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Both MARTA and BART, while similar to Metro lack coverage in opposite ends of the spectrum.
BART doesn't have very much coverage in SF proper but serves the East Bay suburbs very well. MARTA mostly stays within the city of Atlanta and doesn't really go into the suburbs.
Metro has the best of both worlds. It covers the District pretty well and also covers the suburbs and exurbs, including Ashburn VA which is like 30 miles away from DC.
Both MARTA and BART, while similar to Metro lack coverage in opposite ends of the spectrum.
BART doesn't have very much coverage in SF proper but serves the East Bay suburbs very well. MARTA mostly stays within the city of Atlanta and doesn't really go into the suburbs.
Metro has the best of both worlds. It covers the District pretty well and also covers the suburbs and exurbs, including Ashburn VA which is like 30 miles away from DC.
Metrorail does not currently go to Ashburn. It only goes to Reston, with an ongoing expansion to Dulles and the toll road area west of Dulles (which is still a drive away from actual Ashburn). But the average normal ride from Reston to Metro Center station is about 45 minutes. So for a work commute to DC --- if you're lucky and don't have to change trains, a ride from what they call the Ashburn station will be about 55 minutes. Including from your house to station, and station to office segments that will most likely be about an hour an 15 minute trip, if you don't have to change trains, and everything goes well. Which in reality means it will often be a 1.5 - 2 hour trip. I guess it beats sitting in traffic for the same length of time (maybe), but no thanks.
Metrorail does not currently go to Ashburn. It only goes to Reston, with an ongoing expansion to Dulles and the toll road area west of Dulles (which is still a drive away from actual Ashburn). But the average normal ride from Reston to Metro Center station is about 45 minutes. So for a work commute to DC --- if you're lucky and don't have to change trains, a ride from what they call the Ashburn station will be about 55 minutes. Including from your house to station, and station to office segments that will most likely be about an hour an 15 minute trip, if you don't have to change trains, and everything goes well. Which in reality means it will often be a 1.5 - 2 hour trip. I guess it beats sitting in traffic for the same length of time (maybe), but no thanks.
The majority of people who live in Northern Virginia also work in Northern Virginia, not DC. Future Tysons and the Silver Line corridor will have employment figures that rival downtown DC.
Both BART and the DC Metro are hybrids: they function both as urban heavy rail and suburban commuter rail. They serve their urban cores (not very well, in the case of BART) but also extend far out into the suburbs. Some of their outer stations are spaced quite far apart from each other.
MARTA, on the other hand, is much more of an urban heavy rail system. Though it does serve the suburbs, I think, it doesn't go very far out into them. Honestly, though, its coverage within the city isn't all that great either. It's a lot like Philadelphia's SEPTA system in that regard.
Perception of "the suburbs" is different not just between two metro areas, but within them as well. The developed areas of Howard County MD, in my opinion, count as both a suburb of DC and a suburb of Baltimore (coming from a Loudoun County VA native who studies maps in his free time). My perception of the city/suburbs of DC are that Anacostia, Bethesda, Silver Spring, Rosslyn-Ballston, Pentagon City-Crystal City and Old Town Alexandria are part of the urban core; that Tysons Corner, White Flint/Twinbrook, Falls Church, Seven Corners, Bailey's Crossroads, Shirlington, Deanwood/Cheverly, Dunn Loring/Merrifield, College Park, and Annandale are inner suburbs; that Fairfax (City), Rockville, Shady Grove/Derwood, Wheaton/Glenmont, Greenbelt, Landover/New Carrollton, Congress Heights, Temple Hills/Suitland/Silver Hill, White Oak, Lincolnia, Oxon Hill/National Harbor, Reston/Herndon/Sterling, Oakton/Vienna, Fair Oaks/Fair Lakes, Gaithersburg, Seat Pleasant/Capitol Heights, and Springfield are mid-suburbs; that Ashburn/Lansdowne/Broadlands, Brambleton/Arcola, Centreville, Chantilly, Leesburg, Mount Vernon/Fort Belvoir, Largo/Lottsford, Seabrook/Glenn Dale, Laurel/Savage, Muirkirk/Beltsville, Olney, Metropolitan Grove, Germantown, Burtonsville, Columbia, Clinton/Andrews AFB, Newington/Lorton, Woodbridge/Dale City/Rippon, Manassas/Manassas Park/Clifton, Haymarket/Gainesville, and Burke Lake are outer-suburbs; and that Purcellville/Round Hill, Warrenton, Remington/Bealeton, Nokesville, Quantico/Dumfries/Triangle, Brandywine, Upper Marlboro, Waldorf/St. Charles, La Plata, Fort Washington/Accokeek, Indian Head, Bowie/Crofton, Clarksburg, Frederick/Monocacy, Point of Rocks/Brunswick, Marshall/The Plains, Middleburg/Aldie, South Riding/Stone Ridge, Stafford/Garrisonville, Hughesville/Charlotte Hall/Mechanicsville, Dunkirk/Owings, and Mt. Airy are part of the exurbs. Annapolis, Fredericksburg, Hagerstown, Martinsburg, Winchester, Front Royal, and other areas of that distance from Downtown DC, I consider to have too weak of commuting and travel patterns to be called exurbs of DC, even though some of those areas receive commuter rail service. So by that metric, I don't consider Metrorail to be an exurban rail system or even a strong enough outer-suburban rail system. Sure, people from those areas drive to the end-line stations, park, and ride the Metro into DC for work, but the patterns aren't strong enough to say that Metrorail reaches far into the suburbs. Rather, I would argue, that Metrorail extends into areas once thought as outer suburbs, but Metrorail has urbanized those areas and "brought them closer to" or even made them a part of the urban core. Because of both horrendous traffic in DC (with not many highway options, a result of a largely successful, organized highway revolt by people of all races and all socioeconomic tiers) and redevelopment around key stations, Metro serves as a suburban commuter lifeline, a fantastic tourist shuttle, a redevelopment catalyst, and an urban core transit lifeline -- and that combination of purposes is what helps Metrorail absolutely fly past the usefulness of MARTA for sure, and sweep the board compared to BART. Because of the success and resulting high ridership, of the three systems of focus in this thread, WMATA's Metrorail is the only system with major capacity issues -- a sign of a healthy transit system but also a sign of one that needs some serious investment over the next 3 decades (like 100% 8-car trains during rush hours -- which requires major upgrades to the power traction system; a pedestrian tunnel between Farragut West's eastern mezzanine and Farragut North's southern mezzanine, along with a bank of 3 elevators at Farragut West and a mezzanine expansion at Farragut North; a pedestrian tunnel between Metro Center's eastern mezzanine and Gallery Place's eastern mezzanine via a bridge above the Red Line tracks between GP's western and eastern mezzanine, all to reduce the number of people hopping on the Red Line between Metro Center and Gallery Place to go from Blue/Orange/Silver and Yellow/Green; next-generation Automatic Train Operation to optimize line capacity and squeeze another 1-3 trains per hour through the downtown tunnels on top of the current design capacity of 26 trains per hour; and eventually, rerouting Metro lines through newly-constructed tunnels in the core like the Blue Line to Georgetown; the Yellow Line to Navy Yard, Capitol South, Union Station, Eckington/North Capitol, Columbia Heights, and Woodley Park; and a new line along 14th St NW extending out to White Oak via Silver Spring and out to Annandale along Columbia Pike in VA).
BART is dealing with minor-but-not-insignificant capacity issues on the Transbay Tube and the Market Street Trunk -- which could be alleviated for 3-7 years by eliminating timed transfers at Balboa Park, Oakland-19th Street, and Oakland-MacArthur Park, which would increase Transbay Tube throughput by 1-3 trains per hour over the current 22 per hour; and by running 100% 10-car trains through the Transbay Tubes, achievable using the existing signalling system. A 24 TPH (every 2.5 minutes) schedule of 10-car trains would allow trains on the Richmond/Millbrae, Pittsburg-Bay Point/SFO, Warm Springs/Daly City, and Dublin-Pleasanton/Daly City lines to run every 10 minutes, meaning during rush-hour, trains would run between Richmond and Oakland (north side of downtown) every 5-8 minutes, and trains would run between Bay Fair and Lake Merritt every 3-4 minutes. The extra tracks and platforms at Bay Fair and Oakland-19th would, in the AM rush, serve to organize trains and allow them to remain reliable by neatly fitting them in between each other; Balboa Park's extra platforms and tracks would govern the eastbound service pattern and serve the same purpose in the PM rush that its East Bay counterparts have in the AM rush.
As for MARTA -- well, obviously not at capacity, but could increase utilization by moving parking underground and putting in TOD, or even eliminating it at a couple stations like West End and Inman Park/Reynoldstown and putting in TOD. Further intensification of Vine City, Garnett, Peachtree Center, Civic Center, North Avenue, Midtown, and Arts Center would reinforce travel patterns in the core urbanized portions of the system. Improving off-peak and weekend service, while it costs a small bit, could make the system far more useful for both shorter and longer non-work trips -- that is where rapid transit systems in the US, collectively, can boost ridership the most relative to cost (that is, of the initiatives that can be undertaken within a transit agency -- congestion pricing can't be done within the transit agency because they don't control any highways or arterials). Expanding high-quality transit in Atlanta will, 98% of it, come from light rail/streetcars and bus rapid transit.
[quote=transit_pancake;54776323]Perception of "the suburbs" is different not just between two metro areas, but within them as well. The developed areas of Howard County MD, in my opinion, count as both a suburb of DC and a suburb of Baltimore (coming from a Loudoun County VA native who studies maps in his free time). My perception of the city/suburbs of DC are that Anacostia, Bethesda, Silver Spring, Rosslyn-Ballston, Pentagon City-Crystal City and Old Town Alexandria are part of the urban core; that Tysons Corner, White Flint/Twinbrook, Falls Church, Seven Corners, Bailey's Crossroads, Shirlington, Deanwood/Cheverly, Dunn Loring/Merrifield, College Park, and Annandale are inner suburbs; that Fairfax (City), Rockville, Shady Grove/Derwood, Wheaton/Glenmont, Greenbelt, Landover/New Carrollton, Congress Heights, Temple Hills/Suitland/Silver Hill, White Oak, Lincolnia, Oxon Hill/National Harbor, Reston/Herndon/Sterling, Oakton/Vienna, Fair Oaks/Fair Lakes, Gaithersburg, Seat Pleasant/Capitol Heights, and Springfield are mid-suburbs; that Ashburn/Lansdowne/Broadlands, Brambleton/Arcola, Centreville, Chantilly, Leesburg, Mount Vernon/Fort Belvoir, Largo/Lottsford, Seabrook/Glenn Dale, Laurel/Savage, Muirkirk/Beltsville, Olney, Metropolitan Grove, Germantown, Burtonsville, Columbia, Clinton/Andrews AFB, Newington/Lorton, Woodbridge/Dale City/Rippon, Manassas/Manassas Park/Clifton, Haymarket/Gainesville, and Burke Lake are outer-suburbs; and that Purcellville/Round Hill, Warrenton, Remington/Bealeton, Nokesville, Quantico/Dumfries/Triangle, Brandywine, Upper Marlboro, Waldorf/St. Charles, La Plata, Fort Washington/Accokeek, Indian Head, Bowie/Crofton, Clarksburg, Frederick/Monocacy, Point of Rocks/Brunswick, Marshall/The Plains, Middleburg/Aldie, South Riding/Stone Ridge, Stafford/Garrisonville, Hughesville/Charlotte Hall/Mechanicsville, Dunkirk/Owings, and Mt. Airy are part of the exurbs. Annapolis, Fredericksburg, Hagerstown, Martinsburg, Winchester, Front Royal, and other areas of that distance from Downtown DC, I consider to have too weak of commuting and travel patterns to be called exurbs of DC, even though some of those areas receive commuter rail service. So by that metric, I don't consider Metrorail to be an exurban rail system or even a strong enough outer-suburban rail system. Sure, people from those areas drive to the end-line stations, park, and ride the Metro into DC for work, but the patterns aren't strong enough to say that Metrorail reaches far into the suburbs. Rather, I would argue, that Metrorail extends into areas once thought as outer suburbs, but Metrorail has urbanized those areas and "brought them closer to" or even made them a part of the urban core. Because of both horrendous traffic in DC (with not many highway options, a result of a largely successful, organized highway revolt by people of all races and all socioeconomic tiers) and redevelopment around key stations, Metro serves as a suburban commuter lifeline, a fantastic tourist shuttle, a redevelopment catalyst, and an urban core transit lifeline -- and that combination of purposes is what helps Metrorail absolutely fly past the usefulness of MARTA for sure, and sweep the board compared to BART. Because of the success and resulting high ridership, of the three systems of focus in this thread, WMATA's Metrorail is the only system with major capacity issues -- a sign of a healthy transit system but also a sign of one that needs some serious investment over the next 3 decades (like 100% 8-car trains during rush hours -- which requires major upgrades to the power traction system; a pedestrian tunnel between Farragut West's eastern mezzanine and Farragut North's southern mezzanine, along with a bank of 3 elevators at Farragut West and a mezzanine expansion at Farragut North; a pedestrian tunnel between Metro Center's eastern mezzanine and Gallery Place's eastern mezzanine via a bridge above the Red Line tracks between GP's western and eastern mezzanine, all to reduce the number of people hopping on the Red Line between Metro Center and Gallery Place to go from Blue/Orange/Silver and Yellow/Green; next-generation Automatic Train Operation to optimize line capacity and squeeze another 1-3 trains per hour through the downtown tunnels on top of the current design capacity of 26 trains per hour; and eventually, rerouting Metro lines through newly-constructed tunnels in the core like the Blue Line to Georgetown; the Yellow Line to Navy Yard, Capitol South, Union Station, Eckington/North Capitol, Columbia Heights, and Woodley Park; and a new line along 14th St NW extending out to White Oak via Silver Spring and out to Annandale along Columbia Pike in VA).
BART is dealing with minor-but-not-insignificant capacity issues on the Transbay Tube and the Market Street Trunk -- which could be alleviated for 3-7 years by eliminating timed transfers at Balboa Park, Oakland-19th Street, and Oakland-MacArthur Park, which would increase Transbay Tube throughput by 1-3 trains per hour over the current 22 per hour; and by running 100% 10-car trains through the Transbay Tubes, achievable using the existing signalling system. A 24 TPH (every 2.5 minutes) schedule of 10-car trains would allow trains on the Richmond/Millbrae, Pittsburg-Bay Point/SFO, Warm Springs/Daly City, and Dublin-Pleasanton/Daly City lines to run every 10 minutes, meaning during rush-hour, trains would run between Richmond and Oakland (north side of downtown) every 5-8 minutes, and trains would run between Bay Fair and Lake Merritt every 3-4 minutes. The extra tracks and platforms at Bay Fair and Oakland-19th would, in the AM rush, serve to organize trains and allow them to remain reliable by neatly fitting them in between each other; Balboa Park's extra platforms and tracks would govern the eastbound service pattern and serve the same purpose in the PM rush that its East Bay counterparts have in the AM rush.
As for MARTA -- well, obviously not at capacity, but could increase utilization by moving parking underground and putting in TOD, or even eliminating it at a couple stations like West End and Inman Park/Reynoldstown and putting in TOD. Further intensification of Vine City, Garnett, Peachtree Center, Civic Center, North Avenue, Midtown, and Arts Center would reinforce travel patterns in the core urbanized portions of the system. Improving off-peak and weekend service, while it costs a small bit, could make the system far more useful for both shorter and longer non-work trips -- that is where rapid transit systems in the US, collectively, can boost ridership the most relative to cost (that is, of the initiatives that can be undertaken within a transit agency -- congestion pricing can't be done within the transit agency because they don't control any highways or arterials). Expanding high-quality transit in Atlanta will, 98% of it, come from light rail/streetcars and bus rapid transit.[/QUOTE
You have to remember when you speak of suburbs, its all relative. For Atlanta, SF and D.C. the core cities are relatively small compared to say L.A., Houston or Dallas. So for Atlanta, the suburbs begin a lot closer to downtown. MARTA really has become inadequate as it has only add two station the last 25 years. In fact, Gwinnett County is having a vote this month or in April to see if it wants to join MARTA. There's a stigma frankly held by the Atlanta suburbs that MARTA Rail will only bring riff-raff and not be worth the money.
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Hold on....
Quote:
Originally Posted by transit_pancake
Perception of "the suburbs" is different not just between two metro areas, but within them as well. The developed areas of Howard County MD, in my opinion, count as both a suburb of DC and a suburb of Baltimore (coming from a Loudoun County VA native who studies maps in his free time).
My perception of the city/suburbs of DC are that Anacostia, Bethesda, Silver Spring, Rosslyn-Ballston, Pentagon City-Crystal City and Old Town Alexandria are part of the urban core;
Tysons Corner, White Flint/Twinbrook, Falls Church, Seven Corners, Bailey's Crossroads, Shirlington, Deanwood/Cheverly, Dunn Loring/Merrifield, College Park, and Annandale are inner suburbs;
Fairfax (City), Rockville, Shady Grove/Derwood, Wheaton/Glenmont, Greenbelt, Landover/New Carrollton, Congress Heights, Temple Hills/Suitland/Silver Hill, White Oak, Lincolnia, Oxon Hill/National Harbor, Reston/Herndon/Sterling, Oakton/Vienna, Fair Oaks/Fair Lakes, Gaithersburg, Seat Pleasant/Capitol Heights, and Springfield are mid-suburbs;
Ashburn/Lansdowne/Broadlands, Brambleton/Arcola, Centreville, Chantilly, Leesburg, Mount Vernon/Fort Belvoir, Largo/Lottsford, Seabrook/Glenn Dale, Laurel/Savage, Muirkirk/Beltsville, Olney, Metropolitan Grove, Germantown, Burtonsville, Columbia, Clinton/Andrews AFB, Newington/Lorton, Woodbridge/Dale City/Rippon, Manassas/Manassas Park/Clifton, Haymarket/Gainesville, and Burke Lake are outer-suburbs;
Purcellville/Round Hill, Warrenton, Remington/Bealeton, Nokesville, Quantico/Dumfries/Triangle, Brandywine, Upper Marlboro, Waldorf/St. Charles, La Plata, Fort Washington/Accokeek, Indian Head, Bowie/Crofton, Clarksburg, Frederick/Monocacy, Point of Rocks/Brunswick, Marshall/The Plains, Middleburg/Aldie, South Riding/Stone Ridge, Stafford/Garrisonville, Hughesville/Charlotte Hall/Mechanicsville, Dunkirk/Owings, and Mt. Airy are part of the exurbs.
Annapolis, Fredericksburg, Hagerstown, Martinsburg, Winchester, Front Royal, and other areas of that distance from Downtown DC, I consider to have too weak of commuting and travel patterns to be called exurbs of DC, even though some of those areas receive commuter rail service. So by that metric, I don't consider Metrorail to be an exurban rail system or even a strong enough outer-suburban rail system. Sure, people from those areas drive to the end-line stations, park, and ride the Metro into DC for work, but the patterns aren't strong enough to say that Metrorail reaches far into the suburbs. Rather, I would argue, that Metrorail extends into areas once thought as outer suburbs, but Metrorail has urbanized those areas and "brought them closer to" or even made them a part of the urban core.
Because of both horrendous traffic in DC (with not many highway options, a result of a largely successful, organized highway revolt by people of all races and all socioeconomic tiers) and redevelopment around key stations, Metro serves as a suburban commuter lifeline, a fantastic tourist shuttle, a redevelopment catalyst, and an urban core transit lifeline -- and that combination of purposes is what helps Metrorail absolutely fly past the usefulness of MARTA for sure, and sweep the board compared to BART.
Because of the success and resulting high ridership, of the three systems of focus in this thread, WMATA's Metrorail is the only system with major capacity issues -- a sign of a healthy transit system but also a sign of one that needs some serious investment over the next 3 decades (like 100% 8-car trains during rush hours -- which requires major upgrades to the power traction system; a pedestrian tunnel between Farragut West's eastern mezzanine and Farragut North's southern mezzanine, along with a bank of 3 elevators at Farragut West and a mezzanine expansion at Farragut North; a pedestrian tunnel between Metro Center's eastern mezzanine and Gallery Place's eastern mezzanine via a bridge above the Red Line tracks between GP's western and eastern mezzanine, all to reduce the number of people hopping on the Red Line between Metro Center and Gallery Place to go from Blue/Orange/Silver and Yellow/Green.
Next-generation Automatic Train Operation to optimize line capacity and squeeze another 1-3 trains per hour through the downtown tunnels on top of the current design capacity of 26 trains per hour; and eventually, rerouting Metro lines through newly-constructed tunnels in the core like the Blue Line to Georgetown; the Yellow Line to Navy Yard, Capitol South, Union Station, Eckington/North Capitol, Columbia Heights, and Woodley Park; and a new line along 14th St NW extending out to White Oak via Silver Spring and out to Annandale along Columbia Pike in VA). .
Perception of "the suburbs" is different not just between two metro areas, but within them as well. The developed areas of Howard County MD, in my opinion, count as both a suburb of DC and a suburb of Baltimore (coming from a Loudoun County VA native who studies maps in his free time). My perception of the city/suburbs of DC are that Anacostia, Bethesda, Silver Spring, Rosslyn-Ballston, Pentagon City-Crystal City and Old Town Alexandria are part of the urban core; that Tysons Corner, White Flint/Twinbrook, Falls Church, Seven Corners, Bailey's Crossroads, Shirlington, Deanwood/Cheverly, Dunn Loring/Merrifield, College Park, and Annandale are inner suburbs; that Fairfax (City), Rockville, Shady Grove/Derwood, Wheaton/Glenmont, Greenbelt, Landover/New Carrollton, Congress Heights, Temple Hills/Suitland/Silver Hill, White Oak, Lincolnia, Oxon Hill/National Harbor, Reston/Herndon/Sterling, Oakton/Vienna, Fair Oaks/Fair Lakes, Gaithersburg, Seat Pleasant/Capitol Heights, and Springfield are mid-suburbs; that Ashburn/Lansdowne/Broadlands, Brambleton/Arcola, Centreville, Chantilly, Leesburg, Mount Vernon/Fort Belvoir, Largo/Lottsford, Seabrook/Glenn Dale, Laurel/Savage, Muirkirk/Beltsville, Olney, Metropolitan Grove, Germantown, Burtonsville, Columbia, Clinton/Andrews AFB, Newington/Lorton, Woodbridge/Dale City/Rippon, Manassas/Manassas Park/Clifton, Haymarket/Gainesville, and Burke Lake are outer-suburbs; and that Purcellville/Round Hill, Warrenton, Remington/Bealeton, Nokesville, Quantico/Dumfries/Triangle, Brandywine, Upper Marlboro, Waldorf/St. Charles, La Plata, Fort Washington/Accokeek, Indian Head, Bowie/Crofton, Clarksburg, Frederick/Monocacy, Point of Rocks/Brunswick, Marshall/The Plains, Middleburg/Aldie, South Riding/Stone Ridge, Stafford/Garrisonville, Hughesville/Charlotte Hall/Mechanicsville, Dunkirk/Owings, and Mt. Airy are part of the exurbs. Annapolis, Fredericksburg, Hagerstown, Martinsburg, Winchester, Front Royal, and other areas of that distance from Downtown DC, I consider to have too weak of commuting and travel patterns to be called exurbs of DC, even though some of those areas receive commuter rail service. So by that metric, I don't consider Metrorail to be an exurban rail system or even a strong enough outer-suburban rail system. Sure, people from those areas drive to the end-line stations, park, and ride the Metro into DC for work, but the patterns aren't strong enough to say that Metrorail reaches far into the suburbs. Rather, I would argue, that Metrorail extends into areas once thought as outer suburbs, but Metrorail has urbanized those areas and "brought them closer to" or even made them a part of the urban core. Because of both horrendous traffic in DC (with not many highway options, a result of a largely successful, organized highway revolt by people of all races and all socioeconomic tiers) and redevelopment around key stations, Metro serves as a suburban commuter lifeline, a fantastic tourist shuttle, a redevelopment catalyst, and an urban core transit lifeline -- and that combination of purposes is what helps Metrorail absolutely fly past the usefulness of MARTA for sure, and sweep the board compared to BART. Because of the success and resulting high ridership, of the three systems of focus in this thread, WMATA's Metrorail is the only system with major capacity issues -- a sign of a healthy transit system but also a sign of one that needs some serious investment over the next 3 decades (like 100% 8-car trains during rush hours -- which requires major upgrades to the power traction system; a pedestrian tunnel between Farragut West's eastern mezzanine and Farragut North's southern mezzanine, along with a bank of 3 elevators at Farragut West and a mezzanine expansion at Farragut North; a pedestrian tunnel between Metro Center's eastern mezzanine and Gallery Place's eastern mezzanine via a bridge above the Red Line tracks between GP's western and eastern mezzanine, all to reduce the number of people hopping on the Red Line between Metro Center and Gallery Place to go from Blue/Orange/Silver and Yellow/Green; next-generation Automatic Train Operation to optimize line capacity and squeeze another 1-3 trains per hour through the downtown tunnels on top of the current design capacity of 26 trains per hour; and eventually, rerouting Metro lines through newly-constructed tunnels in the core like the Blue Line to Georgetown; the Yellow Line to Navy Yard, Capitol South, Union Station, Eckington/North Capitol, Columbia Heights, and Woodley Park; and a new line along 14th St NW extending out to White Oak via Silver Spring and out to Annandale along Columbia Pike in VA).
BART is dealing with minor-but-not-insignificant capacity issues on the Transbay Tube and the Market Street Trunk -- which could be alleviated for 3-7 years by eliminating timed transfers at Balboa Park, Oakland-19th Street, and Oakland-MacArthur Park, which would increase Transbay Tube throughput by 1-3 trains per hour over the current 22 per hour; and by running 100% 10-car trains through the Transbay Tubes, achievable using the existing signalling system. A 24 TPH (every 2.5 minutes) schedule of 10-car trains would allow trains on the Richmond/Millbrae, Pittsburg-Bay Point/SFO, Warm Springs/Daly City, and Dublin-Pleasanton/Daly City lines to run every 10 minutes, meaning during rush-hour, trains would run between Richmond and Oakland (north side of downtown) every 5-8 minutes, and trains would run between Bay Fair and Lake Merritt every 3-4 minutes. The extra tracks and platforms at Bay Fair and Oakland-19th would, in the AM rush, serve to organize trains and allow them to remain reliable by neatly fitting them in between each other; Balboa Park's extra platforms and tracks would govern the eastbound service pattern and serve the same purpose in the PM rush that its East Bay counterparts have in the AM rush.
As for MARTA -- well, obviously not at capacity, but could increase utilization by moving parking underground and putting in TOD, or even eliminating it at a couple stations like West End and Inman Park/Reynoldstown and putting in TOD. Further intensification of Vine City, Garnett, Peachtree Center, Civic Center, North Avenue, Midtown, and Arts Center would reinforce travel patterns in the core urbanized portions of the system. Improving off-peak and weekend service, while it costs a small bit, could make the system far more useful for both shorter and longer non-work trips -- that is where rapid transit systems in the US, collectively, can boost ridership the most relative to cost (that is, of the initiatives that can be undertaken within a transit agency -- congestion pricing can't be done within the transit agency because they don't control any highways or arterials). Expanding high-quality transit in Atlanta will, 98% of it, come from light rail/streetcars and bus rapid transit.
Very thorough categorization of suburbs of DC into core, inner suburbs, mid suburbs, outer suburbs and exurbs. I mostly agree with it. It is interesting, however, that Gaithersburg- a mid suburb- is 27 miles from DC (via google maps) while Fort Washington- an exurb- is only 19 miles from DC (via google maps). That doesn't mean you categorized them incorrectly, though. It's really that going into Prince George's county from DC the development transitions sooner from inner suburbs to mid suburbs to outer suburbs to exurbs than it does going northwest into Montgomery County or going west into NoVa.
So I guess the BART is very overhyped and no better than Atlanta's MARTA, which may actually be underrated?
I don't think BART is overhyped. I just think its purpose has always been misunderstood. It's a regional commuter rail line but with high-frequency service. Even though it was a completely new, computer driven railroad when built, it is more comparable to European S-Bahn services and, thus, not really comparable to either MARTA or Metro, although its a tad closer to DC metro than MARTA.
San Francisco is a tiny, ridiculously densely populated city which already has a close in LRT rail network: Muni Metro, which of course has underground high-speed access to SF's CBD. BART supplements these services as well as those of the soon-to-be-electrified Caltrain commuter rail line. Washington at least is supplemented by MARC and VRE commuter rail services, as well as Northeast Corridor high-speed Amtrak to the north, but Atlanta has no other rail transit service serving its sprawling metro area unless you count the cutesy, touristy downtown streetcar ... which I don't.
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