How Washington DC fixed their Metro’s biggest problem

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A Silver Line appreciation video :^)
I visited my friend in #DC recently and was surprised to find a direct airport rail link, since many US cities don’t have that. I was even more surprised that it took over an hour, which takes this line into distances far beyond the scope of most metro systems.⁄
So I looked more into the Silver Line, and I’m pretty impressed.
I know it was over budget, somewhat unreliable, and hasn’t fully hit ridership targets. But it’s a #subway built after the turn of the century, when so many cities are going all in on #lightrail to save money.
It also demonstrates some rare collaboration between different states, counties, transit agencies, private landowners, and more - that’s something we can definitely learn from.
Enjoy the (somewhat) full story of the Silver Line :^)
00:00 Intro
01:27 Where it went wrong
03:13 Tysons Corner grows up
04:22 How did they fix it?
05:31 FUNding and special tax districts
08:31 2 separate tax districts
11:03 Other challenges: Tysons tunnel
12:32 Other challenges: Cracks in concrete
12:58 Other challenges: the big covid
13:18 Concluuuusion

Опубликовано:

16 май 2024

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Комментарии : 965

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

Had a lot of fun filming something more location-specific 😎 If you want to support the channel, here are my favourite transit books that I think are definitely worth reading: bookshop.org/lists/fav-transit-books (I'll get a teeny tiny commission) + follow me on twitter if I ever start posting things twitter.com/hudsonyuen

@MiggerPlease Месяц назад

I'm gay too 😊

@Kruhn Месяц назад

The Silver Line grew despite the screwy governance and all the infighting. In fact, the location of Dulles Station had to be settled by an arbitrator.

@kaspertice Месяц назад

Cincinnati has had an interesting history with Transit both successes and misses that would be great to cover!

@unclebozo9845 Месяц назад

Since you're in DC, a video about the currently-under-construction Purple Line would be neat!

@peterranney9488 Месяц назад

As a fellow Nats fan we only have one more year of suffering hopefully before we have an actual team again. As a route one corridor Fairfax County resident the most frustrating one was the yellow line arbitrarily stopping in Huntington when it could have a Belvoir stop just a couple miles down the road that would alleviate half of the traffic in the area while also helping businesses, and extending it farther could provide good value in that direction as well.

@krinos1 Месяц назад

“The best time to do it was 20 years ago. The second best time is now”

@CJWJR Месяц назад

My exact thoughts on building a high speed rail network.

@Distress. 22 дня назад

In Miami we decide to spend our entire budget on a transit study every 10 years.

@EastGermany-pc2lw 14 дней назад

i thought that was the line about transitioning with hrt

@bracken8782 Месяц назад

I think all this just proves that the best way to fix congestion in a city is to just build more damn metro lines. Seriously, it's not that hard to fix traffic, politicians, just build a damn train for the cities.

@chickennoodle6620 Месяц назад

High density cities such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo and Shanghai figured this out decades ago. You can't solve traffic by accommodating to cars in urban areas. I think Anglo countries are somehow still accomodating to the sunk cost fallacy with suburban expansion in the past.

@qjtvaddict Месяц назад

FULLY GRADE SEPARATED

@noonsky1794 Месяц назад

But consider: one more car lane I swear it'll work this time.

@osurpless Месяц назад

@@noonsky1794”6 lanes! And nobody moves!” - Lewis Black - Atlanta

@aaronorel3254 Месяц назад

oh yeah sure, they'll just do that (not disagreeing that they should, just pointing out Murphy's Law that everything will take longer and be much more complicated and more expensive than initially thought)

@tyleralberico9340 Месяц назад

Your focus on funding is incredibly fascinating! It gives so much context that you wouldn’t get from just a regular review

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

Glad you like the funding focus - it's a critical part of any project that just isn't shared very widely I find

@SandBoxJohn Месяц назад

@@TheFlyingMooseCA You left out the that toll revenues will be used to pay off part of the debt to finance the construction of phase II and no federal funding was appropriated to build phase II.

@noahlindenberg6180 Месяц назад

DC resident here. I’ve lived here for 0:02 4 years (before and after the Dulles extension). It’s genuinely a game changer and having moved here from a car centric town, I can’t see many self moving back anywhere without a metro system. Plus, DC has one of the cleanest and most well maintained underground train systems I’ve seen in the US. Now if we can just figure out how to balance WMATAs budget, we’ll be a paragon of public transit in the US.

@craigbyrnes7077 Месяц назад

Get the people in my neighborhood to pay their fares.. this entitlement fare jumping isn’t helping people learn responsibility. The DC City Council de-criminalized gate jumping! Enabling!

@doridore1234 29 дней назад

@@craigbyrnes7077You're not very bright are you.

@craigbyrnes7077 29 дней назад

@@doridore1234 1. You’re opinion of me is none of my business. 2. Every great leader coaches, behavior, never attacks personality. 3. Gate jumping means no revenue. Have you been to Congress Heights and done a scientific survey of fare collection? Ask the service station manager. It’s not a criminal offense in DC.. so, we get the entitlement jump! And, on top of that, gate jumping often damages the card reader… that’s more money spent on equipment repair. 4. 1st amendment .. congratulations on your opinion. Buddha taught that everyone and everything is interrelated. We cannot leave out anything or make one kind of spiritual consciousness superior and the other inferior. Next! Get the city council to end the entitlement law! Radical responsibility!

@matthewgilmore4307 29 дней назад

Metro is pretty filthy and disgusting. Who know what kind of fluid that is on the sticky train floor. Look at the trash along the tracks. Parts of the stations not cleaned in 50 years. The tyranny of low expectations.

@craigbyrnes7077 29 дней назад

@@matthewgilmore4307. Try visiting other metros.. DC is cleaner. I see maintenance people mopping the floors.. mopping the elevators.. the system is cleaner than other city systems.

@linkjag 17 дней назад

As someone who lived in DC for 7 years, the metro's actual biggest problems are inconsistency, closing far too early, and distance between stations the further out you get being so large that you may need to take a car or use the bus system to even get to a station in many residential areas. Loved this video though. When I was last in DC, the silver line was still only partially completed and it's great that there are more options for commuting from Virginia now

@magneryset2357 12 дней назад

Stations should be a bit far apart further out, fed by local buses. That means you get fewer stops and higher average speeds further out, meaning you're a more competitive mode of transport. The challenge is to get good zoning and strong bus routes around those metro stops to make sure as many people as possible have a short walk or convenient bus route to get there.

@johnp1937 Месяц назад

Do a story on the Purple Line in Montgomery County. That project has died and come back to life multiple times. Also, regarding the Silver Line, structural concrete piers were constructed in the early 80s (before the West Falls Church Station) anticipating the flyover track needed for a future line to Dulles Airport. The Dulles Access Road was also constructed with room for a railway in the median. So rapid transit to Dulles was always the plan (or the dream) way back in the 60s.

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

Good call on the purple line - having to reprocure halfway was certainly quite something. And yep, leaving room in the median shows there was definitely intent on one day completing that link; love it when we get this type of foresight - in Toronto our Bloor Viaduct was purposely overbuilt with a lower deck for potential subway expansion, and that saved so much money later on

@garrettmillard525 Месяц назад

@@TheFlyingMooseCA Please do a deep dive on the Purple Line. It is a tragic story of old money politics, concessions upon concessions, and massive costs to deliver a project that will be disturbingly slow. When it comes online and ridership fails to meet projections, a result of forcing the line to exist alongside normal traffic, make diversions, etc., it will be the perfect talking point of NIMBYs.

@merftepper Месяц назад

@@TheFlyingMooseCAfr. I go to University of Maryland, where the purple line runs directly through campus and theres so much construction because it is literally dead center in campus

@tciddados 27 дней назад

There's some supports for the Purple Line right outside my apartment building, they blew up a Rite Aid for it and they've just been sitting there since. There's another construction area for it I pass pretty often, and the only sign I've seen of any work in the past 3-4 years is that recently some of the steel plates on the walkway were painted.

@ElisaAvigayil 26 дней назад

The Purple Line is a failure. It doesn't connect to VA and it's not a full rail line - it's light, takes too long, and the stations meander.

@beatrixcreighton-hk8pd Месяц назад

DAMNN!!! is it just me or is there a lot more high quality transit orientated videos being created nowadays ?! Im so glad im finding a lot more videos about what I thought was a niche topic! Crazy to see how many more people are into these sort of things, haha. Keep it up!! The editing is awesome!!!

@RM-56 8 дней назад

because people are fed up with Americanized (car reliant) infrastructure, as it negatively seeps into many parts of our society

@Cyboogie 27 дней назад

I’m from Ashburn, the end of the new silver line corridor. Having the metro out here has made life so much easier

@frogmantoad8110 17 дней назад

I live in Ashburn as well. I frequently walk past the metro station. It’s rarely used , the parking lot is empty. What an immense waste of money! And crime has gone up,, as predicted. The Metro sucks.

@soupaplayer5012 14 дней назад

@@frogmantoad8110it’s not for everyone, but it will be a net benefit as new homeowners hop in around your area who may have work in/around DC as DC’s reach expands more and more. The fact that people are hanging around in your metro station at all is a good first step to building a walkable area/city. Tysons was also very nothing at first and it took 50 years but it is now incredibly developed. Either way, your property value should be rising- though obviously it takes years. The metro is really an infrastructure butterfly affect- it’s not going to change much now, but it will in the future. Whether it was worth the billion dollars, we’ll see.

@griffinlahre1928 7 дней назад

I live in the heart of DC. Having the metro out to Ashburn (and Dulles) has made life easier for me as well. We all win!!!

@jmchristoph Месяц назад

A couple key things this piece misses: 1. Vienna & Bethesda weren't chosen by the two counties because of distinct development strategies. The Orange & Red Lines were both built deliberately along well-established corridors to leverage existing infrastructure &/or right-of-way to minimize costs. In the Orange Line case, it was the abandoned Washington & Old Dominion Railway, which by then had already been taken up for I-66. In the Red Line case, it was Connecticut Ave, which had previously hosted a streetcar line before the consolidated DC bus company ripped the tracks out in the '50s. As such, both corridors were already significantly developed as rail suburbs, though only the Red Line corridor retains some of that fabric today. 2. The Red Line wound up taking *far* longer to finish, because of inadequate geological surveys along the corridor. Instead of digging the tunnel through sediment or relatively soft rock like the rest of the system, the Red Line cuts through a block of solid granite running from the Potomac to Pennsylvania. As a result, it took over a decade longer to open the Red Line to Bethesda, than it did to open the Orange Line to Vienna. Had you actually filmed the Bethesda segment in Bethesda instead of Navy Yard, you would've seen a lot of development that *predated* Metro, because much of it was already there before Metro was planned to go there, and a lot of what got built because of Metro wound up finishing before the Red Line itself did. 3. The Silver Line didn't actually fix Metro's two biggest problems; in fact, in some ways it made them worse. The first is core capacity: before the Silver Line, we used to refer to the "Orange Crush" caused by the sheer number of people trying to board the Orange Line between Ballston & Rosslyn, headed for Foggy Bottom & Farragut West. That section was limited to 13 trains per hour, because the tracks north of Rosslyn are shared with the Blue Line. Adding the Silver Line along the same route, only increased the number of trains that needed to pass through that bottleneck, and the only reason the Orange Crush isn't a thing anymore is because of the ridership decline of the 2010s precipitated by ridehailing & the Safetrack fiasco. The second is operations funding: while this video covers the capital financing to get new Metro lines built, that's never been the real challenge for WMATA. The real challenge is that in its entire history, WMATA has never had a dedicated, permanent source of funding, & so has to beg the federal, state, & local governments it serves for money, literally every year, just to operate what the capital funding has built. This has made WMATA much more reliant on farebox recovery than systems which enjoy a half-cent sales tax or some other dedicated revenue stream. Where the Silver Line comes into that picture: it's the most expensive Metro line to operate per projected passenger-mile, and its ridership has not met those projections. To give a sense of scale, Metro had to construct an entirely new train control center and a new fourth dispatching zone, just for the two branches west of Falls Church, because the sheer number of train movements is equivalent to the three existing dispatching zones that comprise the rest of the system. But for all those train movements, the number of *passengers* moved is fully two orders of magnitude lower than what a Metro line has the capability to move. So when capacity in the system core is constrained, and demand in the system core is high, you can imagine that most of us who've lived here for a while have been pushing not for the Silver Line, but for new lines Downtown. Unfortunately, electeds of decades past weren't receptive to those arguments, and so we got the Silver Line instead of a line to Georgetown or Logan Circle or H St NE. Fortunately, it seems that message is finally getting across, because WMATA is currently studying rerouting either the Blue or Silver Line downtown to create the new capacity needed to let the Silver Line do the job it's supposed to. But again unfortunately, all work on that planning has stalled because Metro is once again almost out of money & so all the effort is going to lobbying in Annapolis & Richmond to keep its operations funded.

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

Thanks for the very detailed perspective! I try to research as much as is feasible but it's still hard to get a full grasp of the picture, so your first 2 points help a lot to further colour in my knowledge. Your point about capital vs. operation cost is something that I've thought about more broadly and seems to be an issue across multiple systems in NA. I'm personally a fan of helping transit agencies become more financially independent e.g. letting them develop real estate around stations to create true TOD - and crucially letting them reap the financial rewards so they're less beholden to politically-charged budgets - like in Hong Kong. Either way, thanks for watching - I did also find it a little odd that I had to switch to a bus to get to Georgetown, so perhaps that changes soon :)

@jmchristoph Месяц назад

@@TheFlyingMooseCA if you want the full story on Georgetown, Zachary Schrag's book "The Great Society Subway" goes into quite a bit more detail on why the line didn't go there. And there's been a flurry of articles in Greater Greater Washington about the new Blue/Silver line proposals, all of them worth reading, but I particularly enjoyed Nick Sementelli's analysis of Metro's long-range planning. As for housing as a revenue stream, it's a really good idea, & there might be appetite for it at some levels of government in the DC Metro region, but any housing reform at all has been a *huge* fight in the District, both states, & all the counties & cities, so it's a case of strategically picking our battles. But you're totally right that all those objections shouldn't stop us from building new stuff.

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

@@jmchristoph Will add those to the reading list - thanks for sharing :)

@claudiawilkie7342 Месяц назад

Thank you for this comment!! As someone who lives here I do appreciate the silver line but there are some large issues with DCs transit system. ESPECIALLY Georgetown. I go to grad school there and it takes me an hour to get there in a good day even though I only live 2 miles away

@xv9021 Месяц назад

@@jmchristoph Would love to get your POV as to why housing reform has been such an issue. I really dont understand why all these empty commercial buildings arent converted into apartment buildings.

@erichhouchens3711 Месяц назад

I grew up in the Washington area and remember in 1972 going to Transpo 72 which was held at Dulles International Airport. On display were several plans for rail lines, monorails and maglev's connecting DC to Dulles. It only took them 50 years to get the line built. BTW - the original system plan for Metro back in the 60's showed a "future" line to Dulles. There is a Wikipedia article on Transpo 72.

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

Yep, from what I gather the Dulles line was left out because it was only projected to serve airport traffic, and it wasn't fully obvious that the corridor would grow as it did. Also just reading the wiki page, Transpo 72 looks very exciting - a combined airshow/transportation fair would be amazing to attend, glad you got the chance!

@michaelayers925 Месяц назад

I was there too, maybe we passed each other in the crowd. However, I was just a young kid at the time, and my only enduring memory of it was me crying all afternoon a day later, after learning of one of the crashes. 😢

@erichhouchens3711 Месяц назад

@@michaelayers925 I was 15 in 1972. I'm pretty sure I took a bus all the way from my Maryland suburb across DC to Dulles. Being a railfan I made it a point to see the UA Turbo Train. Sadly I never got the chance to actually ride it. All were scrapped. There is a huge rail trade show in Berlin every few years that I wouldn't mind going to someday.

@nicolasisquithcarreno9692 Месяц назад

Dulles was also considered a white elephant for its distance from the main population areas when it was built (it was originally planned to be built in Burke) and for many years and it had a very low volume of passengers due to limited flights

@erichhouchens3711 Месяц назад

@@nicolasisquithcarreno9692 The long term plan was that Dulles was to be Washington's airport with service to Washington National Airport (I refuse to use the other name) to be phased out. The problem with National is limited operating hours (noise) and a VERY narrow approach and takeoff zone. Stray too far outside that zone and you risk getting shot down. Unfortunately congress critters liked their nearby National Airport and the plan to close it was never followed through. As traffic at Dulles grew the Dulles Access road was built with an extra wide medium for a future (now) transit line.

@BreadDefender Месяц назад

really enjoy the end which highlights the point that few people are going to remember all the delays and struggles in the process of building, but many will know and love the end result.

@alexdhall 22 дня назад

Agreed lots of pain and future pain for the DC Metro but it was worth it at the end of the day. I haven't actually had the opportunity to ride or use the complete Silver Line since it opened to Dulles though....

@frogmantoad8110 17 дней назад

Ridership is nowhere near expected, and crime is up since the silver line was completed. So who are the people enjoying it? Why don’t riders pay their fair share through higher ticket prices? There is no equity.

@oogie493 Месяц назад

As a DC native, thank you for this high quality video. The silver line is often overlooked by many! It's history is definitely interesting and your narrative is perfect.

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

Glad you enjoyed it :)

@lyannastarkweather Месяц назад

As a Montgomery County native, the Metro played a major role in my life. I grew up within blocks of the Red Line and had regular access to buses that took me almost anywhere I needed. When I decided to save money by staying home for college, the Metro made it so I could commute to school relatively easily. I didn't obtain a driver's license or a car until I was 23 and needed to branch out further for employment opportunities.

@TamarLitvot 16 дней назад

Also a longtime Montgomery County resident. I used the Metro to go to work for decades. Were there problems -- of course! But compared to driving, it was heaven. As a former Silver Spring resident, I fully understand why the Purple Line is a good idea. To use the Metro to get from Silver Spring to Bethesda takes over an hour while driving takes 15 minutes less. Purple Line will make it much more reasonable to use public transit. And for so many people who work in Bethesda, especially those without the money or connections to get parking, the Purple Line will be great.

@l.u.i.s._.8452 12 дней назад

Montgomery county resident here, we need to red line to push further north!

@mutedroar 15 дней назад

Being able to take the Silver line to the airport was so amazing when I lived in the DC area. Walk to the metro, chill until the airport. No traffic, no stress, and no airport parking costs.

@connorwallace 24 дня назад

As a DC sports fan / resident, I appreciated all the Washington sports edited into the video 😁

@davidalade2288 23 дня назад

I live right off of the Mclean station of the Silver line. I couldn't imagine this area without the silver line and it's connection to DC and Dulles airport. The addition of the metro has made the whole tysons area much more desirable to live and work in.

@Fredman5551 13 дней назад

So you moved here 4 years ago?

@gatorpika Месяц назад

I live along the Silver line and it's really nice being able to shoot over to Dulles to get a flight on the Metro. The one thing that sucked though was, as an afterthought, the train platform feels like it's a mile away from the actual airport and you have to go through a bunch of confusing corridors. It's a hike to get into the terminal unlike at National where you just walk over the arrival road and you are inside. If you ever ride MARTA in Atlanta, the metro ends right at the terminal, though the rest of that system is kinda stupid.

@josearzuaga1839 Месяц назад

I agree. I visited family last year and rode the line as well. I lived in the area since 1984, saw the metro basically start and expand through the years. Now live in Florida but come to visit family from time to time. Love the system. Back then the blue/yellow line National Airport Station was very similar in distance and looks as Dulles is today. It was years later, that with the expansion of National Airport, if feels just across the walkway bridge. Metro used then magnetic fare cards and was a super system in cleanness and people were not allowed to eat or drink. Sadly 😢today is so disappointing and different 41 years later. Overall an amazing rapid transit rail system including the buses.

@alexdhall 22 дня назад

@@josearzuaga1839 There have been some improvements in 40 years. It took several major accidents in order to kick WMATA into actually doing needed maintenance on the system and older stations done. I think they finally finished working on Farragut North which is one of the oldest stations in the system. We no longer use those magnetic fare cards (lots of issues). Heck we can now pay our metro fare with our phones and big chunks of the system have cell service. It took a while, but it's here... mostly.

@jacksonp2397 Месяц назад

EUCLID AVENUE SUBWAY IN CLEVELAND PLEASE! It was approved by voters but blocked by the county engineer, but there seems to be evidence that it was in part destroyed by competing department stores who saw that their comparative advantage in being more transit accessible would be lost if the subway was built

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

noted 🤓 guess I have even more of an excuse to catch a guardians game this summer

@jacksonp2397 Месяц назад

@@TheFlyingMooseCA Nice! If you're looking for expert on the failed Euclid Avenue subway I'd recommend Jonathan Souther. And adjacent to that research is then county engineer Albert S. Porter, it's hard to find such a cartoonishly bad guy for a video on transit

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

Haha okok, those are helpful starting points - thanks for sharing!

@ianhomerpura8937 Месяц назад

They should replicate what Asian department stores are doing - fight to have the right to be connected to the metro station.

@DavidLin Месяц назад

@@ianhomerpura8937 In Japan it's actually the railway company running the department stores at their city terminals

@GameplayandTalk 14 дней назад

It's great to see a video related to my hometown. The Metro is indeed a very useful tool here, and it's awesome that they expanded it farther out. It has helped so many people!

@kormagogthedestroyer Месяц назад

I live in the DC area, and there are so many people around me who take the metro for granted, it’s easy to forget that we are one of the 3 cities in the US with a decent metro system. This is a great video!

@TripleXReborn Месяц назад

What are the other 2 cities you have in mind?

@_Bob_man_ Месяц назад

@@TripleXRebornpossibly New York and Boston

@jb-br8bf Месяц назад

@@_Bob_man_bro literally forgot about Chicago 💀💀💀

@KINGkong3747 Месяц назад

⁠@@jb-br8bflmao it’s not on par with NYC, DC or Boston. Fuck out of here with that 💀💀💀. You’re a novice

@JeanClaudeCOCO 28 дней назад

Philly has a good system as well that stretches into the far northern and western suburbs, plus NJ transit leaving from center city all the way to interior Jersey, Trenton and Atlantic City.

@triptheroad 28 дней назад

We really do need more Metro lines in the DC area. One that goes all the way down to Lorton or even Fredericksburg would be great. VRE doesn't come frequently enough and doesn't run later in the day

@UmmahanTaylor 18 дней назад

As long as we have slow working overpaid morons in the office which is every damn time, maybe in year 2124.

@Moon17ob Месяц назад

A funny thing that I have to contribute is that in the early 2000s the metro system payed my grandfather to analyze the whole system and make a plan to fix the metros problems They shelved it. He spent like 6 months on this project, had his binder of solutions, and they just shelved it. I don’t know if they have ever gone back and used any of the stuff he put together for them, but it is a personal favorite story.

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

Unfortunate reality of infrastructure work :/ There’s a strongtowns podcast episode with Eric Goldwyn that I thought was pretty interesting - among other things, they dive into the psychology of all these consultants and planners having to essentially bin 70% of their work. It’s quite demoralising but just seems to be part of the game 🤷‍♂️

@lwheatcraft Месяц назад

They paid him; he wasn’t payed. Payed would indicate a rope was fed out.

@jkxss Месяц назад

@@lwheatcraft Can you explain what payed means with regards to a rope?

@moyatooctopus Месяц назад

I am a huge fan of urbanism, transit, and the DC area. But lol I think the RU-vid algorithm only served this video to me today because I'm on a baseball highlights binge and your vid had so many clips of teams I was reviewing haha. I hope you make a few more videos on the DC transit system. It's a fascinating thing with a long history and tons of virtues and vices that has mostly been untapped in the new RU-vid urbanism wave. You don't even have to come visit again just yet there's tons of good writeups online and you already have lots of good footage you can reuse. (Wikipedia alone is a goldmine of topics just as a step one.) Although if you do choose to come, plenty of us transit nerds including myself will gladly welcome you and show you around!

@ThisJustin_87 Месяц назад

I went to Washington DC 4 years ago and picked a hotel on the silver line which I could walk to and ride the train into DC. Good on the DC suburbs in realizing the potential having a transit could bring, something my hometown of Atlanta and the rest of the metro don't care to explore with MARTA.

@vaffangool9196 Месяц назад

Yeah, at least it goes to the airport. Except, you know, the next six weeks.

@etanz Месяц назад

EXCELLENT video, I loved the deep dives into planning policy as well as execution. Not to mention the high quality editing and script. Feels much more well rounded and insightful than other channels. I'd love to see your take on bike infrastructure in the future!

@matthewcrownn 15 дней назад

I absolutely loved this video. As someone who used to live in DC, I loved the way you presented the metro system and the long-fabled finished silver line. It's absolutely huge that they finally connected it to the airport -- and it's great to see that thought is continued to be given to transport systems in America. WE NEED MORE TRAINS!

@InsomniacBroz Месяц назад

Petition to extend the orange line to be directly under my house (I’m lazy af and suck at driving)

@AverytheCubanAmerican 22 дня назад

Great video! This goes to show you that building trains, not widening highways, is what solves traffic! And as you point out, transit leads to the development of walkable communities! Caojiawan in Chongqing opened in 2015 with nothing around it, and then it became surrounded by developments by 2019! When the IRT Flushing Line first opened in Queens, stations had basically nothing around them, so all the diverse neighborhoods that now surround that line in Queens, developed because of the subway. Because it gave people a reason to live there! To put things into perspective, approximately 800 languages are spoken in NYC, with 300 spoken along Roosevelt Ave that the 7 serves! Really shows that NYC is truly the international city! In Jersey City, both the PATH and HBLR have led to so much TOD as well as pedestrianizing downtown, implementing Vision Zero (the city achieved zero car crash-related fatalities on city-owned streets in 2022; Hoboken achieved the same as well) and bike infrastructure like Citi Bike which Hoboken has as well. Love that they based the design of the Dulles Silver Line station off the design of Dulles Airport's main terminal itself! Dulles Airport's main terminal has such a cool design! Pretty small world that St. Louis' iconic Gateway Arch, Dulles, and JFK's TWA Flight Center were all designed by the same architect, Eero Saarinen! His concept of the mobile lounge for Dulles led to a revolutionary approach to airport movement, allowing the design of Dulles to do away with the multitude of gates that cluttered most terminals before it (though now, Dulles has the AeroTrain since 2010). Construction of the airport began in 1958, but Saarinen sadly did not live to see its completion in 1962 as he passed in 1961. By the 1980s, the original design was no longer well-suited to Dulles's role as a hub airport and so they built midfield concourses, with an underground people mover first opening in 2010 to link them.

@akorzan Месяц назад

When the Orange Line was built, they left concrete footers for the flyover from I66 to Dulles Toll Road (267). Regardless, they lost the blueprints for the footers and had to reinspect them, but they did use the original footers. Frankly, the Silver Line is not very attractive for long trips if one has a car. I commuted daily from downtown DC to Reston, doing the reverse commute, and the Silver Line would take roughly 45 minutes to get to Reston while by car I could be there in under 25 minutes.

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

Didn't know that about the concrete footers - thanks for sharing the commute perspective as well :)

@CaradhrasAiguo49 Месяц назад

The problem is I-66 eastbound inside the Capital Beltway. So I strongly doubt your return trip in PM rush could be done in under 45 minutes

@alexdhall 22 дня назад

@@CaradhrasAiguo49Yes the segment of I-66 within the beltway was a traffic snarled mess during rush hour. Though they technically changed it into a HOT lanes during rush hour. Outside the beltway, I-66 also has plenty of traffic issues even with the recently opened HOT lanes (with HOV-3)...

@lightleviathan0 Месяц назад

as a resident of dc myself, (and a lover of the metro and silver line) i really appreciate this video!

@mari.y5593 26 дней назад

I love a good high production, medium-long RU-vid video on a niche topic I was never interested in until now

@coltonphillips7781 Месяц назад

I'm so thankful for the Silver Line, and personally dig the aesthetic of the elevated tracks. It makes my commute feel so much more bustling. I can't wait to see how much more NoVA will grow over the next decade. I've had access to opportunities I've never had the past couple of years that I've never had before or could ever dream of. The access to opportunities and thoughtful revelations I've had during my commutes along the Silver Line since moving here have really saved my life. I've met all sorts of people on it thanks to the airport and have grown a lot in those carts.

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

Great to hear you've had such a positive experience on it :)

@JeanClaudeCOCO 28 дней назад

I live in Tysons and I’ve lived and work in Tysons now without a car since 2018. Before the silver line would have been impossible. I have friends who are without cars too and manage just fine. When my family visits they utilize the metro and come directly to me without need for Ubers, taxis or their own cars. They live in Philly btw.

@alexdhall 22 дня назад

@@JeanClaudeCOCOYeah I used to commute to Tysons around the time they were finishing phase one. Since then they've made some major improvements to the area. Though there are still major parts of Tysons Corner that are still quite road centric (along RT123 & Leesburg Pike).

@dontstopx1350 16 дней назад

Thank you for representing my city🎉🎉😄👍

@ValkyrieTiara 12 дней назад

I couldn't believe my eyes when I looked down and saw you only had 10k subs. I've seen channels with 10 times that who don't have as good editing or production quality as this. Great video!

@TheFlyingMooseCA 11 дней назад

Thanks a lot! Definitely not planning to stop anytime soon :^)

@NicolaiBolas 13 дней назад

As someone who rides the Silver Line incredibly often, this video was awesome! The information is interesting and the presentation style is excellent! Well done and thank you for sharing!

@roblywobly Месяц назад

Nice video! Your narration is good with a confident voice, and I especially liked the segment about Herndon and figuring out how to make the project work. I kind of expected this to be a video about how Randy Clarke came in and turned all the frequencies up to the max this year, but you're right, a connection to the Dulles/Tyson's corridor is more important than improving headways from "fine but unimpressive" to "good." Not to diminish that, the only time I've found myself waiting more than 10 minutes for a train since August is the weekend during reduced service and it's excellent for a user!

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

Glad you liked it! I was only in DC for a weekend and the frequencies were pretty good, but small sample size I suppose :^)

@Kowzorz Месяц назад

"Not to diminish that, the only time I've found myself waiting more than 10 minutes for a train since August is the weekend during reduced service and it's excellent for a user!" I've spent half that at a single stoplight. It's important to keep onesself well planted within perspective.

@roblywobly Месяц назад

@@Kowzorz You're right, they're very fast headways for a train. The frequency is good and I am praising it. The Washington DC metro is one of the finest in America and faster frequencies have only made it better.

@jeremyroither4360 Месяц назад

As a 20+ year Metro rider, I was expecting this video to be about the woeful state of disrepair that Metro was in during the 2000s-2010s (Red Line Crash, fatal smoke incident, multiple derailments, daily delays and track problems that rippled through the entire system). That unreliability started a death spiral of falling ridership (I fled metro for the bus for several years - even the buses were more reliable!!) and service cuts until they got dedicated funding from MD, DC, and VA. This finally allowed them to undertake years of deferred maintenance and get the system back into working order. I would argue that this was the actual biggest problem of the DC metro, not that one development corridor wasn’t included. If none of the system works, eventually you’ll have no transit system to speak of. I would love to see a video about how they climbed out of the deep hole they had dug themselves into. That said, I do think this was an excellent video for the subject it covered.

@OtterSwims Месяц назад

Really awesome video, thanks for doing all the hard work required to research this and present it properly. I had no idea that so much hard work was required by people I will never meet in order to make this transit project reality.

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

Glad you liked it - I had a lot of fun making this! And yep, large infrastructure projects always take an exceptional effort to become reality, and even then - there’s always certain individuals that have to go far beyond what’s expected of them to make things succeed 😎

@conno02 18 дней назад

As someone in the DC Area who's been on the Silver Line myself, this is an excellent and informative video! Great job, dude!

@ClassyWhale Месяц назад

Amazing video with great graphics and tight narration! You just might be the next Alex Davis...

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

haha too kind - love your videos too, they're creative!

@adammurphy6845 Месяц назад

Can't believe I just found your channel....Awesome video! I'm hitting up DC soon and can't wait to check the Metro out.

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

Glad you liked it! You'll have a great time there :)

@ellobovano 14 дней назад

Extremely well-done, this is certainly a great summary of how *a* problem was solved. I would agree with some other comments here that the Dulles corridor is hardly Metro's biggest problem, however. There were some serious problems in the initial design (lack of track redundancy comes to mind), but one of the biggest problems is that the system in the last decade has developed a well-deserved reputation of being neither reliable nor safe, and suffered a corresponding decline in ridership. The reasons behind that are as interesting as they are numerous and would make for a compelling follow-up.

@mramachandran9830 18 дней назад

Wow this was so well researched and put together! Thank you!

@wxmeddler Месяц назад

How do you only have 1500 subscribers?! This is amazing editing and storytelling. Bravo! Have my subscription.

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

Much appreciated 😌 would you believe it was at 1200 this morning haha

@GaelLV Месяц назад

How does this video not have more views it’s so welllll edited and 10/10 !!

@RegalRegex Месяц назад

Fantastic video! Pleasantly edited and to the point w/o feeling rushed. Ideal. Thanks for your hard work!

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

Glad you liked it!

@spr1ngph0enix 9 дней назад

as a dc native and a metro lover, i’ve always loved how wmata tries to update their transit system and actually listens to what it’s riders need, they’re constructing the purple line as well, a line running through the northern suburbs of dc to relieve more congestion

@Papershields001 Месяц назад

I appreciate the use of the Harper charging the mound clip.

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

the intersection between baseball and transit is where this channel belongs 😎

@DMVRailfan Месяц назад

Washingtonian here. Really glad Washington is developing more transit and showing the country that we can still build good transit. Also glad that my county took advantage of the metro. Metros can bring connections which bring residents and business, and if it wasn’t for the Red Line, Bethesda would be less developed. Same thing with Tysons and Reston, more development started thanks to the Silver Line.

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

Yep, development and transit go hand in hand :)

@DMVRailfan Месяц назад

@@TheFlyingMooseCA And for people who don’t believe that, look at a map of London, than a transit map of London. The tube stops at the London boundaries.

@TamarLitvot 16 дней назад

I'm less than fond of Bethesda with its way over-development, expensive everything (except Bethesda Bagels), and high-income/low-diversity population. But I agree that the Metro has been great for the county in general and for those of us who use (used -- past tense -- in my case) it every day to commute.

@davidwave4 13 дней назад

As a Washingtonian who hated flying out of Dulles before, having a Metro line there makes it 1000% better. I remember consciously choosing to fly out of Baltimore National Airport because the MARC train goes there instead of IAD (which is closer) just because of the metro situation. Silver Line is a godsend for us.

@solomondenning Месяц назад

I did a work trips out to Reston, VA many times throughout 2022. I was impressed with how quick they were getting building there. The rails and the town centers around the metro. This was before they finished connected to Dulles. I got to go back once more early 2023 to see the silver line complete. As someone coming from the west coast it was a joy to see.

@GeoTechInsight Месяц назад

Very interesting stuff! Makes you realize how much transportations dictates how we live our lives.

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

yessir 😎

@brycebundens6866 Месяц назад

Great press for Metro! Thank you for digging into the history here and visualizing it with great graphics and transitions. WMATA's future looks bright!!!

@Extrafancytoaster Месяц назад

You've more than earned this sub. Great piece on infrastructure that many of us likely take for granted. I dont even live in DC/MD but it is obvious how beneficial this was to the general economy.

@arthurbostrom4912 Месяц назад

Thanks. This is really excellent work. I'm from the UK, where we have similar transportation problems: holdups etc etc. Your presentation and voiceover skills are superb and you succeeded in producing a fast-paced and informative video that tells the story in under 15 minutes.

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

Glad you liked it :)

@crogan333 Месяц назад

Love the mix of transit and old baseball clips! Great video

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

thanks! my absolute favourite combo 😎

@davidfreeman3083 Месяц назад

I got to ride it the first Christmas-New Year holiday season after SV line opening. ;) Props to DC to have essentially one of the best airport transit connections around the country. Having heavy rail to all 3 major airports.

@MrTurnip233 24 дня назад

Wow, the detail here is amazing. I think I have a new favorite channel. Instantly subscribed

@WillsJazzLoft Месяц назад

This was highly informative and entertaining. Excellent presentation. From one transit junkie to another transit junkie thank you

@instars326 Месяц назад

How does this channel only have 5k subs? With production quality like THIS

@AllTheUrbanLegends Месяц назад

Great vid! I know by the time it got built Metro was the only real option but it really should have been VRE. That kind of distance is just really too far to be running Metro/ subway service out there. The o&m costs are too high. When you get so far out into the suburbs that your subway stations are 3 to 5 mi apart, you're using the wrong mode. The rest of the world seems to understand this. It's why you don't really see that in most of the rest of the world. Even big mega regions like Tokyo, London, Paris, New York City - It's very rare to see a metro line going more than 15 mi from the center. In fact, the only place you really see this is DC and the Bay Area. Australian cities do something similar but backwards, where they use Regional rail service as a one-size-fits-all for commuter rail and for metro service but the problems that creates winds up being very similar to the problems in DC and SF.

@TheRandCrews Месяц назад

Makes sense for BART for being practically like a commuter rail train, maybe could’ve done an express high speed metro? Quad tracked and special metro trains to do such a connection

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

Very fair - it is odd to add 10% of your total network length with one line! I didn’t look too much into why the metro was chosen, focusing on the fact that they managed to actually build it. But good call on how some of the silver line’s issues could be circumvented if it were VRE, at the very least to make life easier for WMATA

@illiiilli24601 Месяц назад

> only place you see this … DC and the Bay Area Pretty much every Chinese megacity is reliant on a metro to cover the suburbs, and doesn't have any real regional/suburban lines, just like DC and the Bay Area. This is not good practice, but yeah

@AllTheUrbanLegends Месяц назад

@@TheRandCrews the Bay got it backwards, IMO. Caltrain stations are closer together than BART stations. The problem with Bart and any other Metro system is that it has to be completely grade separated. It's not just expensive to build it, and to build the stations, it's also really expensive to maintain. Plus, suburban ridership profiles are completely different from Urban profile. So you wind up running these trains really far out into the suburbs to pick uo no one in the middle of the day and late at night or You don't run the trains and then you have these really expensive, barely use tracks running out to nowhere.

@zlotyloty Месяц назад

Loved this video! Definitely subscribed and looking forward to more!

@mood4eva98 Месяц назад

You just earned yourself a subscriber this is really good very informative yet also entertaining

@Jason-gq8fo Месяц назад

People who reject public transport projects are my mortal enemies

@sofiane.. 27 дней назад

They are enemies of the humanity

@bertholdvonzahringen6799 13 дней назад

Some are effective and fairly financed, some are poorly planned and financed unfairly. And those expected to foot the bill should have the right to make that assessment for themselves

@alexbutler9343 9 дней назад

@@bertholdvonzahringen6799in theory you are correct. In practice the public has a very distorted view on how tax dollars are spent and don't make rational choices. Not that the government is rational either, they are the ones perpetuating the poor spending and urban design to begin with, but considering the spending disparities between subsidies for cars and driving, opposing transit in America on financial grounds is 90% of the time unfounded.

@DHVF28 Месяц назад

Love how aggressively DC this video is, made me proud of my city, especially with the Nats highlights.

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

i'm looking for any excuse to add baseball tbh

@alexdhall 22 дня назад

Yes I miss the era up until the world series win of the Nationals. THAT was a baseball team! Now.....meh.

@TamarLitvot 16 дней назад

@@alexdhall Wasn't that wonderful! I also loved it when the whole stadium booed trump when he stupidly appeared at Game 5 of the series.

@donna_piranha 4 дня назад

When I met my fiance, he lived way by the Loudoun Gateway station. He didn't realize that phase 2 of the silver line had just been completed, but the existence of that rail line definitely made it possible for me to commute all the way out there from DC several times a week. We live together near the end of the orange line now, but I'll always love the silver line for the way it facilitated our early relationship, and how we still use it to get to Dulles Airport.

@typicalshao 15 дней назад

wow! such a great video that includes such great history. thanks for covering the dc metro!

@c5mjohn Месяц назад

"otherwise this video would be an hour long" ... I almost didn't click on this video because it was too short. Make it happen, Captain.

@OregonDucksFan111 Месяц назад

When half the “Bethesda” footage is in Navy Yard

@EPMTUNES Месяц назад

Very nice video. I find videos discussing actual specifics about city building history (especially because it's usually much more recent than we think) very interesting.

@AaronL548 Месяц назад

The combination of baseball gifs and transit content tickles my brain in the EXACT right way. Never clicked subscribe more quickly 😂

@WillsJazzLoft Месяц назад

The aesthetic of the Washington Metro is among the best nationwide. And that's coming from someone who has lived in New York

@nicolasblume1046 Месяц назад

Great video, but it's a very bold statement that an extension of a single line "fixed" the metro. It has all sorts of other problems

@floofyotter Месяц назад

He's not from here and it's painfully obvious.

@Muzeishen Месяц назад

Great job on this video. The story telling is on point!

@FrequencyDomainLife Месяц назад

Absolutely amazing video!! As someone dealing with coming up with solutions for projects with many people invovled.... "the messiness to get solutions that actually work for everyone" really hits home. I will have to quote this from you every time I get the chance now.

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

Might be the first time I’ve been quoted 😎 glad you liked the video!

@saltydabber5212 Месяц назад

MBTA indigo line is interesting because there isn't much out there about it, but Boston desperately needs a ring line

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

veeeery interesting - I was in Boston a few weeks ago and might be going back later this year. Will keep in mind!

@theaveragejoe5781 Месяц назад

Good voice, funny editing. Keep it up 👍

@strongbad635 28 дней назад

Amazing content, love the way this is presented!

@christopherjmims Месяц назад

absolutely love it. what a great example of "solutions journalism"

@psedoali Месяц назад

holy cow I didnt know, this. the trip from Dulles to dc used to suck. I haven't been there in a decade.

@Comegetyourdose131 17 дней назад

DC Resident for 15 years. It’s not fixed. At all.

@mikeiemus1286 13 дней назад

it’s better near tyson’s people actually uses transite now

@devinsdigitals Месяц назад

amazingly well put together video!

@mr.trueno6022 Месяц назад

Hey man, just wanted to say that you are doing a great job with your videos! Production quality is astounding, don't understand why your views are fluctuating that much. Especially your video about busses was amazing and well done! 💪🏻

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

Glad you like them! RU-vid algo is finicky sometimes🤷

@allanmainovieytes2262 14 дней назад

great video, im from the DC metro area so it was great to see. Really appreciate this piece of content.

@garshtoshteles 19 дней назад

Absolutely amazing video. Thank you very much

@rjk368 Месяц назад

This video is incredibly high quality; I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that your channel has

@Jc-yu2ot 20 дней назад

Dc metro mentioned… it’s my time to shine

@matthewrein2741 Месяц назад

Awesome video!!!! Thanks for making this.

@SoulfullyUnaware Месяц назад

I really love the breakdown of this video! I have noticed riding the metro, it feels more updated, they are even putting in new vehicles soon. I’m glad they are finally fixing it up, I thought it was gonna die out for a second lol

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

Glad you enjoyed! Yeah there was a bit of chaos around the derailment + covid I thiiink

@NotNite Месяц назад

love to see youtube videos about my favorite train lines, great work

@mutan36 Месяц назад

This was such an amazing and informative video. I’m a northern VA native and most of this was new to me

@jalapenobusiness9217 Месяц назад

"Never too late to build better transit." So true in so many ways.

@phantomkat42 Месяц назад

Good quality video about transit AND baseball clips to emphasize how things were going with it (plus it being clips from that city's team)?! Perfection

@TheFlyingMooseCA Месяц назад

there is no situation that cannot be accurately represented by a baseball clip 😈

@marshalljohn5959 Месяц назад

Always though the traffic around my home was just because it was a city. Thanks for making this resource!

@NateRoberts Месяц назад

I thought this video was super awesome! So many things I learned about it that I didn’t know being around during the construction. Definitely earned a sub from me!

@gerbilnan 28 дней назад

Great quality video with interesting points!

@thepinkpanther2533 Месяц назад

Live in the metro area, super entertaining video. Very Informative and all around nice to hear about the place I live. And I like how you used clips from the old Washington nationals, I miss those days

@keithcomfort1625 Месяц назад

Thanks. Great information on DC rail.

@edclinch5249 Месяц назад

Thanks for this video. I never thought they would actually complete it. I haven't ridden on the Phase 2 part, yet, but the Phase 1 is a fun ride since it is SO elevated. I am looking forward to getting down there to ride it completed. (I don't live there but my brother lives in Fairfax City.)