Last month, the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority published its proposed Metro 2040 update, with a new loop encircling downtown D.C. It’s a plan that’s sparked both excitement and criticism, with one very angry former WMATA board chairman writing recently in the Washington Post that it’s “so far beyond dream as to enter the realm of fantasy.”
But many other ideas—-equally controversial, no doubt—-got left on the cutting-room floor. Here, courtesy of Metro planning blog PlanItMetro, are a few proposals that WMATA tested before ultimately opting not to include. The proposals, according to PlanItMetro, were graded according to “ridership, impact on core capacity, transfers, reduction in vehicle miles traveled (VMT), mode share, etc.” These ones didn’t make the cut.
The Brown Line
The name alone is enough to generate controversy in a demographically divided and changing city. But the line itself would surely have many fans. It would have run down Wisconsin Avenue NW, through Georgetown, along Constitution Avenue, through NoMa and Bloomingdale, and up Georgia Avenue to Silver Spring before veering east into the Maryland suburbs.
The Beltway Line
This one’s pretty self-explanatory. The Beltway Line would have largely paralleled I-495, intersecting the current Metro system at Greenbelt, Wheaton, White Flint, Dunn Loring, Van Dorn Street, Branch Avenue, and Largo Town Center. WMATA found that the line wouldn’t have enough demand, except for maybe on the segments crossing the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and American Legion Bridge.
Green Line to BWI or National Harbor, and Other Extensions
WMATA considered 11 extensions of existing lines farther into the suburbs:
1. Green Line to BWI
2. Orange Line to Bowie
3. Green Line to Charles County
4. Blue Line to Potomac Mills
5. Orange Line to Centreville
6. Red Line to Metropolitan Grove
7. Blue Line to Bowie
8. Green Line to National Harbor
9. Yellow Line to Lorton
10. Orange Line to Gainesville
11. Silver Line to Leesburg
Infill Stations at St. Elizabeths and Elsewhere
The easiest kind of Metro station to build is one that’s on an existing line. WMATA considered stations at St. Elizabeths (where the Coast Guard recently relocated and a major mixed-use development is planned), Oklahoma Avenue NE (not a major population center, but there’s a substantial gap between the Stadium-Armory and Minnesota/Benning stations), Montgomery College, and Eisenhower Avenue Valley. Yellow stations in the map below are the ones that were considered; blue and orange stations are already completed and planned, respectively.
New Connections Between Lines
Without building any new lines, WMATA can shorten riders’ trips by connecting lines to make for fewer transfers. WMATA considered options that would have allowed people to travel from, say, Dulles to Branch Avenue without changing trains.
Images via PlanItMetro