Could the DC Metro get a Loop Line? 

This is a great overview of all the benefits!

@@50_States_of_USA stop showing everyone how dumb you are

Build the bloop

it would also let orange line get an extension which it needs because of right now too much too much pressure on rosslyn to foggy bottom

And alleviate crowding at navy yard

As someone who comes to foggy bottom a lot, I appreciate the history facts! It’s a mystery where its unusual name came from. Sounds like a euphemism for somebody who’s had too much taco bell, if you know what I mean…

@@Thom-TRA tbf as a student at GW i just saw it as its literal meaning, as its the bottom of the hills (like the ones at georgetown and capitol hill) that are around dc and during the fall and spring especially it can get foggy during the night and mornings.

BLOOP

I love that😂😂😂 BLOOP

That is the most elite name for a subway line that has ever existed

I wouldn't built the Bloop. I would build instead the Columbia Pike Metro towards George Mason University.

Georgetown will be nice. It’s not extremely far from Foggy Bottom and the buses are good, but still a direct metro connection would be so much better. And I’m very excited about multiple options to Union Station. That station is always so busy.

It would need to be accommodated by a Pink Line service between Rosslyn and Franconia via Union Station.

Interesting

A purple line meeting the bloop somewhere would be awesome. Going through Largo. Let’s get the first part opened! I visited construction at U of Md the other day, the tracks are there!

I agree! I think last I heard extending the Purple Line would be hard (something about operators needing to relieve each other every X minutes/hours and Bethesda to New Carollton being the optimal length). But I know Montgomery County was pitching a 24/7 BRT line from Bethesda to Tysons-- LRT across a rebuilt Legion Bridge would be the dream though. I could see an eventual series of LRT lines that form a loop even if they're all separate, covering only major trips instead of the whole circle. Such as a PL1 from Bethesda to New Carollton, a PL2 from Bethesda to Tysons, a PL3 from Tysons to Alexandria via Seven Corners, a PL4 from Alexandria to New Carollton via SE DC, for example. And then there could be stops connecting to metro and more LRT routes connecting into DC and out along streets that aren't served by metro, like Columbia Pike in Nova, Benning Rd in SE, and Riggs Rd, Rt 1, Rt 29 in MD. It even works with the plan to build LRT to Waldorf.

I hope you enjoy the videos down memory lane! Let us know if you’re ever in town

I go to National Harbor about once a year, and yeah getting there can be a pain. It's frustrating how they designed it to explicitly have no other connections, such as to Oxon Hill Rd. For love of transit, I once got there by taking the NH1 bus from Southern Ave. It needs a better connection.

@@sebastianjoseph2828 its even more of a pain for people who live nearby, i have to take the d14 bus from the national harbor to get home and i usually end up waiting 30 minutes to an hour

BLOOP for an equitable future for SE DC!

Chicago needs that so bad

Look up the “Mid-City Transitway” on Wikipedia. Basically a CTA rail line to utilize an abandoned ROW east of Cicero Ave. From the Montrose Blue Line all the way down to the Orange line’s eventual Ford City terminus.

They put in a proposal for this and did a study…only to file it away and forget it, like so many other good ideas. Too expensive, they said…even as it proved to be very, VERY helpful for transit riders.

I went to go look at some purple line construction the other day

I think the Purple Line is a project being overseen by the State of Maryland. I'm not sure how fare policy for the Purple Line will be compatible with the existing WMATA fare scheme.

Would love to see a video on the Purple line

@@MattBasch I’m sure I will make my fair share. I could always do a construction tour (maybe this winter, I’m a bit backed up with content right now).

I'd like to see the purple line extended to reach the silver line somewhere between eastern DC and Largo. It would be a relatively short extension that could be a big help for a lot of people living or working on the eastern side of DC and the Maryland suburbs.

The Yamanote line in Tokyo still has two stations where they can pull out trains or add trains.

@@Thom-TRA Sure, you "cancel" a late train just like late bus runs are cancelled. But getting them back on schedule is usually the preferred option, so schedules have "padding" built in.

@@Thom-TRAYes but that's because the Yamanote line trains can exit their loop at Ikebukuro and Osaki would the bloop have such an option?

@@hartstukken of course, there are yards

I believe on the Yamanote line, trains are scheduled to hold at Osaki for a few minutes to catch up to any delay that has occurred. They could do a similar thing with the Bloop. I feel like National Harbor would make the best place for a 'catch-up' station with 4 tracks, with the side benefit of allowing trains to begin there during and after major events.

Food in Alexandria is expensive! But I know an awesome pizza place in Georgetown that can feed us for a week for 10 bucks

Do you live away from the metro now?

I’m sure MGM will want to buy naming rights

​@@Thom-TRA Sure why not!

Um, actually, my hometown is called Silver Spring (singular) for a reason: just about two blocks northeast from the Metro Station on East-West Highway is Acorn Park: the Site of the Silver Spring. Open to the public, 24/7.

I really hope the initial section becomes a raging success, and politicians in MD make the right decisions.

@@Thom-TRA Despite the constant local news dooming about it, a lot of people are excited about the Purple Line-- I sure am.

Bloop woop! Love it

I don’t think the difficulty to operate is inherent to loops, I think the circle line is a difficult case. Many many branches interlining with each other. There are plenty of global examples worldwide of loop lines that do work great. Even the Osaka loop line in Japan, which has a ton of interlining. What’s important is to have points where trains can enter and leave the loop.

The connection would be at Eisenhower, not Huntington and it would go over the Beltway, not a new bridge or tunnel. It's still too expensive but your proposals aren't within the realm of possibility.

The Woodrow Wilson Bridge that takes I-495/I-95 across the Potomac River between Alexandria and Maryland was built with lanes for mass transit trains. That significantly reduces the cost of BLOOP.

#BLOOPis best I hadn’t even considered the military aspect of it

@@Thom-TRA If money from Congress is used including military is always a help. That's how the interstate highway bill got passed in the 1950's - for anti-infrastructure right wingers including a military aspect got them onboard - officially the "Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways." And the reduction in CO2(except from all that concrete curing initially!,), pollution and traffic is an obvious selling point for the reality based crowd.

Yes, anything WMATA can do to prevent overcrowding is good!

Stadium/arena in Arlington? Forget it.

Doesn’t it?

I’m sure I’ve heard you before. I tend to ride the metro a lot.

Thank you so much!

Agreed 100%! Born and raised here and I’ve been saying for years we need a beltway line, no brainer!

Where do I sign? Lol

DC’s is already pretty good when you look at it, but can of course always be better

You can say the same thing about a place like Hong Kong with some of the best transit worldwide

Rosslyn would be the same station, just different platforms. Pretty normal for transit systems. What’s wrong with loop lines? They’re so effective and this would make trips shorter for so many people. A line to Shirlington can always be built later, doesn’t mean this shouldn’t be built.

@Thom-TRA I did do some thinking and now I'm just neutral about this. I wouldn't really even use it anyway as I don't go to any of these places often (besides the current sections built) but if this is to be built, we need to answer some questions. Which I could probably give some QUESTIONS 1. Will we just go ahead and build this all at once, or are we building sections? Examples: Rosslyn to National Harbor heading east, Franconia to Navy Yard, we need to work it out 2. Will this line be better run by drivers or just run automatically? We could also just have something like London. 3. Where would the drivers change shifts? 4. Where would the depot be? 5. Should we use the 8000s or should we use a future 9000 series built separately for the Blue Lines? ANSWERS 1a. We could start off with the most needed sections that are actually the purpose of the loop, from Georgetown to National Harbor. If we are making it in phases, that is the best section to make it to. The line would head from Georgetown to Franconia, and then head to National Harbor. THEN we link up the line from National Harbor to Georgetown via DC. 2a. If this is loop line, we could do something like London where the driver is monitoring the train and just opening and closing the doors, or we could just automate it. 3a. Rosslyn is the most reasonable place to have driver changes, where the train wouldn't immediately go out of service, another driver would enter into the cab and take over. During the rush hours if this is manually operated, we could have some trains terminate at King Street and run empty to Alexandria Depot. The same thing would happen in the PM. 4a. Alexandria Depot would be the current one and if we just use a separate depot, National Harbor is the most reasonable place to make it. 5a. No answer because I'll let someone else answer that.

@@DMVRailfan those are some very good questions!

@@Thom-TRA Thank you. All projects, confirmed and proposed have some deep questions that need to be answered.

I’m all for an East west corridor further north. But your other points run aren’t as solid. And this is coming from someone living in downtown DC with multiple contacts at WMATA and the city. A second tunnel isn’t just for higher frequency (which will be way higher when it’s just two lines than three), it’s also redundancy which is good in case of emergencies. The capacity issue is the crossing under the Potomac. That has a max of 26 tph. No amount of improving ATO (which they’re literally working on) will be able to improve that. There is demand for service on that side of the river. It’s a fast-growing area and people really do travel in both directions. The NH2 is quite a busy route.

#BLOOPisbest, I love it

This is years if not decades down the line…

Me too!

I appreciate the insight! I’m doing my best to try to get to know this city. I’ve wondered if a red line branch could work to serve the other neighborhoods.

There are far denser communities in PG county without metro service, for example the Penn Ave corridor in PG county.

@@johngorman6641 density is not the only variable planners have to look at

@@Thom-TRA Ofc it isn't, but a transit system that serves lots of low density neighborhoods is bound to get very low ridership ... like Metrorail. Serving the places and corridors with high job and population density must be a major concern to transit planners.

@@johngorman6641 Washington metro has the third highest ridership in the US despite being the 23rd largest city

The Yamanote line in Tokyo has two stations near yards where they terminate if needed (Osaki and Otsuka). About halfway through the loop they’ll switch to saying they’ll terminate.

@@Thom-TRA it would make sense to add a yard on the southern end Maryland side. Then have a station there act as a quasi-terminus for both directions, perhaps have a balloon loop for one of the directions to lead back into the yard. Just spitballing, pretty sure there are some holes in that idea.

BLOOP

SO TRUE. (BLOOP)

There should be a yellow line branch that covers that area instead

Me too

In what world would an express that skips 4 stops reduce your trip by 100 minutes???

The only way you'd get from Greenbelt to Herndon in 40 minutes is via a combination of HOT lanes (which of course don't exist in Maryland but could possibly get built) and 267 or by traveling between 8PM and 6AM. It's not even remotely feasible by any conceivable rail configuration.

Not yet…

It would probably take well over an hour!

Hmm, I’ve never heard of that! I have been on the Capitol Subway, video will come later this year

@@Thom-TRA maybe I'm mixing it up with the Capitol Subway 🚇?

Thank you thank you

I mean sure, if you just ignore the thousands of people in SE DC who are forced to use buses to get anywhere. Or people who work in Northern Virginia.

@@Thom-TRA Sparseness between The Anacostia station and National Harbor kills that side of the project. Construction costs kill the rest.

@@jyutzler when’s the last time you were in DC?

Well said

@@Thom-TRA Thank you for typing to me.💙

Georgetown needs to be completely redesigned anyways so that the main shopping streets aren’t also major thoroughfares for cars. It’s horrible.

B L O O P

⁠B L O O P

BLOOP

@@Goofy1trainofficial BLOOP

@@NWIndianaElevators BLOOP

I think the express would have been more worth it if it actually went farther

Yes, it's a 10-20 year project once they decide to build. The Silver Line was much simpler (only a 10-figure project) and it took 15 years.

That’s when we protest lol

No it will get rid of interlining

@@Thom-TRA Correct. It will not be interlining. But my impression is that "Rosslyn II" will still be the same location and station to riders for all intents. It will essentially become a transfer station.

Apparently the Wilson Bridge was designed with a median wide enough for a metro line. That said putting metro on a drawbridge would be a unique first... but I wonder if it'd be better to do that than the cost of tunneling under the river?

@@sebastianjoseph2828 Interesting comment regarding the drawbridge. Only issue would be the delays that would inevitably come up when the drawbridge has to activate plus the signaling, operation cost, etc. Tunneling may the be more expensive option but it would be straightforward.

@@JerrellWoolford Yeah the more I think about it, extensive tunnel would be needed in the DC core and under the Anacostia anyway. Almost certainly in SE DC too. So the added cost of a tunnel under the Potomac might be well worth it. The Wilson Bridge rarely opens- 60 times a year or so. But that's still enough to ruin train timetables. The Wilson Bridge might be better off serving a hypothetical future light rail.

Sadly they haven't made a decision yet

@@Thom-TRA That makes sense, thank you.

Yes we do

I’m sure you’ll love it here! I know I do

I would definitely just spend some time riding the metro. Check out some big stations like L’Enfant. There are also countless good Railfanning spots, like NoMa, Long Bridge Park, or Potomac Yard. Anacostia station is cool as well.

@@Thom-TRAOk Thanks I’m goin to check out these Places and also ride the Metro

Appreciate the perspective!

No long distance trains currently stop at L’Enfant

i think amtrack w once did will the new services tsouth to richmond stop thee. @@Thom-TRA

@@alexisdespland4939 Just VRE currently.

Construction is moving along