Last week when GM was writing about the debate over Georgetown University’s Ten Year Plan, he mentioned that ultimately the best way to tackle the transportation challenges facing the university and the neighborhood would be for both parties to get behind the effort to bring a Metro stop to Georgetown. This comment led a reader to write to GM and ask what the status of that effort is.
Rather than just answer that question, GM thought he’d take this opportunity to write about all he knows about a Metro stop in Georgetown: why we don’t have one and why we may yet get one (eventually).
Why There is No Georgetown Metro
If you take anything away from this article, please let it be this: the reason there is no Metro station in Georgetown has absolutely nothing to do with neighborhood opposition. Nothing. No “rich Georgetowners wanted to keep out minorities”-conspiracy. No matter how much it fits with the popular stereotype, it’s just not true.
As rigorously documented in Zachary Schrag’s Great Society Subway, the planners behind Metro simply never seriously considered putting a station in Georgetown. The reason: the Potomac. To get under the river, the Metro tunnel has to start heading down far enough away so that it’s not like a roller-coaster.
Commercial Georgetown is very close to the river and on a steep hill, which wouldn’t give the tunnel much distance to reemerge from underneath the river. Thus a Georgetown station would be extremely deep. It would be physically possible to build, but it would be extremely expensive.
And the Metro planners didn’t see a reason to spend that sort of money on Georgetown. In the 1960s when the plans were developed, Georgetown had little office space and few apartment buildings. It simply was not a destination of suburban commuters. Since that was the audience for which the Metro was primary designed to serve, Georgetown was not considered a worthwhile station location.
That’s it. No matter how affirming of all the stereotypes of Georgetowners the myth is, it’s absolutely false.
Why There May Someday Finally Be a Georgetown Metro
In 2013, the first phase of the new Silver Line will open. As planned, the Silver Line will branch off of the Orange Line at East Falls Church and head out to Tyson’s Corner and onwards to Dulles and beyond. Since the Silver Line will share tracks with the Orange Line from East Falls Church to Rosslyn and the Blue and the Orange Lines from Rosslyn eastward, the Silver Line will ultimately add a significant amount of riders to already overburdened rails.
As far back as 2001, Metro recognized that the tunnel between Rosslyn and Foggy Bottom could not handle the increase in traffic that would be necessary once the Silver Line opened. Metro proposed as a solution to split the Blue Line from the Orange Line through the center of DC. The map above, which was produced by the Washington Post at the time Metro proposed this solution, shows the plan. The new Blue Line would go under the Potomac in a new tunnel and then head east underneath M St., rejoining its old route at Stadium Armory.
This new line would include a station for Georgetown. Metro planners would still face all the challenges they faced in the 1960s when they decided not to build a station here, but now they would likely consider it worth the cost.
The 2001 plan disappeared from the discussion pretty soon after it was floated. In 2008, Metro staffers revived the plan again when they drafted a report to the Metro board detailing necessary long term capital projects. As in 2001, the 2008 plan vanished into the ether pretty soon after it was produced.
The fact is that this project would cost a lot of money. A lot, lot of money. And the costs would be born mainly by the District. And in case you didn’t notice, we don’t have the cash. We’re looking at a $600 million shortfall for next year. Of course, a project like this is such a long term project that yearly budget waxings and wanings probably shouldn’t matter.
Moreover, unlike stations like the youngish Columbia Heights station, the stations on the split Blue Line would mostly be in already developed neighborhoods. So new development would be unlikely to defray much of the cost. (Unless, of course, raising the height cap downtown was on the table.)
But the first phase of the Silver Line is opening in 2013, and the line should be complete by the end of this decade. While rerouting the Blue Line across the 14th St. bridge could mitigate the pain for a while, ultimately we’re going to need a new tunnel underneath the Potomac.
And when Metro and the city realize that they can’t kick the can any further down the road, serious planning for the split Blue Line will begin. GM doesn’t have a clue when that day may come. Five years? Ten years? Twenty years? Who knows. But what GM does know is that no serious objection to a Georgetown Metro stop will arise.
And when that glorious day comes and Metro finally opens a Georgetown stop, there will still be lazy journalists writing articles about how Georgetowners finally “allowed” a Metro stop. Hopefully the Georgetown Metropolitan will still be around to correct them…
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
Pingback: There is no Georgetown conspiracy to keep out POCs. | DCentric
GM, thank you for exploding the untruth about why Georgetown has no Metro station. It’s amazing how such a story got its legs. Undoubtedly, it became a convenient way for the city government to explain itself.
Now at last, the long-standing prejudice against Georgetown in this matter, will at last be known for what it has been.
Pingback: Tweets that mention All You Need to Know About the Georgetown Metro Stop | The Georgetown Metropolitan -- Topsy.com
There is a ‘stop’ in Georgetown. Access to and from Metro via Thompson’s Boat House, not the escalator Kevin Costner used in No Way Out.
Don’t forget the the right-of-way that extends from Georgetown in post pattern and landing eventually in Laurel at the Konterra project. The ROW is owned by Kingdom Gould, I believe. Eastward from Georgetown is the best case for a streetcar in all of the DC area.
Although I don’t think this idea stands a chance, how about building a bridge instead of a tunnel to carry the blue line? Perhaps near the Key Bridge, then the train tunnels would be constructed by Cut+Cover down M St.
The only drawback I see to this would be the 1) costs, 2) disruption to the neighborhood, and3) potential noise, but it would be one step closer to solving the Orange crush.
http://beatusest.blogspot.com/2009/12/alternative-way-to-get-blue-line-to.html
This is all interesting but the solution I believe is simpler. New dedicated right-of-ways for tunnels and bridges will take considerable amount of time and expense. Surface transportation is much cheaper. Just use the areas under both bridges (graph supporting or straddling structures to Key Bridge and Whitehurst Freeway) to put in transit and conveyor connectors between Roslyn and Georgetown, Georgetown and GWU-Foggy Bottom station. There is nothing wrong with walking a block from one transit modal type to another once getting off one of these systems. By tunneling or bridging a metro line, commuters walk, escalate, and climb steps already due to changes in grades. Think short term effective solutions, no honeycombing through layers of rock and earth. Think healthy solutions.
Pingback: More on the Future Georgetown Metro Station | The Georgetown Metropolitan
Good summary of issues here, and I agree completely that logistical and financial concerns have impeded the creation of a Metro station in Georgetown. However, the author’s comment that the feasibility has “absolutely nothing to do with neighborhood opposition” is downright ignorant. The reason that there isn’t opposition is that there has never been a definitive/credible movement to actually proceed with developing a Georgetown station. The reality is that if this idea ever gained serious momentum, the neighborhood associations would crush it. Crush it quicker and harder than any other urban planning initiative in DC history. Case in point, the politically musclebound neighborhood association was successful in re-routing Georgetown University buses that ferry staff and students to/from the Dupont Metro. Implemented about 3 years ago, the re-routing of the buses easily doubled the length of the trip, with buses traveling a circtuitous 10 blocks further north than necessary to travel through Glover Park rather than a direct route through Volta or any other lettered street in Georgetown. That was all just because the residents opposed the sound of the buses. A metro stop would introduce a set of issues and concerns far in excess of a simple, benign bus route. Neighborhood opposition should not be dismissed.
“Walter” is right. There is an old access entrance to what might have been the beginnings of a Georgetown Metro Station. Back in 1988 we (the crew team i was on at the time) discovered that if you climb the soda machine on the side of Thompson’s Boat House, hoisted yourself on the roof you can access an escape tunnel for the Metro system. Being bored teenagers we decided to venture down the UNLOCKED access stairs one afternoon while we were supposed to be running the Exorcist steps. Once we reach the bottom of the stair case we found ourselves on a water soaked platform about 100 feet from the Metro tracks. The platform was tilted slightly away from the tracks so the area where the trains rocket by was dry. We kinda freaked ourselves out when we saw a train fly by and decided to bail. But it was definitely not just a tunnel escape hatch (like the ones up and down Conn Ave) – it was designed and built for a large purpose. Such a sketchy situation when i think about it now.
Pingback: Vox Populi » Fiona Grieg, potential Ward 2 Council candidate, talks to DCSS
Pingback: Vox Populi » Fiona Greig, potential Ward 2 Council candidate, talks to DCSS
Is there a reason why a Georgetown line would have to cross the Potomac?
Pingback: Three Years Goes Fast | The Georgetown Metropolitan
I never quite understood the myth that Georgetown Residents didn’t want the Urban Vermin from SE DC and elsewhere coming into Georgetown via Metro…It’s not like the Vermin could take a train to Foggy Bottom and WALK or hop on a BUS to GET to Georgetown…Oh I forgot, Georgetown is in some walled-off Garden that only a Metro station can deliver rodents to…
Pingback: WMATA Recommits to New Potomac Crossing | The Georgetown Metropolitan
Pingback: Rule #1: Anything That Can Go Wrong Will Go Wrong | Abroad in DC
Pingback: More Details on What a Metro to Georgetown Would Look Like | The Georgetown Metropolitan
Pingback: ANC Preview: All On-Board With Metro Edition | The Georgetown Metropolitan
Pingback: Metro Planners Endorse Georgetown Stations | The Georgetown Metropolitan
Pingback: Why One Should Always Build Mass Transit When Offered: Georgetown, D.C. | Mike the Mad Biologist
Pingback: DC Metro is the Worst
Pingback: WMATA Studying the Possibility of a Georgetown Metro Stop (or Two) | The Georgetown Metropolitan
Pingback: WMATA Once Again Lays Out Plan to Bring Metro to Georgetown | The Georgetown Metropolitan