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Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
Tag Archives: Metro
How Georgetown Would’ve Looked if Metro Never Built
As reported by several outlets, WMATA just put out an interesting study that looked at what DC would look like if Metro were never built. While the focus elsewhere has been on how devastated a neighborhood like Mt. Vernon Triangle would be in this alternate universe, Georgetown wouldn’t fare that well either.
The study estimated what the road network would have to look like in order to deliver the same number of workers downtown. Here are what roads would have to be expanded:
Filed under Transportation
The Morning Metropolitan
Photo by MudflapDC.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- Last week GM discussed how some long term Metro planning could affect Georgetown, here’s how that would fit in the overall planning.
- Campus plan hearings on recess till November.
- Class action refiled due to waterfront flooding.
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
Another Metro Line Through Georgetown Considered
Back in January, GM discussed the long range plans that a WMATA group was considering that would, among other things, bring a metro stop to Georgetown (actually, two metro stops). The new stations would be part of a plan to create a new cross-town Metro tunnel underneath M St. to accommodate the added traffic on the Silver Line.
Recently this same group considered another radical plan that would also bring a Metro stop to Georgetown. It would be called the Brown line and it would travel roughly parallel with the Red line from Friendship Heights down to Georgetown. From there it would travel across town south of the Blue/Orange lines before turning back north to head up through Petworth and on to 16th St. Heights.
This line is actually quite like another Brown line that was suggested by David Alpert three years ago (although even he hasn’t included it in fantasy maps he’s done since then). The WMATA group considered the impact that such a line would have on the overcrowding of the other lines. Among other impacts, the group estimated that the new Brown line would add approximately 20,000 more daily trips and increase the percentage of DC and Arlington residents using transit from 70% to 74%.
Of the various proposed new subway lines, GM thinks this one has the least utility. There isn’t much density around Ward Circle, nor is there much hope of adding much. Wisconsin and Mass is an even more screwy location for a Metro stop. Sure, people would use it to get to National Cathedral, but there just aren’t enough residents in the immediate vicinity to justify that. A Metro stop in Glover Park, on the other hand, would make a lot more sense, but this map doesn’t include one.
The idea of sending a Metro across town under Constitution Ave. was considered as an alternative route for the split Blue line. And the study group found that it would result in less ridership than a route under M St. GM thinks the same considerations would apply to the Brown line too. Continue reading
Filed under Transit
More on the Future Georgetown Metro Station
Earlier this week, GM went over all that you need to know about a Georgetown Metro station. That same day, GGW pointed GM to a little bit more information on the possibility of finally bringing Metro to Georgetown.
GM originally wrote that other than a couple statements about the need to build a new split Blue Line through the central core–which would include a new station in Georgetown–little progress towards planning has been accomplished. That wasn’t quite right.
WMATA has convened a group of regional transportation and land use experts to form the Technical Advisory Group (TAG). TAG has been meeting for a little over a year to plan for the long term future of Metro.
Already the group has issued several reports of the problems Metro faces in the future and the possible solutions. Most interesting, for Georgetown, was the presentation published last October. This presentation discussed, among other solutions, the split Blue Line (as well as a split Yellow Line).
The presentation puts a little meat on the bones in terms of the numbers behind why a new line is needed and how it will help, but there are a couple other interesting points too. For instance, the group is contemplating two Georgetown stations, not just one:
Filed under Transit
The Morning Metropolitan
Graphiti by the canal by Daquella Manera.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- WaPo reader stands up for Georgetown and points out that even without its own Metro station, we’ve got two that are pretty damn close.
- Speaking of Metro, We Love DC took another whack at the rich-Georgetowners-kept-out-the-Metro myth.
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
Where Would a Metro Stop Go Anyway?
While it is now little more than a glimmer in transit nerds’ eyes, the likelihood of a Georgetown metro station getting built is larger than you may realize. On the right is a map that appeared in the Washington Post in 2001. It described long term plans that WMATA was considering for the expansion of the Metrorail system. Those plans called for a splitting of the Orange and Blue lines. The new Blue line would split off from the Orange line at Rosslyn and travel parallel to the Orange line through downtown, finally meeting up with it again at Stadium-Armory. In building this separate Blue line, WMATA would have the chance to remedy the mistake it made decades ago and finally build a Georgetown station. In an act of enormous cart-before-the-horseing, GM wonders: where exactly would this station go anyway? But before we get to that, we need to go back to the 1960’s first. Continue reading
Filed under Transit
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
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