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  • Potomac Yard Metrorail station

  • Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.
Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.

Moderators: mtuandrew, therock, Robert Paniagua

 #1473150  by Sand Box John
 
"JDC"
I believe the distance between the north entrance and the southern one is approx. 210 feet...so, not exactly something that will not be easy to get to.


The problem people are having issues with are not north south, they are east west. The north entrance accesses the station from the west side only, the deleted south entrance accesses the station from both the east and west sides.

All Metrorail station that have more then one entrance have what are called major and minor mezzanines. The major mezzanine is the mezzanine is adjacent to or directly connected to station system support infrastructure.

Me thinks they chose to delete the south entrance because the station system support infrastructure is in the north ancillary area. Deleting the north entrance would require the redesigning of the south entrance to include a larger ancillary area to house the station system support infrastructure.
 #1494409  by JDC
 
Here is a presentation from latest meeting of the Potomac Yard Metrorail Implementation Work Group. It indicates that efforts are underway to include the removed southern entrance as part of the initial station construction, rather than later as part of Amazon HQ2 and related infrastructure projects. To me, that is a no-brainer. https://www.alexandriava.gov/uploadedFi ... 018_JS.pdf
 #1511781  by mtuandrew
 
What’s going on with that west side Metro rail bypass pictured in slide 5? Is that a shoo-fly for during construction, or is it intended to be permanent?

I was actually hoping for a station that more closely resembled Braddock (minus the platform issues), preferably one that cost substantially less, but such is life in the DMV.
 #1511848  by Sand Box John
 
"mtuandrew"
What’s going on with that west side Metro rail bypass pictured in slide 5? Is that a shoo-fly for during construction, or is it intended to be permanent?


The existing alignment is in a curve. The station will be built in a tangent east of that curve. the north and south ends of the station tangent will tie in to the existing alignment at the north and south ends of the new alignment. The existing alignment will be abandoned the same way it was at the Florida Avenue (NOMA) station.
 #1511872  by JDC
 
Rather than abandoning them, which I assume to mean let them deteriorate, wouldn't that be a good spot to store a gap train? Sort of a pocket track setup.
 #1511875  by Sand Box John
 
"JDC"
Rather than abandoning them, which I assume to mean let them deteriorate, wouldn't that be a good spot to store a gap train? Sort of a pocket track setup.


That was considered at NOMA, the idea was dropped because moving trains in and out of the siding would foul one or both of the mainline tracks and the add cost and complexity of a larger interlocking plant.

It should be noted the plans call for adding a double crossover north of the station.
 #1511927  by Sand Box John
 
"mtuandrew"
John and JDC: it also occurs to me that CSX might like the property in which to straighten their own track, then sell their section of right-of-way immediately to the west to developers.


The site plans does not indicate that being a possibility as the traction power substation west of the existing alignment will remain unchanged. The plans show a new substation next to the traction power substation to power the loads in the new passenger station.
 #1520389  by JDC
 
With Metro now running south of National Airport, I can report that very preliminary site preparation is now underway. They have set up construction barriers on the land just to the north of the townhouses on the east of Metro's tracks and every day that site becomes more permanent. I think port-o-potties showed up just today or yesterday. During this summer's outage, they also cleared brush from both sides of the tracks in this area, which I assume is to facilitate construction.
 #1527273  by JDC
 
Noticed today that the contractor has cut down a huge section of trees that were between metro tracks and GW parkway north of construction site. Not sure why so much needed to go and so far north of station on that side of track.
 #1527278  by Sand Box John
 
JDC
Noticed today that the contractor has cut down a huge section of trees that were between metro tracks and GW parkway north of construction site. Not sure why so much needed to go and so far north of station on that side of track.


The station will be built east of the existing curve north of the substation. Plans also call for the installation of a #10 double crossover on the same tangent north of the station The length of that tangent is around 1,000' add another 500' or so at both ends to tie the new alignment into the existing one.