New Approach on Metro Track Work
Metro managers are hoping to better organize track work, so they can limit the delays that frustrate riders traveling at off-peak times and on weekends. It's a promising approach, as the transit authority is planning many years of major rehabilitation work on all the lines.
Weekend work shut a track at Mount Vernon Square. (Thomson)
But Metro board members, listening to a staff presentation of the plan today, were rightly cautious about fully committing to it until they get more details about the impact on travel.
The problem: The transit authority now presides over 60 rehabilitation contracts, all in the $5 to $15 million range. All the jobs compete for a narrow window of work time at various points along the lines. They can't get all their work done while the rail system is closed. The delays caused by single-tracking around work zones drive riders nuts.
The proposed fix: Metro managers Dave Couch and Dave Kubicek said they can cluster future contracts, concentrating them along segments of the lines. Tackle one segment at a time, doing evening and overnight work in such a way as to minimize train delays. Then move on to the next segment, with the same goal.
After the evening rush and on weekends, the managers said, one of the two tracks could be shut down for work without disrupting the train schedule in many areas, since the trains are scheduled to operate much less frequently anyway at those times. Also, clustering the work in specific segments would give the workers greater access to a defined area, getting the job done faster.
The schedule: The managers want to start this reorganized rehab program on the Red Line, letting a first contract for work between Dupont Circle and Silver Spring, then Dupont to Grosvenor, then out to Shady Grove and out to Glenmont. They'd be starting with the oldest portions of the rail system and working out from there. The Blue and Orange Lines would follow, then the Yellow and Green. The whole process would take about seven years.
Board member Peter Benjamin, who heard from a lot of Red Line riders in Maryland about the seemingly constant work zone disruptions early this year and late last year, noted that many riders were delayed for at least half an hour. Because Metro would turn around trains after they passed through the core stations, riders heading for the outer stations would have to get off and wait for another train to reach their destinations.
So Benjamin and others on the board want more details about how trains will be staged through the work zones under the new plan, though Benjamin said he really liked the managers' approach of integrating the work to minimize disruptions.
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July 24, 2008; 11:29 AM ET
Metro
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Posted by: Anonymous | July 24, 2008 1:09 PM
Has there ever been a study on how much it would cost (or if it's even feasible) to add a third track? That seems to be the only sensible long-term answer to the single-tracking problem.
Which probably means Metro will never ever do it.
Posted by: JoeSch. | July 24, 2008 5:18 PM
"Has there ever been a study on how much it would cost (or if it's even feasible) to add a third track?"
Let me just say that the cost for doing that would make Dulles Rail look dirt cheap. The cost would easily be in the many, probably hundreds of billions of dollars. You would have to dig tunnels for the new tracks all through downtown. All of the stations would have to be reconfigured (think of the stations with 2 tracks and 1 platform in between them). And it would not be a good use of money if the tracks would not be used for normal service and only used during re-routes and emergencies. You can't run normal service using 3 tracks. Think of the Orange Line...you run 2 tracks worth of trains from Vienna into the city during the morning rush (one of them would probably be express service), and one track out...and then do the same thing, 2 tracks in, 1 track out from New Carrollton. How do you get more trains out to the ends of the lines to bring more people in? And what do you do with all the extra trains that end up in downtown DC? You would really need to have 4 tracks, which would significantly increase the cost even more.
Plus, there are many underserved parts of the city. If we are going to add 2 new tracks through the city, I'd much rather see them run on a new route (Georgetown to Union Station) then duplicate service on a route that already exists.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 25, 2008 10:36 AM
New routes would also be helpful if they would provide bypasses around bottlenecks.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 25, 2008 11:11 AM
I don't believe Metro that they can do work during non-peak hours and not cause delays. I remember that incredibly long period after the New York Avenue station opened but before it was completed, where they were doing single-tracking every night, and it caused upwards of half-hour delays every single time. I need more than a happy-talk plan before Metro gets a green light on this.
Posted by: Lindemann | July 25, 2008 5:58 PM
Maintainence needs to be done. We're all big boys and girls and we can handle it.
I applaud WMATA for planning to work around it, building off of what worked and didn't in the past.
As far as building a third track, I agree with the above poster in that it would be a better idea to build a new separated Blue Line through Georgetown, across M St. with a foot tunnel connecting a Golden Triangle station with Farragut North and/or DuPont Circle to Mt. Vernon Sq. then to Union Station, and then across H st. NE to meet up with its present tracks on its way to Largo. It would cost single digit billions rather than the tens of billions required to retrofit the entire existing system with a third track.
Posted by: Cavan | July 28, 2008 9:14 AM
True. Metro gets delays if you look at them funny.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 28, 2008 5:45 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
Too sensible, it will never happen.