Washington Metrorail News

Updated 11.11.04

    The first phase of the Washington Metro opened in 1976. By early 2001, the Metro finally achieved full build-out of the original system, totaling 103 miles and 83 stations, making it the nation's second largest rail transit system. The clean, modern system has a maximum operating speed of 59 mph with an average speed (including stops) of 33 mph. Out of the total 103 miles, 50 are subway, 44 are at-grade, and 9 are elevated. Some of the subway portion is quite deep, with several stations served by elevator only (Forest Glen is the deepest at 196 feet below the surface). There are also 557 escalators in the system including the longest in the Western Hemisphere (230 feet, Wheaton station). Despite the world-class metro system, the Washington area is now the 2nd most congested large urban area in the country. WMATA has set a goal of doubling transit ridership by 2025. Several major expansion projects are currently under construction or being planned:

    Work is progressing on a 3.1 mile extension to Largo Town Center in Prince Georges County. This $434 million extension will add 2 additional stations along with a total of 2600 parking spaces. This extension is expected to open in December 2004.

    An in-fill station is being added on the Red Line at New York Avenue, with completion expected in late 2004 at a cost of $90 million. This is the first "in-fill" station to be added in the country. The Red Line is already the busiest line on the system, and the new station is expected to service an additional 6600 daily riders.

    The next major Metro project is shaping up to be a very large expansion, perhaps the most significant new metro expansion in the country since the Los Angeles Red Line was built -- a new 23.1 mile Metro extension to Dulles International Airport and beyond. Metrorail has been selected as the preferred option, and is a final Record of Decision will be made sometime in 2004. The new line will start from the West Falls Church station of the Orange Line and go to through the Tysons Corner the rapidly growing areas of Reston and Herndon, to Dulles International Airport, and ending beyond the airport. The line will likely be built in 2 stages. Phase I will be a new extension of the Metro Orange Line running from the West Falls Church station to Wiehle Avenue in Reston. This phase will be 11.6 miles long and include 5 new stations and an enhanced rail yard at West Falls Church. The estimated cost for this phase is $1.9 billion. Construction should start in 2006 and be completed by 2009. Phase II will extend the line to the airport and beyond to Route 772, an additional 11.5 miles. This segment will include 6 new stations and cost about $1.4 billion. Phase II is scheduled to open by 2015. In the meantime, Bus Rapid Transit will be implemented in the corridor beginning in 2005. When the new rail extension is finally complete, a trip from Dulles Metrorail Station to Metro Center Metrorail Station in downtown Washington, D.C. should take 50 minutes. 2025 ridership of the extension is expected to be about 86,900.

    Looking far down the road, another major new line may eventually be built -- the Purple Line. Right now, the ultimate alignment is up in the air, and much political haggling is occurring over whether to put the line inside the beltway as a surface light rail line, or whether to place it outside the beltway as an underground subway. Either option would be quite expensive, but the outer line could cost $5 billion.

    Commuter Rail

Chicago

    Metra                                                                  Map

Los Angeles

    Metrolink                                                            Map        6 lines    416 miles    49 stations    32,443   

trains per day                                                                              128

average system speed:                                                             44 mph

autos removed from roads each day:                                     21,218

average commuter trip distance:                                             36.7 miles

percent of riders who formerly drove alone:                             65.4%

percent of peak hour traffic removed from parallel freeways: 2.9% 

Miami                                              

    Tri-Rail                                                                Map        1 line       72 miles      18 stations      8500           

    Tri-Rail is embarking on a $456 million project to double track the remaining single track stretches on it's line between Magnolia Park to Miami. The project, to be completed in 2005, will allow trains to be run more frequently, passing every 20 minutes instead of every hour currently. Due to the Miami metro area's linear shape, this commuter system is unique in that there is equal ridership in each direction instead of the typical one direction demand.

New York City

    MTA Metro-North Railroad                               Map

     New Jersey Transit                                            Map

     MTA Long Island Rail Road                              Map

     Staten Island Railway                                         Map

Seattle

     Sound Transit Sounder                                       Map

Washington, D.C./Baltimore

     MARC - Maryland Regional Commuter Rail      Map 

     VRE - Virginia Railway Express                         Map

The federal government provides much of the funding for various transit projects around the nation. The following reports contain a wealth of information on projects that are underway or proposed.

2001 Annual Report on New Starts (FY02) Alphabetical Index

Supplemental Reports on New Starts 2001

Characteristics of Urban Transportation Systems -- Revised 1992

Annual Report on New Starts -- Proposed Allocations on Funds for Fiscal Year 2002

Annual Report on New Starts -- Proposed Allocations on Funds for Fiscal Year 2003

General Info about Heavy Rail Transit

AVERAGE RAIL TRANSIT SPEEDS