The second era of Metrorail expansion

[Bensalem SEPTA rider]

Here's my ideas for the second round of major Metrorail expansions:

Blue line: Extend down I-95 to Dale city. Extend east to US301

Yellow line: Extend across Adams Morgan and the Potomac to the Dulles Acces Rd, run to Dulles Airport

Red Line: Extend up MD97 to Olney. Possibly extend to Urbana (from Shady Grove)

Green line: Extend to laurel, extend MTA light rail to connect with it. Extend southern end to MD4

Orange line: Extend to Odenton. Extend to Churchville.

[walt]

Those are all good ideas, however you will have on major problem ( other than cost). WMATA's operating authority only covers the District, Arlington and Fairfax Counties ( and maybe Loudon County) in Virginia, and Montgomery and Prince Georges Counties in Maryland. This would be a problem for your Odenton service. ( Odenton is in Anne Arundel County---- part of MTA's domain) There is already a proposal for some kind of service to Dulles, though it hasn't been determined whether it will be heavy rail rapid transit, light rail or, ( heaven forbid) bus rapid transit.

With regard to Laurel, check out MTA's "Baltimore Area Rail Plan" ( I forget the link, but you can find it from the MTA web site). Apparently this plan has some preliminary approval, and, if built as proposed, would blanket the Baltimore Metro Area with rail service, much of it light rail. The only problem, for me at least, is that the projected completion date is 40 years in the future.