Yellow Line vs Green Line to National Harbor

Just wanted to alert the readers here to an interesting discussion taking place on GGW ( http://greatergreaterwashington.org/pos ... al-harbor/) and the WP (http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md- ... story.html) in response to Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler's election pledge to bring the Yellow Line to National Harbor ("Gansler said he would work to extend a line across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge from the Huntington station in Virginia — a need made greater, he said, by the likelihood that a casino will open at National Harbor in coming years.").

In my mind, there are pros/cons of each line being brought to National Harbor: the Green Line would likely be cheaper (although the distance is longer), bring the workers to NH, and could be made to service the Oxon Hill area; the Yellow Line may be more expensive, technically difficult (*very narrow area to work with south of Huntington station to redirect trains north and eastward), would bring more customers (all Virginians), would utilize the ROW on the Wilson Bridge built for such a purpose, and connect National Airport to a big regional destination. There are likely many more I'm missing. I think the Yellow would also require a big buy in from VA, because it would result in it directing tax revenue to MD, which would be against its own interests.

Anyone have any thoughts? I think John would likely be able to speak to the technical feasibility of any such endeavor.

"JDC"

In my mind, there are pros/cons of each line being brought to National Harbor: the Green Line would likely be cheaper (although the distance is longer), bring the workers to NH, and could be made to service the Oxon Hill area; the Yellow Line may be more expensive, technically difficult (*very narrow area to work with south of Huntington station to redirect trains north and eastward), would bring more customers (all Virginians), would utilize the ROW on the Wilson Bridge built for such a purpose, and connect National Airport to a big regional destination. There are likely many more I'm missing. I think the Yellow would also require a big buy in from VA, because it would result in it directing tax revenue to MD, which would be against its own interests.

Anyone have any thoughts? I think John would likely be able to speak to the technical feasibility of any such endeavor.

It appears Douglas F. Gansler is not familiar with how a metrorail route across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge would connect to the existing system. My recollection was the bridge route would connect to C route north of the Eisenhower Avenue station.

As to which would be the cheaper option, I believe it would be the one from the Virginia side. Getting the Green line to the beltway would require the taking of several properties. A branch off the Yellow line would not. The new Woodrow Wilson Bridge was built to accommodate future rail transit. The easement from the Yellow line to and across the bridge to east of MD I-295 is already in place, the same can not be said of the Beltway from Branch Avenue to Indian Head Highway.

Frankly I think Princes George's County and the State of Maryland should make a joint proposal with the District of Columbia to build a streetcar line from National Harbor to the Anacostia matrorail station along Indian Head Highway, South Capitol Street and Martin Luther King Avenue‎ and connect it to one or all of the proposed lines that will cross the 11th Street Bridge.

Such a streetcar line would generate boardings along the entire length and not just at National Harbor.

Maryland MTA did a study on this for the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project, called the South Side Transit Study:

http://mta.maryland.gov/sites/default/f ... 0FINAL.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Nice find jcepler1! I loved reading the names of the proposed stations, which at this point are descriptive and thus helpful. But it made me laugh to think of all the Tysons names and how Metro rejected Fairfax's proposed names for being repetitive and not helpful. Some of the proposed routes seem overkill, and would really make for a slow ride into DC (especially Waterfront or Ballpark) vs taking Yellow to L'Enfant and then taking Green line south. Some, however, seem pretty interesting, particularly 3c/3cr. I guess the question really is, and the purpose of the report, where do potential riders live and how can we tap into that market? Several of the routes (usually the "C" route) seem keyed to promoting growth along the river, which intrigues me.

John - you said "As to which would be the cheaper option, I believe it would be the one from the Virginia side. Getting the Green line to the beltway would require the taking of several properties. A branch off the Yellow line would not. The new Woodrow Wilson Bridge was built to accommodate future rail transit. The easement from the Yellow line to and across the bridge to east of MD I-295 is already in place . . . ." Where does this easement run? You already said the proposed junction is north of Eisenhower Ave station....

"JDC"
Where does this easement run?

Median between express roadways starting about 600' east of the C route Yellow line crossing of the Capitol Beltway. At Washington Street it transitions to left shoulders of express roadways on the bridge. At the Maryland end of the bridge it transitions back to median between express roadways and ends in the middle of the MD I-295 interchange.

https://maps.google.com/?ll=38.794366,- ... 5&t=h&z=14" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;