Busy day in transportation news!
- Four Green Line stations northeast of Ft. Totten reopen w/ revamped platforms, amenities.
- The new Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge has a ribbon-cutting at 11.
- Metro posting results of Blue-Orange-Silver Line study. Blue Line in Georgetown?
Some background on the Blue-Orange-Silver study from when it was launched in 2019: wamu.org/story/19/12/06…
Today also traditionally marks the return of god-awful traffic, but analysts I talked to say it's now a moving target b/c of Delta's surge.
"Whatever we might have been anticipating, (it) will be muted due to a lot of the delays in returning to the office," MWCOG's Tim Canan says
Looks like we're getting only an update on the Blue-Orange-Silver capacity study. Options range $5-25B cost, 25 year horizon. Choice made in 2022.
Alternatives:
- No build
- Small tweaks
- National Harbor loop
- Silver Line Express
- SL to New Carrollton
- BL to Greenbelt
.@allyschweitzer called this map, an amalgamation of all the public input, the "Hot Mess Express."
(This is just to show the wide range of ideas to fix the issue of too much tunnel traffic in the Rosslyn Tunnel.
Paul Wiedefeld on the chances of any of this getting built: "I think it's realistic. If you start off thinking, 'oh gosh, this is too expensive or we'll never get through the neighborhood and environmental issues,' then you never move, right? But I think these things coalesce...
"...They build up momentum, for lots of reasons. We know that (the Rosslyn Tunnel) is a bottleneck in the system. And either we live with it for the next 50 plus years, or we start to do something about it. I think it's a good process and we'll just let it play out."
Marching bands, truck horns and what I think was a planned helicopter flyover? And a beautiful rendition of Lift Every Voice and Sing.
Bowser says the new Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge is symbolic in bridging communities, but also providing accessibility between Ward 8 and Ward 6.
#WMATA’s first budget public hearing is at 11 a.m.
The outlook has changed dramatically after the Senate passed the latest coronavirus relief bill with $30B for transit. That likely means no more drastic bus and rail service cuts in Jan 2021. wmata.com/initiatives/bu…
Here were some of Metros earlier proposals that now may go away
Oops that first tweet should read Jan 2022. I don’t know what year it is 🙈
One of the most active and engaged Rider Advisory Council members says they’ve been pushed out the door by WMATA. As Chair of the RAC, they always begged Metro to be better — whether it was providing masks or more clearly communicating service changes during the pandemic.
Metro is set to vote on appointing new members of the RAC at 9 a.m. They’ve nominated:
- Madison O’Conner of Virginia
- Brian Meyer of Virginia
- Charmaine Todman-Nwanji of Maryland
- Andrew Tsui, at-large
- 2 other members reappointed
- Unclear why @anelki not reappointed
Oof. Looking back at this quote from when WMSC released its report in Sept: Mayer said he has confidence that Metro leadership understands what needs to be done to fix the issues.
“The WMSC will pay very close attention... to ensure that the problems get addressed adequately."