All of a sudden it seems, with the impending workforce consolidations by the Department of Defense, two new Metrorail extensions have been proposed. Ft. Belvior was mentioned a week or two ago; the one to Fort Meade I only heard about this morning.
The Ft. Belvior extension could be done one of two ways: extend blue from Franconia/Springfield, or yellow from Huntington. The Blue Line makes most sense because (a) it's shorter, and (b) there's already a RR right-of-way available for much of the way. In fact, there's even a spur from the old RF&P line right into the base! While the spur has been abandoned for a while, the bridge over US-1 is still intact and to the best of my knowledge has not been encroached. Whereas the Yellow Line would have to follow US-1 most of the way, requiring either an imposing overhead structure or an expensive subway.
The recommended Ft. Meade extension is the Green Line, which I presume would follow the B&O/CSX mainline from Greenbelt, through Laurel, to a place called Annapolis Junction, just before Route 32. From there, a former WB&A line used to run from there, right through the base, all the way to Odenton (I think it was 1937 that it was cut back from Annapolis). While the wye remains along with a few hundred feet of spur track, this line was abandoned in 1992. The right-of-way is intact except for ramps built at MD-198 and MD-295, not to mention the MD-32 freeway itself, plus a new concrete building that made a clean perpendicular cut across the base tracks, some of which are still in place. Hmm, abandoning those tracks seems so shortsighted now. I wonder if I'll live to hear an intercom voice say "NSA/Cryptography Museum, doors open on the left."
The Ft. Belvior extension could be done one of two ways: extend blue from Franconia/Springfield, or yellow from Huntington. The Blue Line makes most sense because (a) it's shorter, and (b) there's already a RR right-of-way available for much of the way. In fact, there's even a spur from the old RF&P line right into the base! While the spur has been abandoned for a while, the bridge over US-1 is still intact and to the best of my knowledge has not been encroached. Whereas the Yellow Line would have to follow US-1 most of the way, requiring either an imposing overhead structure or an expensive subway.
The recommended Ft. Meade extension is the Green Line, which I presume would follow the B&O/CSX mainline from Greenbelt, through Laurel, to a place called Annapolis Junction, just before Route 32. From there, a former WB&A line used to run from there, right through the base, all the way to Odenton (I think it was 1937 that it was cut back from Annapolis). While the wye remains along with a few hundred feet of spur track, this line was abandoned in 1992. The right-of-way is intact except for ramps built at MD-198 and MD-295, not to mention the MD-32 freeway itself, plus a new concrete building that made a clean perpendicular cut across the base tracks, some of which are still in place. Hmm, abandoning those tracks seems so shortsighted now. I wonder if I'll live to hear an intercom voice say "NSA/Cryptography Museum, doors open on the left."
