DC Metro expansion, or "Tunnels, tunnels, tunnels"

The Washington Post published a graphic this morning that outlines the current proposals for long-term development of the DC Metro system. The $26 billion proposed plan to upgrade the Metro includes several key ideas to relieve crowding on the subway by 2040.

Of course nearer-term changes to the District's rail network are still in the works. Washingtonian's can get stoked as Summer approaches and the first phase of the Silver Line nears completion. Set to open mid-2013, Phase 1 will connect Reston, VA to the rest of civilization. (That would have been useful a few months ago when Chelsea was considering a job out there....). The last 11.5 miles of Phase 2 servicing the airport and Loudoun County is expected to wrap up in 2018, assuming that WMATA can reach an agreement for financing the rest of the project anytime in the next 3-4 years. The Silver Line is the largest expansion project by route mileage since the inception of the Washington Metro in 1976.

Interior of a DC streetcar constructed
in 2008, still unused.

The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) is also finalizing plans to complete the H Street/Benning Road line of the long-anticipated streetcar network, expected to start revenue-service this summer. Of course, this project has been riddled with local infighting and other delays (including a lawsuit from the original Czech firm constructing the streetcars, which have sat rusting in a railyard in NE forst several years), and so a 2013 opening may be more a matter of cosmic luck than deliberate planning.

District Bikeways, or "The obstacle course"

It looks like DC is finally looking to make moves on District bikeways just in time for the transit bill to take away local control of bike-ped funds. Yay timing!

Let me drop you some knowledge about biking in DC. It's not great. The District has received a lot of attention recently for its increasingly bike-friendly policies coming down the proverbial pipes, but the experience includes plenty of indirect routs, unprotected bike lanes, disjointed bikeways and drivers that are largely uneducated on right-of-ways and, on average, very bad at driving.

DC Metro Voices

The voices of train operators on the DC Metro system are one of my favorite parts of District life. Half of the time you will get a run-of-the-mill conductor, but the other 50% includes apparent guest appearances by Sylvester Stallone, Dustin Hoffman, Keanu Reeves, Jack Nicholson, Jason Statham and many more!

A fellow redditor had the foresight to turn on his video camera recently. This conductor is still one of my favorites.... (wait for it)



And another....

DC Metro Blue Line Announcer by gfesteves

"Redline"

In the 9 months since I moved to DC, I have never - not once - managed to catch the connecting REDLINE train towards Glenmont at Metro Station, though I have on rare evenings such as this brushed the sliding doors with my fingertips as they closed on my hopes and slipped away into the darkness once again.

"17 MIN".

One day....

Adventures on the Circulator

Each city handles fare evaders differently. Today I took the Circulator's Yellow Line over toward Georgetown to hear a panel of experts talk about the woes of human migration, and I experienced a brief moment of MUNI-ness. Three stops out from Union Station a group of individuals step onto the bus and move to the back of the car, while one woman wearing a heavy wool jacket clearly fails to pay her fare.

"Excuse me mam," the bus driver eventually says.

Silence.

 "Excuse me mam."

She wears a look of confusion, searching about for a source of the voice.

"Excuse me, MAM!"

She looks about once more and finally finds the furious gaze of the bus driver. He raises his eyebrows in the universal human gesture of "what the hell do you think you're doing?". She stares at him for a moment, and he supplements his massage with an open hand, palm up and flat, that slowly but deliberately directs her attention to the fare box, never breaking his gaze. "Yes?" She asks.

"Aren't you going to pay your fare?" The woman cocked her head to her left in the universal, cross-species sign of curiosity and did not say a word. "Aren't you going to pay the fare?!" he repeated.

"No.... we don't pay the fare."