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I understand what you are trying to say but at least get your facts right homey. Metro Center to Gaithersburg is 27 miles. The East Village to City Island is 18 miles at best. Metro Center to Vienna is a better comparison.
LIRR operates every 2 hrs at night to Ronokonkoma. You can't even take the rest of the lines past 1:30 am and some don't operate at all. The metro runs every 15 minutes late night. Metro and LIRR are apples and oranges much like NYC's MTA subway is apples and oranges to LIRR. Look man, NYC is an example for everyone in transit so there is no comparison but NYC can't win everything.
The DC Metro is not a 24 hour transit system so how can it run every 15 minutes at night? Im also not sure where you are getting your info on the schedules of the LIRR but its incorrect.
For example, I live on the Babylon line and during the week the late night trains are 12:01, 12:09, 12:39, 1:37, 3:10, 4:54, and then 6:36. On the weekends, the train leaves at 12:01, 12:38, 1:42, 2:37, 4:54, and 6:10.
That's almost one train every 90 minutes, which is not bad for a city that is 45 miles east of NYC. Granted there are some gaps (miss the 2:37 train and you just about want to kick yourself) but our last call is also at 4 am which might explain the gap between 3 and 5. Either way, its still great considering this is almost 50 miles out of Penn Station. I dont think the DC Metro goes anywhere near 50 miles from Union Station.
As far as this thread though - most suburban areas are served by Metra, and the last trains out of downtown are normally 12:00am to 1:00am.
Though it doesn't affect me, I agree with you that it's sad Metra doesn't run for the most part past the 12:30-1am range. Not to forget, most final outbound trains are at 12:40am or before(I think Metra Electric is 12:50am, though). For a handful of special events(like July 3rd fireworks, never mind how much Chicago has downgraded their Independence Day fireworks show from what it used to be from '09 and before), they do operate outbound trains till 1:30am.
Funny thing was, when I was looking at a Metro-North schedule(not to mention, I used it to come to and back from visiting a friend in New Haven 2 years ago, and while on a NYC trip), my New Haven friend mentioned to me the nickname for the very, very late train that leaves New Haven at something like 2am towards NYC is the 'milk train'. Ultimately, I took the train from New Haven at something like 9:30 or 10pm to get back to NYC, not surprisingly. It makes me wonder if milk actually used to be transported on that train to communities between New Haven and NYC during the overnight hours, decades ago?
The DC Metro is not a 24 hour transit system so how can it run every 15 minutes at night? Im also not sure where you are getting your info on the schedules of the LIRR but its incorrect.
For example, I live on the Babylon line and during the week the late night trains are 12:01, 12:09, 12:39, 1:37, 3:10, 4:54, and then 6:36. On the weekends, the train leaves at 12:01, 12:38, 1:42, 2:37, 4:54, and 6:10.
That's almost one train every 90 minutes, which is not bad for a city that is 45 miles east of NYC. Granted there are some gaps (miss the 2:37 train and you just about want to kick yourself) but our last call is also at 4 am which might explain the gap between 3 and 5. Either way, its still great considering this is almost 50 miles out of Penn Station. I dont think the DC Metro goes anywhere near 50 miles from Union Station.
The metro does run every 15 minutes on the red line at night for the party districts (Dupont Circle, Adam's Morgan, K street, China Town, Bethesda, Silver Spring, etc.) that provide the highest ridership late night. The other lines run no later than every 20 minutes till closing. You can't compare choo choo trains to heavy rail subways. It doesn't work. What heavy rail system nationwide runs one train every hour or every two hours? No heavy rail system in the world does that. Apples and oranges....
The metro does run every 15 minutes on the red line at night for the party districts (Dupont Circle, Adam's Morgan, K street, China Town, Bethesda, Silver Spring, etc.) that provide the highest ridership late night. The other lines run no later than every 20 minutes till closing. You can't compare choo choo trains to heavy rail subways. It doesn't work. What heavy rail system nationwide runs one train every hour or every two hours? No heavy rail system in the world does that. Apples and oranges....
You are missing the point. The previous poster is discussing towns that are 40-50 miles outside of NYC. Shady Grove, the last stop on the red line is less than <25 miles out.
The New York subway System carries people all over the City 24/7, taking people within the city as far out or further than DC Metro does to its furthest suburbs on the Metro. What municipality they fall into is irrelevent. The distance traveled is what matters.
The DC Metro is not a 24 hour transit system so how can it run every 15 minutes at night? Im also not sure where you are getting your info on the schedules of the LIRR but its incorrect.
The DC Metro runs every 15 min or so when it is in service. If you are out til 5 am you are S.O.L.
The Metro is a terrific system, but comparing it to the NY Subway is silly.
The DC Metro runs every 15 min or so when it is in service. If you are out til 5 am you are S.O.L.
The Metro is a terrific system, but comparing it to the NY Subway is silly.
Nobody compared it to NYC's subway but NYC people and the reason they did that was because they didnt want to acknowledge NYC suburban transit is not perfect and there are things they could do to improve it.
You are missing the point. The previous poster is discussing towns that are 40-50 miles outside of NYC. Shady Grove, the last stop on the red line is less than <25 miles out.
The New York subway System carries people all over the City 24/7, taking people within the city as far out or further than DC Metro does to its furthest suburbs on the Metro. What municipality they fall into is irrelevent. The distance traveled is what matters.
The Silver Line will go 40 miles from DC and it opens in 2013. So we are discussing cities that are 40 miles from DC and 40 miles from NYC. The fact of the matter is that new subway systems that travel into the suburbs are more efficient in the 21st century than older pre-suburbanization designed subways. The smart growth designs of the present and future benefit from the newer transit infrastructure.
pretty sure NYC is the undisputed king of getting people home after a night of drinking with public transportation. A subway grid so large that runs 24 hours a day. it can't be beat. period.
the first response to this thread was really all this question required. I love dc's metro. I appreciate it's cleanliness and newness, two things it certainly beats new york in. but if we're talking about the topic of this thread, it's new york, end of story.
It runs 24 hrs and it has more miles of track than other system, on what possible ground could any other system come out on top?
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