Breaking Up the Blue and Orange: Proposed Separate Blue Line Tunnel Downtown

Readers of this blog will come to the conclusion that I admire the blog "Greater Greater Washington" highly. And I mine their posts for material shamelessly (thanks guys!). Another blog (the chief inspiration for the blog you are currently reading) is "Track Twenty-Nine", which I credit with turning my attention to the proposed re-alignment of the Blue Line into a new tunnel separated from the Orange Line through downtown. Click here to see GGW's conception of Metro's vision of the system in 2030.

Separating the Orange and Blue downtown would accomplish several things:

a) open up space and headways for the new Silver Line from Tysons and Dulles,
b) with the addition of a new Potomac River crossing, greatly increase capacity into DC from northern Virginia, and
c) catalyze transit-oriented development and revitalization in areas targeted by the city, such as H Street NE.

GGW posted a "2003 WMATA expansion" map in September and discussed this proposed Blue Line re-alignment, which would run down M Street from Georgetown to Massachusetts Ave., pass the Convention Center to Union Station, then down H Street to Benning Road, terminating at River Terrace.

This alignment along M and Mass. has always struck me as being too close to the existing east-west Metro lines (Orange/Blue west of the Convention Center, and Red to the east). In fact, this alignment sits only a few blocks north of the other lines along a good portion of the route. It would appear to me that if we separated the lines a bit more, a larger part of the core of the city could be served by Metro.

I would therefore propose an alternative alignment a couple blocks further north, along P Street instead of M. Like the alignment proposed in the 2003 WMATA expansion map, my plan would begin with a new station in Rosslyn connected by a tunnel to the existing Rosslyn station. Blue Line trains would proceed north through a new tunnel under the Potomac, through Georgetown University with a new station on campus. The line then would turn east onto P Street and proceed to a new station at Wisconsin Ave. Continuing on P St., trains would then pass through and connect with the Dupont Circle station. After Dupont, trains would take one of several alignment options:

1) turn south-east on Massachusetts Ave., then turn east to N Street to a stop on the northern side of the Convention Center (with a connection to the existing Green/Yellow Line stop), then turning south-east on New Jersey Ave.; or
2) continue on P St. through a new stop at Logan Circle, then turning south-east on New Jersey Ave. (completely by-passing the Convention Center); or
3) continue on P St. through Logan Circle all the way to North Capitol Street, onto which the line turns south towards Union Station.

Under all three options, Blue Line trains would then turn due east onto H Street with a station at 1st St. NE & H Street (connecting to Union Station Metro via pedestrian tunnel), then continuing along H Street and terminating at a new station at Oklahoma Ave./Benning Rd., at River Terrace, or at Stadium/Armory.

A map of my proposed Blue Line route can be seen here. The new line is represented here in deep red, with large black dots indicating stops and/or attractions along the route, including Georgetown University, Wisconsin Ave/P Street, Dupont Circle, Scott Circle, Convention Center, New Jersey Ave./Gonzaga, Union Station, H Street NE, and Benning Road/Oklahoma Ave.

Would apreciate your comments. From my perspective, the chief advantage of this proposed alignment is to put more of the city closer to a Metro station, making more of the city attractive for re-development into the vibrant, walkable communities made possible elsewhere by thoughtful transit-oriented planning.


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On a separate note, I have to call attention to the excellent DC map containing city streets and an overlay of the existing Metro lines and stations, which is found here. Why is this extremely useful information (combined street/metro overlays) such a rare find? And why doesn't Metro have such a thing on their website?