Category: Transit in D.C.

Construction has begun all along the Phase I corridor of Metro’s Silver Line. I paused to take a snap of the early activity at the site of the Wiehle Avenue station (and terminus, pending completion of Phase II). This is the view looking west, with the Reston Parkway interchange visible in the distance.

And then, at the foot of the overpass, I came across a bizarre flowering vine that I’d noticed once before in similar disturbed, suburban habitat. My Niering and Olmstead field guide IDs this as Passionflower (Passiflora sp.), with its ten tepals and five stamens. The bumblebees seem to like it.

Michael Perkins for GGW reproduces the public art under review for the new Silver Line stations.

So every evening I walk down New York Avenue to my subway station, and I see the queue of travelers with their rollage waiting for the BoltBus or the Megabus. These days the buses are using the parking lot that replaced the old convention center as a loading area. There is a cheap art space that the city set up on the site to try to relieve the double square block of pavement, with some inconsequential pavillions, and these provide a scrap of shelter for the waiting riders. And I thought, wouldn’t it be a great idea to provide a permanent structure, something like a bus depot, for these guys? And then I realized that the old Greyhound bus terminal is right across 11th Street N.W.

Sommer Mathis clears up a mini-mystery for me: the original name of the Woodley Park Metro station (or Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan, if you must) was indeed Zoological Park. That explains the rail-to-bus transfer (in itself relic technology now) that I found in my deep book backlog; I was using it as a bookmark. It was stamped Zoological Park.

This notice of a public hearing before the Fairfax County Planning Commission is posted at the Wiehle Avenue park and ride lot. It reads, in part:

January 28, 2009 8:15 p.m.

METROPOLITAN WASHINGTON AIRPORTS AUTHORITY AND THE VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF RAIL AND PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION ON BEHALF OF WASHINGTON METROPOLITAN AREA TRANSIT AUTHORITY

* * *

To permit an electrically-powered regional rail transit facility and associated components.

The zoning exceptions for this station are designated “SPECIAL EXCEPTION APPLICATION SE 2008-HM-038
CONCURRENT WITH 2232-H08-014.” DPZ paperwork for the five planned stations is online.

Via DCist, Amy Gardner reports that Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters has given the final seal of Executive Branch approval for a Metro extension to Dulles Airport and beyond.

Peters’s action releases the project to Congress for a 60-day comment period. After that, the project qualifies for a $900 million federal transit grant that state, local and congressional leaders have said is essential to its success.

Also linkable: the Post‘s gateway to all its Dulles rail expansion coverage, illustrated with a great photo of cluttery traffic and street furniture by Ricky Carioti.

Let’s start the countdown.

I’m not quite ready to start a countdown to groundbreaking. However, via DCist, Adam Tuss reports the good that the Federal Transit Administration has approved the first phase of the Metrorail extension to Dulles Airport. Okays by OMB and the Secretary of Transportation are yet to come.

Steve Offutt road-tests the “invisible tunnel” connection between Farragut West and Farragut North:

The technology exists to allow Metro riders to transfer between the two Farragut stations and treat them as though they were transferring within the system. Metro should implement this idea immediately, since there is no downside, many riders will save time, and congestion at Metro Center will be reduced.

* * *

I took a stopwatch with me to see how long it would take. For the initial trip I reached the top of the escalator at exactly the wrong time to cross I St. and had to wait the full light cycle. I waited about 25 seconds to cross K St. I was standing on the platform at Farragut North 5′ 13″; after the doors opened on my train at Farragut West. On the return trip I arrived on the street during the walk signal at K St. but had to wait about 20 seconds at I St. I was on the platform 4′ 10″; from the time the train doors opened at Farragut North.

Makes sense to me. I’ve performed that transfer myself once or twice when I knew that there would be excessive congestion at Metro Center. It would be nice to save the extra base fare.

Of course, this doesn’t work so well during off hours when the eastern Farragut West station entrance is closed.

Amy Gardner reports:

…the Federal Transit Administration authorized project managers to begin major construction on the Orange Line extension [of Metro]…. The FTA letter does not guarantee full funding of the project…. But state and project officials interpreted the letter as an encouraging development, a further signal that the project’s near-demise earlier this year is behind them.

Sweet marjoram, the FTA has okayed Metro to Reston, Dulles, and beyond. Maybe I’ll be able to take the day off to see the groundbreaking, after all. But the feds haven’t written the $900 million check yet. Stay tuned.

Virginia Governor Tim Kaine headed up a bipartisan group to announce $300 million in cuts to Phase I of the proposed Metro expansion to Dulles Airport and beyond in order to meet Federal Transit Administration cost-effectiveness guidelines, as reported by Leah M. Kosin (for the Reston Observer) and Amy Gardner (for the Washington Post).

• $45 million in management savings by completing more work in-house instead of using outside contractors.
• $86 million in design savings by eliminating a planned maintenance yard at the West Falls Church Station and using half-canopies instead of full canopies and pressed concrete platforms instead of tile pavers, which are expensive to install and maintain.
• $7 million in upgrades to technology such as electric power systems. Going digital is less expensive than using existing Metro technology.
• $122 million in alternative financing, including the removal of $77 million designated for improvements to Route 7 at Spring Hill Road. This would be paid through the state’s six-year transportation plan instead. And $40 million would be saved by building a planned parking garage at the Wiehle Avenue Station in Reston with a private partner.
• $46 million in contingency reductions.

Avoiding the tile pavers will make Leta happy. The cut that I see as perhaps worrisome is the item for the maintenance yard at West Falls Church (there is already such a facility, so perhaps what is being cut is an expansion). Dulles is a long way from the rest of the network: where are the cars going to be serviced?

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted to pay the county’s share of Metro construction through Tysons Corner, Reston, and on to Dulles airport, rejecting the arguments of developers and some county residents that the tunnel option through Tysons warrants further study.

I can’t say that I’m with the tunnel supporters (who only got organized once certain businesses got on board) on this one. Tysons is an uncoordinated, traffic-choked mess, and I don’t have any hopes that burying the subway line will make it that much easier to rebuild the core to improve pedestrian access. The only county resident that I know personally who has spoken in support of the tunnel drives everywhere in a tank of an SUV. I suspect she’s more concerned about construction interfering with her commute than she is about trying to make Tysons Corner people-friendly.