What Are the “Metro 2025” Projects in Momentum?
Metro’s Momentum plan calls for seven medium-term capital initiatives – known collectively as Metro 2025. And last week, Metro applauded a funding agreement from Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia for $75 million as a “down payment” to begin work on Metro 2025. This is welcome news, indeed, and allows Metro to prepare to begin work on much-needed capacity increases to support the region’s growth.
Those of you who are less familiar with Momentum may be wondering: “What exactly are these projects?”
In a nutshell, the Metro 2025 initiatives are:
Eight-Car TrainsToday, most Metrorail trains have only six cars, and that means crowding – which is only projected to worsen. This project would enable Metro to run all eight-car trains in the peak period, which are the longest possible in our stations, and add 35% additional capacity to the rail network. It would expand the rail fleet and yards, and improve the power and signal infrastructure to handle the load. |
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Core Station ImprovementsIf we lengthen the trains, we need to expand key stations as well! Since-eight car trains add capacity for 35,000 more trips per hour, 80% of rail customers transfer or alight in the core, and most of these core stations are already over capacity, we need more core station capacity. This project would enlarge platforms, and add escalators, elevators, stairs, and pedestrian passageways to 15 stations. |
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Bus Priority Corridors and Fleet ExpansionThe Priority Corridor Network would construct bus-only lanes, give buses priority at traffic lights, and bring service similar to MetroExtra to 24 lines throughout the region. The PCN will take tens of thousands of cars off the road, add 100,000 riders, moving buses 50% faster, and cut fuel costs. In addition, this project would expand Metro’s bus fleet by around 400 buses, allowing us to increase frequencies. |
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New Blue Line ConnectionsMetro faces a bottleneck at Rosslyn station, where three lines (Orange, Silver, Blue) converge. This major project would try to fix this bottleneck, and restore six-minute Blue Line frequencies between Pentagon and Rosslyn stations. We are analyzing the feasibility of a few options, including a second Rosslyn Station that would enable underground transfers between the two stations. |
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Next Generation CommunicationsThis program would expand our current communications infrastructure to provide an integrated one-stop communication hub for the regions’ transit customers. Improvements would include: radio system upgrades, real-time bus information at bus stops, and new public address system at stations. |
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Pocket Tracks and CrossoversThis project would add special trackwork at key locations in the rail network to give us more flexibility with Metro’s two-track system. These new tracks would allow us to turn trains around, add system flexibility to Metro’s two-track system, and store trains at important locations. |
A couple questions:
Where exactly would WMATA hope to place the crossovers and pocket tracks? Would this finally enable Yellow Line service to Fort Totten at all times? (This would be especially useful if new Blue Line Connections reduce the possible tph on the Yellow Line.)
And why are we only talking about 8-car trains at rush hour? Once WMATA has the rolling stock, the marginal costs of adding two cars to a train would seem insignificant. Not to mention that having a constant, uniform 8-car length would make boarding/deboarding and station circulation much more manageable.