Bill to Study Bringing Metro to Woodbridge & Centreville (Richmond: DMV, bus)

[brooklynborndad]

Originally Posted by e2ksj3

I still don't understand why this region doesn't have good commuter rail service and why they can't just expand MARC and VRE service. If the rail lines are at capacity from freight traffic, then come up with some type of public-private partnership (since they seem to be good at those when it comes to road expansion) with CSX and add a third or fourth track with enhanced train signaling to handle the extra trains. I think this would definitely cut down on a lot of the traffic (and with a lower price tag), especially going into places like Arlington, DC, and Baltimore.

If you mean why there aren't more commuter rail lines, the reason is that prior to 1945 DC was a modestly sized city with little industry, and not even a dense agricultural hinterland. Most commuter lines in places like NYC, Boston, Chicago are legacies of a different settlement pattern, that resulted in lots of RRs built for freight (or for local passenger service when autos and buses were not options). Building a new line is expensive, and generally only justified when metro like frequencies are envisioned.

If you mean why can't VRE and MARC service be expanded on existing lines, that is in fact occuring on both MARC and VRE, and further expansion is under study.

About the VRE - Virginia Railway Express

About the VRE - Virginia Railway Express

and the big bottleneck

Long Bridge, worst rail bottleneck in region, being studied for fixes - The News Desk#

[justtitans]

Originally Posted by BarqCider

couldnt they have done this when planning for the silver line?


no offense, but i dont want metro to go into woodbridge. last thing we want is the bad apples taking metro from down there joining up the bad apples of md/dc and invading tysons area(they wll once silver line opens up in tysons).

But what about Pentagon City? There are a lot of bad areas in DC and MD that have metro stations and those places don't seem to have much of an impact on some of the nicer parts of VA. I think metro access isn't going to affect crime, it's about how the different places secure those metro stops that are going to make a difference.

[brooklynborndad]

Originally Posted by BarqCider

tysons has less than both of them as of now. wont last much longer though.

Transit Stations May Actually Cut Down on Crime - Eric Jaffe - The Atlantic Cities

[tysonsengineer]

I really hate when people make an argument that was made back in the 1970s, fueled by xenophobia at that time, and has been proven wrong empirically and factually over the course of the past 40 years. Repeat with me (unless you are Taylor Holland of the Washington Examiner) metro stations dont bring crime. Crime brings crime. Sometimes that occurs along metro, sometimes it don't. The very fact that there is more crime in Woodbridge, Leesburg, and Herndon while there is almost no crime in Arlington, Vienna, and Bethesda should make that evident.

But by all means, lets continue this bogus argument for a whole-nother generation

[cry_havoc]

Originally Posted by tysonsengineer

I really hate when people make an argument that was made back in the 1970s, fueled by xenophobia at that time, and has been proven wrong empirically and factually over the course of the past 40 years. Repeat with me (unless you are Taylor Holland of the Washington Examiner) metro stations dont bring crime. Crime brings crime. Sometimes that occurs along metro, sometimes it don't. The very fact that there is more crime in Woodbridge, Leesburg, and Herndon while there is almost no crime in Arlington, Vienna, and Bethesda should make that evident.

But by all means, lets continue this bogus argument for a whole-nother generation

It is just backwards reactionaries.

Most of the people who spew this nonsense believe in it but they are not the ones who make it up. The ones that make up are hostile to public transit. They see it as socialism or a method of transportation for the poor or undesirables. They probably drive at least a BMW or better, and want to convince other people to support their hatred of public transit, but people wont since it greatly benefits them. Even if they never ride the metro they will probably appreciate the reduced traffic on the road. So how do you get people to go against something they actually want? You convince them they dont want it. That is a pretty tough selling point. It is like telling a hungry person they dont want food. Wont work. So instead you tell them the food is poisoned when it is not, or in this case you make up something that sounds feasible if you dont think about it very hard. "If you build this metro here black people and Latinos will come and rob, rape, and kill, so there goes the neighborhood."

If you want to look at cities with good public transit you will often find they are among the safest cities in the country. There is no proven correlation between public transit and crime. It is just a way to fool gullible people into going against their own interest.

[Joke Insurance]

Originally Posted by tysonsengineer

I really hate when people make an argument that was made back in the 1970s, fueled by xenophobia at that time, and has been proven wrong empirically and factually over the course of the past 40 years. Repeat with me (unless you are Taylor Holland of the Washington Examiner) metro stations dont bring crime. Crime brings crime. Sometimes that occurs along metro, sometimes it don't. The very fact that there is more crime in Woodbridge, Leesburg, and Herndon while there is almost no crime in Arlington, Vienna, and Bethesda should make that evident.

But by all means, lets continue this bogus argument for a whole-nother generation

I don't mean to sound haste and dense when I say this but I'm sure that racism had its foothold in where it could have gone.

[FindingZen]

I'm guilty as charged of reviving this thread. However, I found this article which offers opinions on why Metro is unlikely to expand towards Woodbridge, Centerville and beyond anytime soon.

[Ed_Wood]

The metro should have never been expanded to Dulles (when it eventually does). Tyson's corner is as far as it should realistically go, and the rest should be done by regional rail like the MARC and VRE. Having a line go 23 miles from Union Station is not what a city's metro system needs to do. The cost to put this thing in Reston for commuters is crazy.

[finalmove]

Originally Posted by Ed_Wood

The metro should have never been expanded to Dulles (when it eventually does). Tyson's corner is as far as it should realistically go, and the rest should be done by regional rail like the MARC and VRE. Having a line go 23 miles from Union Station is not what a city's metro system needs to do. The cost to put this thing in Reston for commuters is crazy.

+1

And I've always been a fan of your movies.

[FindingZen]

Originally Posted by Ed_Wood

The metro should have never been expanded to Dulles (when it eventually does). Tyson's corner is as far as it should realistically go, and the rest should be done by regional rail like the MARC and VRE. Having a line go 23 miles from Union Station is not what a city's metro system needs to do. The cost to put this thing in Reston for commuters is crazy.

Are there existing rail lines that could be used to build that route, though? As crazy expensive as the Silver Line is/will be to build, laying new track down - not to mention claiming eminent domain in or near neighborhoods and retail corridors - would seem to be even more costly.

I would predict a fair amount of those Silver Line commuters will be getting off in Tysons and Reston. Those that would be riding all the way into DC were probably already riding the Loudoun County commuter buses anyway so they would be used to the time commitment.