(Washington, DC) Metro and D.C. Work to Improve City Transit

[Dharmster]

This is great news.. ridership is booming despite a fare increase. Unfortunatley, if this continues additional capital funding will have to be found and local jurisdictions are "too cheap" to fund the needs and "too weak" to increase fares in such a way as to control growth in ridership:

Metro and D.C. Work to Improve City Transit
Updated: Wednesday, Mar. 2, 2005 - 4:06 PM


WASHINGTON (AP) - Metro's chief financial officer told the District of Columbia Council on Wednesday that ridership is up and revenues are running about $9 million above projections throughout the system.
Metro is on track to underspend its subsidies from area jurisdictions by about $13.5 million, through a combination of increased revenues and cost savings.

"We have expanded our bus service in the District of Columbia with several new routes," said Peter Benjamin, adding that his agency is working with D.C. Department of Transportation Director Dan Tangherlini on several projects.

Three light rail cars are under construction in the Czech Republic for use on the $16.1 million Anacostia Light Rail Demonstration Project. Negotiations are under way with CSX Corp. to acquire the rights of way to a freight spur that would be used for the nearly three mile line connecting Bolling Air Force Base to the John Phillip Sousa Memorial Bridge in Southeast Washington. Service could begin in the fall of 2006.

"We are also working with D.C. on a downtown circulator, and we've purchased 29 buses for that," said Benjamin. That crosstown service between the Union Station-Capitol Hill area and Georgetown will offer office workers and tourists shopping and dining opportunities that are currently out of reach due to midday traffic congestion. The service is expected to begin this summer.

"District residents ride transit, we have the second highest transit to work ratio in the country after New York City," Tangherlini said. D.C. residents account for 28 percent of Metrorail ridership, and 58 percent of Metrobus ridership. The city provides about 37 percent of Metro's overall funding.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[ablarc]

Good news. Will that bus linking Union Station and Georgetown have a dedicated right-of-way?

[JLA]

Good news. Will that bus linking Union Station and Georgetown have a dedicated right-of-way?

Good question. If anyone is interested, the head of WMATA is doing an online chat tomorrow and you could pose that question.

http://www.wmata.com/about/met_news/...?ReleaseID=701

[the north omaha star]

Here's a link to the Anacostia Light Rail demo project. Anacostia in a few years will become the new hot spot. Some developers and speculators have already started buying property in that section of town.

http://www.dctransitfuture.com/demos/anacostia/

[the north omaha star]

Good news. Will that bus linking Union Station and Georgetown have a dedicated right-of-way?

Ablarc,

Here's a link to the proposed K Street Busway. It does go from Union Station to Georgetown University

http://wmata.com/about/expansion/kst_busway.pdf
.

[ablarc]

north omaha star, thanks for the link. That's a nice rendering.

But is it truthful? I count three lanes of moving traffic in each direction, two lanes of busway, two lanes worth of platform, and two sidewalks. Twelve "lanes" in all. At 12 feet average, that's a minimum of 144 feet of right-of-way --probably more like 150 feet if you want a half-decent sidewalk. Is K Street as wide as that? Must be, if they say so.

But does it offer real hope? Has anyone thought of what it will mean to have traffic whizzing by pedestrians on the sidewalk without a buffer of parked cars? This is a city after all. What will replace the loss of on-street parking: not "temporary" parking lots, I hope; I guess they could just leave the parking and reduce the general traffic lanes to two in each direction.

They don't show decibels and fumes in renderings.

Once the bus gets to M Street and Georgetown, it'll be stuck in traffic along with everyone else. Need those clean, speedy-looking renderings to keep everybody's mind off the awkward facts until the deed is done. Then you plead unforeseen conditions.

In Boston, unforeseen conditions are scofflaw drivers (how could we have known?), double-parkers, lenient cops and snowstorms. It's always something. For a cautionary tale about "Bus Rapid Transit," check out the thread on Boston's Silver Line. Rapid it ain't.