YELLOW TO GREENBELT. Nothing is more frustrating than waiting for a Green Line train on your way to diner on U Street and be forced to stand, say, at Gallery Place for an empty Yellow Line train to pass. You're late, your friends are at the U street eating pizza and drinking wine and there you are 3 minutes 'til the Yellow and another 5 for the Soul Train, i.e. the Green line. Wouldn't it be great if you could just ride the Yellow to U street.
Well the creaky wheels of progress have begun to turn, but it will be a long trip. "Since December [Metro] has examined several enhanced service possibilities, the needs required to implement, and the overall costs involved for each of several options and will be providing this information" at meeting open to the public on Jan. 23 at 7 pm at 823 Florida Ave. NW, said Scott Pomeroy of the MidCity Business Assn.
The task will not be an easy one to pull off. The cost of extending the Yellow Line from Mt. Vernon Square to Greenbelt is more than $100M to purchase the necessary railcars plus $9M for operations, James J. Hughes, METRO assistant general manager for operations. Yikes maybe I should save the dough and just take a taxi to dinner!
With all the development along the Green line corridor, not to mention the possibility of a baseball stadium in Southeast, it only seems to be a matter of time before the Green line becomes as crowded as the Red and Orange lines.
Kudos to those behind this effort including Councilman Jim Graham. Now lets find the cash.
photo by rllyman
January 20, 2006
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5 comments:
Not to mention being able to get to the airport much easier/quicker, this is a terrific idea.
The Green Line Mt. Vernon Square/Convention Center stop is one of the most least used. But its changing due to all the construction in the next couple of years.
I don't look forward to the sardines in a can experience in the future, but its definitely going to get busier!
Least used?? I use it to transfer between the Yellow and Green lines all the time. Also, there are thousands of people using it all the time for access to the convention center.
Living off the green line, I've recently discovered the bus. Although these have their own problems altogether. I support the exploration of this idea! I'm curious if we could get the GA ave street car started sooner. This may help a bit.
I see very little purpose at all in the Yellow Line. It's only value is in cutting the trip from DC to Virginia (from L'Enfant Plaza) by a good 20 minutes. Besides, it shares the rails with some other line for all but two stops (Eisenhower Ave and Huntington).
Out of the options thrown, I think "extending" the Yellow Line is the smartest and least expensive. It doesn't redeem the bastard-child line ... that would require stretching the line down to Ft. Belvoir.
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