M60_to_LGA

WMATA is such a disappointment. The system was constructed to look pretty but to be completely dysfunctional - no second-tracking, no stations in key business/population centers like Georgetown. It's not comprehensive, frequent, or cheap enough to be a functional city subway system, and it's been made even worse due to the past decade-plus of WMATA mismanagement (as evidenced by the Fort Totten crash and L'Enfant fire) and the subsequent service cutbacks. It should not take well over an hour to take the Metro from Union Station to Braddock Road, but that was my experience the last time I took it outside the DC limits back a few years ago.

I've taken the 5A dozens of times over the years and never had a problem with it. Is the expected travel time on the Silver line going to be significantly shorter?

GUWonder

WMATA has its issues, and in the past couple of decades it’s gotten worse in some ways than before. As a work commuter showcase for DC and it being built when it was built, it was never going to be able to provide what an MTA in NY could provide. But still it worked well enough for long enough for me for me to appreciate it. Definitely still enjoying my DC Metro rides more than the stuff I have had to put up with commuting on the MTA subway and LIRR in NY and with the CTA in Chicago.

5A has served me well enough over the years, but it’s a bus that is less comfortable to ride and even deal with heavy or oversized luggage when it’s busy than a Metro car could be. I hope they maintain 5A and don’t reduce its frequency/capacity, but I welcome an option for Metro getting closer and closer to IAD that doesn’t mean a bus.

I would say Georgetown has done better by its residential property owners without a Metro station there. Some still clamor for a hike in the public parking fees and fines in the area, and some would even more than welcome a congestion surcharge for non-locals to drive in the area.

SandBoxJohn

M60_to_LGA
WMATA is such a disappointment. The system was constructed to look pretty but to be completely dysfunctional - no second-tracking, no stations in key business/population centers like Georgetown. It's not comprehensive, frequent, or cheap enough to be a functional city subway system, and it's been made even worse due to the past decade-plus of WMATA mismanagement (as evidenced by the Fort Totten crash and L'Enfant fire) and the subsequent service cutbacks. It should not take well over an hour to take the Metro from Union Station to Braddock Road, but that was my experience the last time I took it outside the DC limits back a few years ago.

Georgetown has no station because of various engineering challenges and costs. I can count all the transit systems with "express tracks" in the America's on one hand, those the have express tracks exist to provide greater capacity.

I've taken the 5A dozens of times over the years and never had a problem with it. Is the expected travel time on the Silver line going to be significantly shorter?

Metro Center to Dulles Airport is projected to be 52 minutes.

GUWonder

5A has a scheduled 50 minutes for going between IAD and L’Enfant Plaza? I would rather do 52 minutes to Metro Center on the tracks than 50 minutes on the road to L’Enfant Plaza. Even at 40 minutes on the bus, sounds nicer to be on the tracks instead.

djp98374

history lesson needed....

georgetown didn’t want “ them” in their neighborhood and refused thrm building a station there. Now they regret it because of the cars there now.

it takes 45 minute to go from Union to alexandria. The variable is in timing connects and when the service is occurring.

DC subway works just fine. You can get around without needing a car. Any older track system has had accidents.

djp98374

when Dulles metro moves, I see 5A moving its route to an area lacking the silver line in DC like convention center.

LHCVG

That could actually work -- a place like the Convention Center, or perhaps Union Station (or stops at both), providing a Dulles link to different catchments than the Silver Line service provides (is that Arlington bus route still in service that literally markets itself as "the above-ground Orange Line" or something to that effect? I do think they want to avoid the 5A becoming that, as it serves a different role). I'm not claiming the ridership would be there, but I like your idea as a concept! Also might work for, say, a MoCo location as a couple-times-a-day service, even if different numbering. Since they have the special buses, no sense in not at least playing with the concept with the newfound conceptual freedom that the full Silver Line to IAD will provide, whenever that it actually opens.

GUWonder

So would that mean no more 5A at Rosslyn?

djp98374

it would still go through Roslyn but it would start not at lenfant station but instead move to convention center station. Or from somewhere else Then cross on key bridge.

at evening rush hour there a lot of traffic it goes through in city and on 66.

if there is no 66 traffic Roslyn bus will be faster to Dulles because it has no stops that silver line does.

djp98374

I haven’t examined the roads or traffic to see what flows best.

it could be union station to convention center. The route would try to align with Amtrak Acela lines where it departs 15-20 min after arrival. It could be in NW area ( Adams, Ten,ytown, friendship)

LHCVG

Same, I haven't done any analysis, but it would seem possible to try some places off the Silver Line track that could logically connect people want to go to IAD. Union Station seems obvious, if timed appropriately to your point, but a couple NW DC stops might be interesting too (that's where I was going with my MoCo comment).

GUWonder

That is part of why “I hope they maintain 5A and don’t reduce its frequency/capacity”. Even as I welcome an option for Metro getting closer and closer to IAD that doesn’t mean a bus.

ISTFlyer

I don't know where did the source of a rerouting come for this bus but during July 2020 at all stops of this line ( L'Enfant, Airport, Rosslyn ) - not sure about the P&R one; there were one of these flyers attached both in English and Spanish that the line would be totally axed. At that time, I guess the ETA of the publicly announced opening date of the Silver Line Expansion was either January or March 2021 which obviously didn't happen.




Although, during my next arrival at IAD in November 2020, these flyers was removed.

futuramadramallama

As others have noted, second-tracking is actually very uncommon. I think the NYC system might be one of the few which do this.

The WMATA was pretty frequent pre-pandemic. At least on the Red line at rush hour, I remember trains coming every two minutes (presumably the max the system can allow), and even then they were packed (downtown). I suspect it was the same on other lines at rush hour.

The comprehensive'ness issue is valid (I assume you mean within DC proper), but is not uncommon amongst other North American systems that attempt to be both a city-subway, and a suburb-rail. I think this is also the case with the BART in the SF Bay Area, the MARTA in Atlanta, and arguably the L in Chicago. Some German cities solved that by having a separate U-Bahn and S-Bahn. All in all, it's a better system than a lot of other North American cities.

LHCVG

And something I noticed over the years (pre-COVID of course) has always been that at least on the Red Line, they are frequent enough to bunch up and have to hold at various stations like you see with buses to even out average headways. Like you said, even then, the trains will often be packed, at least through the core segments. So to their credit, other faults aside, they did "traditionally" run a generous number of trains during the peak.