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242K views 699 replies 119 participants last post by  Jim856796 
#1 ·
Washington D.C. Metro Unveils New Plan For Buses

If Metro CEO Richard White has his way, the transit company's bus service is about to get a facelift.

Board members, including D.C. City Councilman Jim Graham, have long criticized the transit system for having a bus service that takes a back seat to the rail service.

White's proposal calls for spending $829 million to improve bus service. And $600 million will be used to purchase 450 new buses, including 250 that run on natural gas, which will arrive by next spring.

Right now, the average age of a Metro bus is 11 years. White said the new buses would help bring that down to about six years.

Other improvements outlined in the plan include outfitting busier bus stops with real-time information by June 2006, letting riders know precisely what time the next bus will arrive.
 
#525 ·
WTOP
http://wtop.com/sprawl-crawl/2015/10/long-delayed-new-vre-station-open-end-year/
2015.10.13

ALEXANDRIA, Va., — The new Spotsylvania station on Virginia Railway Express’ Fredericksburg Line that was originally planned to open two years ago is now slated to open by the end of the year.

Bryan Jungwirth, director of public affairs and government relations for VRE, says VRE hopes to have an exact opening date within the next month.

“We realize it’s been a long, arduous road to get there, but the end is near,” he tells WTOP.

“I can tell you: by the end of the year … we will have that station open by the end of the year — I feel comfortable saying that. I don’t want to go any further than that at this point,” he says.

Some of the initial delays were tied to issues of eminent domain that continue even as construction nears completion.

Jungwirth says that recent design changes and weather delays have caused the project to slip from an opening that was expected by summer.

“It looks nearly ready,” he says.

...
 
#526 ·
I think this has less chance of happening before 2017 than Lamar Odom returning to the NBA this month, but here goes:

Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...9ec70e-759a-11e5-a958-d889faf561dc_story.html

By Michael Laris
October 18

D.C. streetcar on track for year-end opening, top transportation official says

The District is in a final dash to open its long-delayed and much-maligned streetcar project to passengers by year’s end, the city’s top transportation official said.

But Leif A. Dormsjo, seeking to avoid the “arbitrary deadlines” he railed against after taking over as the transportation director in January, said the “facts on the ground” will remain the final arbiter and more delays are possible.

“I think we are on track to be wrapped up here by the end of the year,” Dormsjo said. “There’s been a lot of improvement. . . . But at the end of the day, the only thing that counts is getting the system open safely and responsibly, and that’s really our guiding mission right now.”

...
 
#527 ·
One more delay, and I'm dropping the B-word
 
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#529 ·
"D.C. streetcar on track for year-end opening, top transportation official says"

Ha! That article could be a reprint from last year. The sad thing is, the streetcar is running right now, it's just not open for service.

So, somehow, according to DDOT, the streetcar is safe enough to operate up and down H Street in mixed auto traffic but not safe enough to stop and pick and and drop off passengers at the already completed platforms.

Maybe they're shooting for it to be an even 10 years behind schedule (2017?). Really sad is China has built full-sized underground heavy rail metros in the same time that DC has built one tram line.
 
#537 ·
How D.C. spent $200 million over a decade on a streetcar you still can’t ride

The District is spending three or four times what other cities have to build a maintenance facility for its fledging streetcar system, a reflection of the flawed planning and execution that have dragged down the transit start-up for more than a decade.

The “Car Barn” project was originally designed as a simple garage and rail yard for light repairs and storage, with some offices for staff. But it has ballooned in ambition and nearly tripled in cost — to $48.8 million. It will now include a number of pricey and unusual features, including grass tracks for parking the fleet of six streetcars and a cistern for washing them with rainwater.

At the same time, a short stretch of track that the city built in Washington’s Anacostia neighborhood never reached its intended destination and has been all but abandoned, leaving the city with a multimillion-dollar, eight-tenths of a mile monument to good intentions.


...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...8a51c6-8d48-11e5-acff-673ae92ddd2b_story.html
 
#539 ·
Metro press release

Orange and Silver line return to 6-minute rush-hour service for first time since Stadium-Armory substation fire

Metro General Manager/CEO Paul J. Wiedefeld today announced the resumption of six-minute rush hour service on the Orange and Silver lines, 13 weeks after a catastrophic fire knocked offline an electrical substation outside Stadium-Armory Station.

"I am pleased to be able to announce the restoration of six-minute service on the Orange and Silver lines this week," said Metro General Manager/CEO Paul J. Wiedefeld. "I want to thank the Metro customers who stayed with us despite less frequent service and crowding, and we know there is more work ahead to rebuild rider confidence and make service reliable."

Orange and Silver line trains began consistently departing endpoint terminals at six-minute headways on Monday, December 28, for the first time since the September 21 substation fire.

In the immediate aftermath of the incident, Metro was forced to take several steps to protect the remaining power system, including reducing the number of trains on the line by running Orange and Silver line trains every 8 minutes during rush hours, limiting acceleration, and restricting how many trains were in the area of Stadium-Armory. While these actions were necessary to prevent an even more significant disruption in rail service, customers were subjected to more crowded, less frequent trains and frequent "stop-and-go" sluggish rides during rush hours. Metro experienced a significant drop in both on-time performance and rider satisfaction in the wake of the incident.

The restoration of normal rush-hour headways follows weeks of recovery, cleanup, testing and commissioning of new equipment. Working with PEPCO, the Stadium-Armory substation was reconnected to the power grid about a week ago and began feeding electricity to the third rail.

Background

  • On Monday, September 21, a fire destroyed critical equipment at a Metro Traction Power Substation located in the parking lot of RFK Stadium, near Stadium-Armory Station. The incident resulted in the Traction Power Substation being taken offline, resulting in reduced power for the Blue, Orange and Silver lines in the area of Stadium-Armory.
  • The Stadium-Armory Substation is a nine-megawatt power substation that converts A/C commercial power to D/C power used to power trains via the third rail. While repairs are underway to rebuild the power substation, Metro is “feeding” power to the area of Stadium-Armory from two smaller substations farther away. To avoid overloading the system or disrupting service, Metro had to reduce train speeds and limit the number of trains passing through the area.
  • The fire involved one of three transformers housed at the substation, but the damage from smoke and heat extended to other equipment in the facility.
  • After the fire, Metro performed an initial assessment of the damage and estimated that it would take at least six months to completely rebuild the substation, replacing all traction power equipment in order to bring power back online.
  • Following a more thorough examination, it was determined that engineers would be able to restore two of the three transformers to factory-quality condition and return them to service on a temporary basis. This allowed Metro to restore normal service at Stadium-Armory by the end of 2015, less than initial six-month estimates. Once online, the two transformers will provide power on a temporary basis, until all three transformers are replaced with new custom built traction power equipment.

News release issued at 10:54 am, December 30, 2015.
 
#541 ·
3rd Quarter 2015 Daily Ridership numbers for DC-Baltimore


Light Rail
Baltimore / LRT - 19,700 (2015) : -21.20%

Heavy Rail
Washington / Metro - 899,200 (2015) : 6.20%
Baltimore / Metro - 41,700 (2015) : - 14.91%

Suburban/Regional/Commuter Rail
Washington-Baltimore / Marc - 35,900 (2015) : 2.89%
NOVA / Virgina Railway Express - 12,863 (2015) : -6.79%

Bus Ridership
Washington DC / WMATA - 444,400 (2015) : 3.10%
Baltimore / MTA Bus - 262,000 (2015) : 4.21%
Rockville / Montgomery County Ride-On - 83,700 (2015) : 4.64%
Fairfax / Fairfax County Dept trans. - 32,300 (2015) : -9.71%
Alexandria / Alexandria Transit Company - 14,700 (2015) : 3.21%
Woodbridge / PRTC Omni-Ride - 11,400 (2015) : -10.52%
Arlington / Arlington Transit - 10,000 (2015) : 1.38%
 
#542 ·
Judging from the numbers: I cant wait to see how many people the city looses over the past year, maybe 5%?
 
#545 ·
exactly
 
#546 ·
Also, I thought DC metro ridership was down?
 
#548 ·
Gallery Cars seem to be the least efficient passenger rail cars ever, I cannot find a single good reason for their continued use.
 
#549 ·
Modern Gallery Cars, with wide entrance doors, are actually reasonably efficient for certain applications. To be specific, they are good for cases where there is highly directional traffic flow. A fair amount of people can board at once, and immediately spread in both directions into the car, as well as up the staircases into the galleries. This apparently speeds loading quite a bit. An additional benefit is that the people in the galleries place their tickets along the edges of the gallery. Therefore, the conductor only has to reach up a bit to get their ticket, so they can punch tickets much faster.

There are very good reasons why gallery cars continue to be built even 60 years after their introduction in Chicago.
 
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