Virginia Rail Improvements to Support a new Sports Arena

The announcement of a tentative agreement to build a new arena for the Wizards and Capitals in Potomac Yard came with a statement that $200M in transportation investments would accompany the stadium and adjacent entertainment district. Since the PY metro station just opened, that got me thinking about how that $200M could best be spent on transit improvements.

-The low hanging fruit is to add the southern entrance to the metro station that was removed, and build a dedicated connection from the arena to the station.
-Another relatively low cost item would be to extend the BRT lanes through Potomac Ave
-Thinking a bit bigger, the state could look at converting Metroway to LRT and grade separating the existing dedicated busways to allow for higher frequencies and less conflict with traffic
-The one item I heard Sen. Warner mention is building a new VRE station adjacent to the arena. I think the only way this would work is if Virginia has finished building the 4th track between LE and AF, to include Long Bridge, and if VRE has the capacity to run ALX <-> WAS shuttles all day. If the state has the vision and the budget, it would look at electrifying the tracks it owns between WAS and ALX and turning those tracks into essentially a new Metro line.

KTHW wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2023 2:53 pm -Thinking a bit bigger, the state could look at converting Metroway to LRT and grade separating the existing dedicated busways to allow for higher frequencies and less conflict with traffic

They would need to reroute the Metroway if it goes LRT. It does a lot of shared traffic street running.

I don't understand a dedicated entrance to the complex as the north entrance is already practically at the site of the future complex. The station should have the southern entrance, as it was intended to. I can see that entrance being useful as a crowd-control measure, i.e. if certain entrances are entry only/exit only before and after games. Increasing the capacity of Metroway may be very helpful, but even then that relies on folks arriving via Metro and getting off at a station other than Potomac Yard to make the last leg of the trip. If you're already on the Metro, why get off a station early vs just stay on the train and get off at Potomac Yard? Obviously Metroway would be very convenient for folks who live within its service area, who could avoid getting on Metro to travel to the game. But for those coming from further out, I think they would stay on Metro. To me, regrettably, there is likely more money needed to improve vehicular access to the station via Route 1 and Potomac Ave given that it is isolated from any interstate.

KTHW wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2023 2:53 pm If the state has the vision and the budget, it would look at electrifying the tracks it owns between WAS and ALX and turning those tracks into essentially a new Metro line.

Electrifying appears to be a long way off. Read the 15 year NEC improvement plan. For WASH Union station there is a statement that the 1st street tunnel will have work completed (undefined what work) at the end of 15 years. That is a big disappointment to this poster. IMO cannot see electrifying before that work starts as part of that project? However. that certainly may be another reason for Amtrak buying the ALC-42E train sets. Now there would be no reason for electrification from L'Enfant to ALX to get installed.

Metroway "does a lot of shared traffic street running," said STrRedWolf. Not only that, the route is circuitous. I used to ride it sometimes when I lived in Alexandria, and I think I counted 12 corners the bus turned between Pentagon City and the Braddock Rd. Metro sta. Bus transit, yes; rapid, not really.

Literalman wrote: ↑Sun Dec 17, 2023 2:20 pm Metroway "does a lot of shared traffic street running," said STrRedWolf. Not only that, the route is circuitous. I used to ride it sometimes when I lived in Alexandria, and I think I counted 12 corners the bus turned between Pentagon City and the Braddock Rd. Metro sta. Bus transit, yes; rapid, not really.

To be honest, it's a decent way to get to a convention hotel and back from the Crystal City Metro stop. But it's only decent. The only thing that it borrows is that it uses stations instead of stops.

I believe, though, that the Metroway route is still a work in progress and that additional dedicated lanes are planned (or maybe under construction already) and that more of the route will also be direct vs circuitous. Unfortunately, the Metroway website is awful. https://metrowayva.com/

Metro treats the Metroway as "just another" MetroExtra service (which I think is correct in terms of showing frequent limited stop services on its maps).

That Metroway site seems to have been put together for the initial project building the bus lanes used by the service, and is otherwise unmaintained as extensions to dedicated lanes in Arlington along (or on streets a block over from) the existing route are being built or planned, but that site doesn't mention those projects.

If VRE were able to operate all day long in both directions, people could take the VRE to the Alexandria station and transfer to Metro.

There are plans to add more tracks in Alexandria as part of Transforming Rail in Virginia