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What you mean DC is a 9-5 type of town? Do you know how many people work night shifts or get off at 1am-5am? Plenty of people do and most of them are on the bus routes that actually do run 24/7 or near 24/7. Shipping and freight companies have shifts that start at 3:30-4am however only folks with cars can get those jobs. A good portion of the job market in the DC area is white collar, 9-5, office type jobs but there are far more people who work in the blue collar and service industry and more of them rely on public transit than someone who works at the Dept. of Transportation or the Pentagon. DC cannot be world class without 24/7 transit, either rail or bus.
Huh??? London's Tube isn't 24/7 and neither is Tokyo's heavy rail system. Does that make them less or anti-world class?
The problem with running buses along metro lines is that a lot of the stations do align with the street. In Philly when the trains aren't running the have two owl buses, one for the Market-Frankford line and one for the Broad street line. The Broad street line runs entirely on Broad street and the other line runs on Market Street and Frankford ave. In DC our lines go all over the place except the orange line (Rosslyn to Ballston) and parts of the red line (Farragut North to Van Ness via Connecticut av and Tenlytown to Medical Center via Wisconsin Av). It would take a bus HOURS to go from Minnesota av all the way to Ballston. It just won't work. Metrorail doesn't have to be 24/7 but the hours need to be revamped. Instead of opening at 7am on weekends open at 6am and on weekdays, from 5am to 4am. When stations open un in the morning I see large crowds of people waiting to get in, many have been there since 4am. If metro opens up earlier it may improve performance. We have the shortest hours on weekdays compared to most transit systems in this country but yet, we are the "Nation's Capital", complete bullsh1t if you ask me.
This is a bit of a stretch. Considering that there is no traffic at 2 am, a core metro route is very doable. This is a quick example Sample Route.
Last edited by Deeman804; 05-09-2013 at 01:04 PM..
Reason: Updated hyperlink
I stand by my previous statement. DC is a 9-5 town. Now did I say everyone works those hours? No but most Americans (not just Washingtonians) work 9-5. I do believe from simple observation that a higher percentage of people in the DC area work white collar jobs than other cities. The number of warehouses and factories in DC is pretty darn small. So there just aren't the same number of people working odd hours needing public transit.
Also at least the trains run late ok the weekends. That's better than Boston whose transit system is comparable to the metro.
To say that DC can't be considered world class without a 24 hour metro is a bit much. Again more late night owl buses would be more feasible. However, there's definitely enough demand to warrant extended service for sporting events. I never drive to Nationals games.
Metro will never be able to operate 24/7 because of the lack of a third rail. Without being able to take one rail out of production and route traffic to the other, you lose the ability to perform maintenance without single tracking or shutting the whole line down.
Metro will never be able to operate 24/7 because of the lack of a third rail. Without being able to take one rail out of production and route traffic to the other, you lose the ability to perform maintenance without single tracking or shutting the whole line down.
The blue line in Chicago runs 24/7 and only has two tracks. Also the (G) and (L) trains in NYC only have two tracks as well and they run 24/7, so its not impossible. Worst come to worst, if you run trains every 30-60 minutes you can single track for further distances while not causing delays.
Because unlike the other cities you’ve mentioned, the metro transit policy here is the product of multi-State collaboration and agreement. Any changes made to the policy would affect not only D.C., but Maryland and Virginia, as well. And quite frankly, I don’t think either of those latter States have any strong desire to have late-night riffraff from the city regularly dropped off into their suburbs where a predominant number of their stops/stations are located.
If DC wanted to have 24/7 serviced to all stops stop within city limits it could be done. When the yellow line was extended from Mt. Vernon Square to Fort Totten, D.C. paid for that directly, not MD or VA.
I was a bit shocked when I was out with a friend one weeknight and we actually left a bar early to catch the last Metro train and STILL missed it. This was only a couple minutes after midnight if not even before midnight and the station manager stood there and watched us swipe our Metro cards when he knew the last train had already left...
At least with Marta, the last trains LEAVE the terminal stations at the stated closing time which can sometimes add up to a half hour or more depending on which station you're using. Needless to say, I was kind of shocked when I found out that Metro train service stops abruptly at midnight. On weekend the scenario is flipped and Marta ends up being lame while Metro actually operates until a decent hour.
I was a bit shocked when I was out with a friend one weeknight and we actually left a bar early to catch the last Metro train and STILL missed it. This was only a couple minutes after midnight if not even before midnight and the station manager stood there and watched us swipe our Metro cards when he knew the last train had already left...
At least with Marta, the last trains LEAVE the terminal stations at the stated closing time which can sometimes add up to a half hour or more depending on which station you're using. Needless to say, I was kind of shocked when I found out that Metro train service stops abruptly at midnight. On weekend the scenario is flipped and Marta ends up being lame while Metro actually operates until a decent hour.
Yep, the trains really leave their respective terminals between 11:26-11:40pm... complete BS.
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London's Tube isn't 24/7 and neither is Tokyo's heavy rail system. Does that make them less or anti-world class?
