosed walkways, like Futurama but without the air pressure, and whether forcing people to switch at Falls Church with all their luggage is really better than the current shuttle bus.
- Better VRE service. VDOT has to deal wih freight trains before the capacity can be increased on these commuter lines. Perhaps the concern over chemical-laden freight passing within blocks of the Capitol could push Congress to re-route many of these trains around the District, freeing up the two-track Potomac bridge and allowing for increased service (and perhaps some new spur lines on existing track) without much additional infrastructure cost. All those slugs who are finding that hybrids in HOV lanes make their commute more, well, sluggish, may give the trains a second thought if they ran more frequently and on weekends.
- Better MARC service. If you live in Baltimore, Washington is a great place to spend a day on the weekend. If you live in Washington, Baltimore is a great place to spend the weekend. If you live in Howard County, going either direction is a super-duper idea. Sadly, MARC service between the two regional hubs doesn't run on weekends, forcing people into cars and making weekend jams on 95 and 495 worse than they need to be, especially during Redskins games. Will it make money? Who knows. Perhaps the better solution would be to increase service by adding runs and decrease travel times by raising platforms at stations like Halethorpe on the Penn Line and closing underused stations. When MARC becomes more like Metro-North and less like VRE, the easier it will be to draw jobs to cities instead of losing them to poorly-planned office parks. And hey, while we're talkin' MARC, why not use that wide median on U.S. 50 to spur dense growth in P.G. County by running a line to Annapolis? Commuters would love to have an option that keeps them apart from the Bay Bridge traffic on Friday afternoons.
- "Purple Line" for Arlington and Alexandria. Northern Virginia is a mess, road-wise. It's congested for most of the day. Despite the ever-increasing density, Metro misses the core of the area entirely, forcing people onto bad buses that clog up the Pentagon and make Blue/Yellow line service very unpleasant and prone to delays. If people could get on elsewhere, Pentagon station would be saved from the throngs, central Arlington could look more like a real city and Old Town could be a bit easier to get to.
- DC Light Rail. Several corridors are being explored, with Anacostia Waterfront the farthest along. Still, absent a deal with CSX for use of freight tracks, replacing buses with streetcars on busy city streets does little to mitigate traffic or spur development.
- The big picture. Washington has strong public transportation, but the region's economic growth is causing strains on the system and driving jobs to the edges of the region, which increases traffic congestion and hurts carless workers who have increasingly limited employment options. The fact that so many corridors are used by freight traffic, both rail and truck-based, is an anachronism and a security risk that can be tackled if the security community, the environmental community and the transport industry can get together to find ways for freight to move around the region instead of right through it.
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rj3 | 11:35 AM |
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CSX owns the Fredericksburg line that VRE uses, they like to push a lot of freight through, and since they own the tracks they dictate that freight gets priority, most of the line is just double tracked. Meaning sometimes the trains get stuck behind freight trains I don't think they will have better VRE service without building a third track in parts to handle passing, though freight trains can get almost a mile long sometimes. Maybe VA could get priority on a third track from say 5am to 9pm if they payed for the construction costs, leaving freight to run the rest of the time, basically CSX would then get a free track to use at night in exchange for putting up with construction. Either way it is hard to improve commuter rail, the only commuter rail service I know runs really often is Caltrain, and that's because it owns its tracks.
-I've seen proposals to continue the Purple line around the other side, looping through Tysons Corner then just inside the Beltway through Annandale and Old Town, then through PG County in the vicinity of the Beltway. However I think it would be a lot better if the Virginia line went straight down Route 7 from Tysons or West Falls Church down to Oldtown.
-I remember there was a proposal a while back to separate the Blue and Orange lines between Rosslyn and Benning Road, and create a new line running in the vicinity of Key Bridge, then along M Street to Massachusetts, then down Massachutsetts to H St NE, to Benning, then along Benning across the Anacostia to join the the current junction of the Blue and Orange lines. I hope this one gets built.
-I'd really like to see a subway line down Columbia Pike towards Burke.
I think the alignment (which was proposed as an extension of the original system when it was designed 35+ years ago) is Columbia Pike from the Pentagon to Glen Carlyn and Seminary to Beauregard Street, then Little River Turnpike, then Ravensworth, then Braddock, then Guinea, then along the Southern RR tracks to Burke.
But if I had to design the system all over from the ground up, I would have:
-Routed what is now the northern Green line straight out 7th Street and Georgia Avenue to Silver Spring (possibly with a spur over to 14th Street, then looping back east to Takoma Park). I would have routed what is now the eastern side of the Red Line, starting at Union Station, up North Capitol, then out Rhode Island all the way out to College Park.
-Routed a line straight up Wisconsin Avenue through Georgetown, Burleith, and past western Cleveland Park and the grounds of the National Cathedral.
-On the Orange Line, I would have have changed the route between East Falls Church and the Beltway, to go along the alignment of the former WO&D RR to go straight through Falls Church.
-On the southern Blue line, I would have routed it along Mount Vernon Avenue in the north of Old Town, then cutting over to Washington Street to pass under the heart of Old Town.
-On the east side of downtown DC, I would have routed the Blue line from Union Station, east on H, over to Central Avenue.
-In short, I would have routed the lines along the former trolley and interurban routes, rather than the penny-wise and dollar-foolish routings along expressways and railroad tracks.
The purple line isn't being discussed as being funded by WMATA, but by the State of Maryland and other sources, although it's likely it would be run by WMATA.
Many of the ideas in the DCist post appear to have been gestated in my blog. Some of this is summed up in this blog entry, Transit without borders or five omissions "in" the Transportation Element of the DC "Comprehensive" Plan. But I have written about these issues plenty, in many other posts.
And today I uploaded some simulations by Steve Dunham, chair of the Virginia Association of Rail Patrons, showing MARC trains at L'Enfant Plaza and in Virginia, just to get people thinking a little more broadly. See MARC in L'Enfant Plaza and Virginia.
And Frank, I still need to sit down with a map and work through your suggestions...
