wrob
2003-07-20 06:10:57 UTC
Metro Approves D.C. Plan for Light Rail
By Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 3, 2003; 3:56 PM
Transit officials took the first steps today toward an experimental
light rail system in Anacostia that would introduce the region to a
new kind of mass transportation while improving movement and
prospects for development in the District's poorest neighborhoods.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The District got approval from Metro board members today to study the
environmental impact of a 2.7-mile proposed light rail line that would
start at Pennsylvania Avenue SE and follow the Anacostia River to the
Bolling Air Force base. The line would use a right-of-way owned by CSX
and once used by freight trains.
The line would be a demonstration project, a small segment of a larger
network of 33 miles worth of light rail that District officials intend
to build.
"This gives us an opportunity to take a segment of the District and begin
to look at and test what full-blown light rail would look like and how it
would work," said Dan Tangherlini, the District's director of transportation.
The environmental study will determine the best type of transit for the line:
light rail, bus rapid transit or diesel multiple units, which are self-propelled
rail cars. But for now, planners have assumed the project will use light rail.
Light rail is the modern day equivalent of streetcars.
It would mark the first time that Metro has built anything other than a
subway, also known as heavy rail. "This is an adventure into a whole new
world," said Richard A. White, Metro's chief executive.
Cost estimates and ridership projections were not available today;
transit officials say they will be developed by the study.
District Council member David A. Catania (R-At Large), who serves on the
Metro board, said the demonstration project is certain to improve the
economic health of Anacostia and pointed to Metro's lengthy track record
of spurring development around transit stations.
[Like, say, the Anacostia station? The one 5 blocks away
from the single proposed additional Anacostia station?]
"Public investment is usually followed by private investment," Catania
said. "Light rail could transform the downtown retail area of Anacostia."
[Try Carrollsburg, where the feds intend to use eminent domain to remove the
last vestiges of low-income housing in that area, the LRT is an enticement.
Visitors have been actively discouraged from visiting Old Town Anacostia
on foot from the Metro station, as illustrated by Metro's own literature.]
Metro and District officials will hold public meetings to get feedback about
the experimental line and say that if funding is secured, construction could
begin next year and light rail could carry passengers in Anacostia by 2006.
For nearly a century, streetcars clattered along steel tracks dug into the
broad boulevards of the District and its suburbs, one of the most extensive
trolley systems in the country.
Congress killed the cream and green trolleys in January 1962, replacing
them with diesel buses that promised a modern way to get around the city.
But the explosion of downtown traffic, the pollution belched by buses and
the difficulty of traveling across town on a hub-and-spoke subway system
have forced city leaders to reconsider.
The District's interest in trolleys comes during a national renaissance
of light rail. In 1975, seven cities operated light-rail systems. Today,
more than 40 systems are proposed or have been approved in places as
diverse as Arizona and Hawaii.
[United by but one thing: low transit ridership proportionate to DC.]
As a means of transportation, light rail falls somewhere between bus
and subway. It consists of rail cars that can run alone or as a train
at average speeds of 10 mph, compared with 8 mph for buses and 27 mph
for subways. Stops are typically closer together than in a subway but
further apart than a bus. Light rail runs on electricity, and most cars
draw power from a pole that connects with overhead wires. In Washington,
a congressional ban on overhead wires in the heart of the city poses
a special problem. The old streetcar companies buried the power source
under the track bed.
[An unnecessary problem, as we have an excellent subway system
with future expansion already provided for. In any case we should
be spending our money preserving Metro's engineering capacity and
funding the Silver and Purple Lines, not experimenting on cross-town
shuttles to benefit development.]
The idea of a streetcar revival excites some Washingtonians, who
wistfully recall the trolleys, post their memories on a Web site
and make pilgrimages to the National Capital Trolley Museum in
Colesville to ride a refurbished car around a small track in the woods.
One of the biggest light-rail successes is in San Francisco, which
opened a line in 1995 that runs vintage trolleys painted the colors
of companies that ran streetcars in various cities. The historic F line
was an instant hit with tourists and trolley buffs, and commuters also
embraced it. When the single trolley line replaced two bus lines,
ridership nearly tripled.
[Not hard to do when the numbers are small.
...Most of the riders use the (Muni) Metro.]
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
By Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 3, 2003; 3:56 PM
Transit officials took the first steps today toward an experimental
light rail system in Anacostia that would introduce the region to a
new kind of mass transportation while improving movement and
prospects for development in the District's poorest neighborhoods.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The District got approval from Metro board members today to study the
environmental impact of a 2.7-mile proposed light rail line that would
start at Pennsylvania Avenue SE and follow the Anacostia River to the
Bolling Air Force base. The line would use a right-of-way owned by CSX
and once used by freight trains.
The line would be a demonstration project, a small segment of a larger
network of 33 miles worth of light rail that District officials intend
to build.
"This gives us an opportunity to take a segment of the District and begin
to look at and test what full-blown light rail would look like and how it
would work," said Dan Tangherlini, the District's director of transportation.
The environmental study will determine the best type of transit for the line:
light rail, bus rapid transit or diesel multiple units, which are self-propelled
rail cars. But for now, planners have assumed the project will use light rail.
Light rail is the modern day equivalent of streetcars.
It would mark the first time that Metro has built anything other than a
subway, also known as heavy rail. "This is an adventure into a whole new
world," said Richard A. White, Metro's chief executive.
Cost estimates and ridership projections were not available today;
transit officials say they will be developed by the study.
District Council member David A. Catania (R-At Large), who serves on the
Metro board, said the demonstration project is certain to improve the
economic health of Anacostia and pointed to Metro's lengthy track record
of spurring development around transit stations.
[Like, say, the Anacostia station? The one 5 blocks away
from the single proposed additional Anacostia station?]
"Public investment is usually followed by private investment," Catania
said. "Light rail could transform the downtown retail area of Anacostia."
[Try Carrollsburg, where the feds intend to use eminent domain to remove the
last vestiges of low-income housing in that area, the LRT is an enticement.
Visitors have been actively discouraged from visiting Old Town Anacostia
on foot from the Metro station, as illustrated by Metro's own literature.]
Metro and District officials will hold public meetings to get feedback about
the experimental line and say that if funding is secured, construction could
begin next year and light rail could carry passengers in Anacostia by 2006.
For nearly a century, streetcars clattered along steel tracks dug into the
broad boulevards of the District and its suburbs, one of the most extensive
trolley systems in the country.
Congress killed the cream and green trolleys in January 1962, replacing
them with diesel buses that promised a modern way to get around the city.
But the explosion of downtown traffic, the pollution belched by buses and
the difficulty of traveling across town on a hub-and-spoke subway system
have forced city leaders to reconsider.
The District's interest in trolleys comes during a national renaissance
of light rail. In 1975, seven cities operated light-rail systems. Today,
more than 40 systems are proposed or have been approved in places as
diverse as Arizona and Hawaii.
[United by but one thing: low transit ridership proportionate to DC.]
As a means of transportation, light rail falls somewhere between bus
and subway. It consists of rail cars that can run alone or as a train
at average speeds of 10 mph, compared with 8 mph for buses and 27 mph
for subways. Stops are typically closer together than in a subway but
further apart than a bus. Light rail runs on electricity, and most cars
draw power from a pole that connects with overhead wires. In Washington,
a congressional ban on overhead wires in the heart of the city poses
a special problem. The old streetcar companies buried the power source
under the track bed.
[An unnecessary problem, as we have an excellent subway system
with future expansion already provided for. In any case we should
be spending our money preserving Metro's engineering capacity and
funding the Silver and Purple Lines, not experimenting on cross-town
shuttles to benefit development.]
The idea of a streetcar revival excites some Washingtonians, who
wistfully recall the trolleys, post their memories on a Web site
and make pilgrimages to the National Capital Trolley Museum in
Colesville to ride a refurbished car around a small track in the woods.
One of the biggest light-rail successes is in San Francisco, which
opened a line in 1995 that runs vintage trolleys painted the colors
of companies that ran streetcars in various cities. The historic F line
was an instant hit with tourists and trolley buffs, and commuters also
embraced it. When the single trolley line replaced two bus lines,
ridership nearly tripled.
[Not hard to do when the numbers are small.
...Most of the riders use the (Muni) Metro.]
© 2003 The Washington Post Company