Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Metro's long-term plans may include a new line serving Upper Georgia Avenue



Metro's Office of Long Range Planning recently released some brainstorms regarding how it will cope with the Washington region's projected rapid growth over the next 30 years. Although Metro is contemplating several different ways to alter the current system in order to better serve riders, the concept that will be of the most interest to Brightwoodians is that of a new "Brown Line", which would begin at Friendship Heights and head south, looping through downtown and Georgetown (to much fanfare already), and then heading north through Eckington and Bloomingdale before hitting Petworth and then...wait for it...Manor Park, Brightwood, and Shepherd Park.

Keep in mind that this is just Metro brainstorming and these plans are by no means concrete (and also try not to be too bothered by the fact that "Shepherd Park" is misspelled on the map, nor by the fact that the map references "Walter Reed Med Center", which will have been long gone by the time this conceptual Brown Line gets constructed).

4 comments:

  1. I'd be interested to see what the projections are that would lead to both a Brightwood and Manor Park station. They seem very close together.

    Faraji Whalen
    Domus Property Management
    202.487.9565
    http://rentdccondos.com

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  2. Faraji: too bad they didn't identify cross streets on the map; that would give us a clearer idea of what they're thinking. It looks to me like "Manor Park" might be at the Georgia/Missouri intersection, "Brightwood" might be at/near the Piney Branch Safeway, Walter Reed is Walter Reed, and "Shepard Park" (sic) is the intersection of Georgia and Eastern. Which definitely seems crowded...does Metro really think growth on Georgia Avenue will necessitate *four* Metro stops?!

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  3. I'm guessing this might be light rail in which case there would be more frequent stops. Can't imagine the digging that would be required to do this as an underground line.

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  4. Sounds like a great idea to me. When I think about how many people take the Georgia Ave buses, I think we can see with our own eyes that there's enough density to support metro rail in this area.

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