BREAKING: Metro is considering extended closures of lines

[mtuandrew]

In comparison can MARC and VRE - on their routes paralleling Metro lines - offer any form of added service
during the term of a Metrorail route closure period? Can they reasonably accommodate added riders that do
normally use Metro during any major service changes such as the recent 3/16 one day shutdown?

MACTRAXX

In four areas, yes:

-Union Station - L'Enfant - Crystal City - Alexandria - Springfield, for the Blue/Yellow Lines.
-WUS - New Carrollton (no intermediate stops currently), for the Orange Line.
-WUS - Silver Spring - Kensington - Rockville, directly paralleling the Red Line.
-WUS - College Park - Greenbelt, for the Green/Yellow Rush Plus Lines.

Otherwise, commuter rail can do nothing for the Orange & Silver west of L'Enfant, nothing for the Red west of Union Station, nothing for the Blue/Silver east of L'Enfant, and nothing for the Green south of L'Enfant (or between College Park and L'Enfant.) That leaves a LOT of the system uncovered, with a fair amount (Red and Yellow/Green north of downtown in particular) not parallel to major highways.

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Maybe the better solution is to single-track these lines for extended periods. Stuff as many 8-car trains as you can through the single straw, flip-flop directional running every half hour to hour, and coordinate opposite-direction buses... it ain't perfect, but it keeps the system from bursting as much.

[Sand Box John]

"STrRedWolf"
Yes, but that's ATC headway, under computer control. They haven't switched that fully back on yet, and I doubt they will for the next five years. Meanwhile, folks are jamming into the Silver, Orange, and Red lines in core. Hell, they need to build a shuttle between Metro Center and Gallery Place, just for that traffic. (And if you don't believe that, you obviously haven't ridden MetroRail in rush hour)

Restore automatic operation, automatic door opening along with correcting the issues needed to make precise station stops will aide getting most of the way to closer headways. More rolling stock to allow closer headways will allow the reduction of the ridicules long dwell times that limit through put. There will be fewer passenger boarding and discharging because of the greater number of trains passing through the stations each hour.

Imagine NY Subway traffic all the time in DC. It's getting there. They need to tunnel and lay down rail.

New York City is 5 times taller then Washington DC, I don't see that happening because of the height limitation, and all of that for the foreseeable future can be address by implementing the above.

[JackRussell]

In four areas, yes:

-Union Station - L'Enfant - Crystal City - Alexandria - Springfield, for the Blue/Yellow Lines.
-WUS - New Carrollton (no intermediate stops currently), for the Orange Line.
-WUS - Silver Spring - Kensington - Rockville, directly paralleling the Red Line.
-WUS - College Park - Greenbelt, for the Green/Yellow Rush Plus Lines.

This is subject to availability however. VRE is sharing Long Bridge with CSX, and I didn't think there were any more available slots. They keep talking about rebuilding that bridge (and adding another track or two), but that's off in the future somewhere. MARC may well have similar scheduling issues.

The easiest thing they can do is to beg/borrow/steal some more rolling stock so they can add cars to existing trains.

[Sand Box John]

"JackRussell"
This is subject to availability however. VRE is sharing Long Bridge with CSX, and I didn't think there were any more available slots. They keep talking about rebuilding that bridge (and adding another track or two), but that's off in the future somewhere. MARC may well have similar scheduling issues.

The easiest thing they can do is to beg/borrow/steal some more rolling stock so they can add cars to existing trains.

The predecessors of MARC and prior to the opening of Metorail use to serve commuters from stations at Landover Road on the NEC and Hyattsville on the Capital Subdivision south of the Alexandria Subdivision junction.

The adding of the third and forth track to Long Bridge is now in Phase II Study.

[mtuandrew]

This is subject to availability however. VRE is sharing Long Bridge with CSX, and I didn't think there were any more available slots. They keep talking about rebuilding that bridge (and adding another track or two), but that's off in the future somewhere. MARC may well have similar scheduling issues.

The easiest thing they can do is to beg/borrow/steal some more rolling stock so they can add cars to existing trains.

Mhmm - CalTrans and Metra both use gallery cars, and there are private fleets of galleries around, so it'd be easier for VRE to lease stuff that's compatible with their system. MARC might have more issues, but there has to be Comet or other single-level equipment hiding somewhere.

For the other lines, welcome to Busland. Maybe WMATA can arrange for accordion buses with priority transit signals, kind of like Metroway on a smaller scale.

[MCL1981]

There's very little MARC can do to help pick up Metro's slack. I don't think there are any "extra slots" on any line. As it is, Penn Line trains are peeling out every 5 to 10 minutes in the afternoon. The Camden and Brunswick lines are every 20-40 minutes, but they have to share track with CSX. And even if there were a few openings, MARC does not have a bunch of extra cars and locomotives lying around to put a bunch more trains in service.

[JDC]

Metro's GM has basically ruled out any extended closures of entire lines. Instead, segments of lines may be on the table. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/tr ... story.html

[JDC]

Metro's GM and reporter DiCaro were on the KoJo show this morning. Listen here https://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/201 ... ns-capital