Md., Va. Officials Question Extending Metrorail Service in NE
By Nikita Stewart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 3, 2006
The District of Columbia's plan to increase Metro subway service through one of the city's hottest neighborhoods north of downtown was temporarily shut down yesterday after suburban members of the Metro board said they wanted to know whether service could also be extended to stations in Maryland.
The board committee for planning and development voted to defer until next month the city's proposal to extend Yellow Line service from Mount Vernon Square to Fort Totten.
The line would serve what are now exclusively Green Line stations in the U Street, Columbia Heights and Petworth neighborhoods, where new shops, condominiums and renovated rowhouses are drawing more residents and, in turn, more Metro riders.
Metro board member Jim Graham, also a D.C. Council member who represents Ward 1, said he was disappointed in his peers' actions because the District is willing to pay for the extension and is ready to launch a $2.5 million, six-month pilot program that would begin in January 2007.
"The mayor continues to feel that it's a worthwhile investment to make," said Sharon Gang, a spokeswoman for D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D).
The Yellow Line runs from Huntington to the Washington Convention Center at Mount Vernon Square, where Metro riders wanting to go farther north must transfer to the Green Line.
On an average Saturday, 35,200 people ride the Green Line from the Shaw/Howard U. Station, the stop after Mount Vernon, to Fort Totten. On an average weekday, 53,400 ride, according to Metro figures.
Under the proposal, Yellow Line trains would continue up the Green Line tracks to the Fort Totten Station, the last D.C. stop on the Green Line, which terminates in Greenbelt.
"It would be better if it went to Greenbelt, but the District isn't going to pay," Graham said after the meeting.
The debate once again pits the District against its suburbs on matters of mass transportation.
Graham said the proposal was about giving the subway some "relevance to the people who live in the District of Columbia." But other board members wanted to talk about the subway's limited service in Maryland and Virginia.
Board members Robert J. Smith, Marcell Solomon and Charles Deegan -- all representing Maryland -- objected to discussing the extension when Chris Zimmerman, the committee chairman, asked for a straw poll. The vote was 4 to 3 in favor of more discussion.
Although some board members agreed that the Green Line needs additional capacity, they said that Metro has to look at the train system as a whole and that there are deficiencies on other lines.
Zimmerman, who represents Virginia, said that commuters on the Blue Line, which runs between Franconia-Springfield and the Largo Town Center stations, would be helped tremendously by a proposal to turn the line into two lines so that riders could skip several stops on the District's west side.
In an interview, Smith said he wanted "turnbacks" on the Red Line to end. Some trains reverse direction at Montgomery County's Grosvenor-Strathmore and Silver Spring stations during peak hours to accommodate the majority of riders who get off at or before those stops. Commuters wanting to go farther north must wait for trains that go to the ends of the line.
Zimmerman told the Metro staff, which researched the Yellow Line extension, to look into its effect on suburban communities. He also wanted to know why the staff chose the Yellow Line extension to Fort Totten when there were three other options: increasing Green Line service, stopping a Yellow Line extension at Georgia Avenue-Petworth in the District and extending it as far as Greenbelt.
The staff said that Graham wanted to focus on the Fort Totten scenario, but Zimmerman said the board should get information about all of the alternatives.
Green and Yellow line riders who were getting off at the Gallery Place-Chinatown Station said the possibility of relief from crowded weekend trains was welcome news.
"Oh, yeah, that would work," said Chris Clanton, 19, a frequent rider of the Green Line.
The committee will meet again April 6.
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