CORRECTION: The Purple Line is being operated and managed by MDOT, not WMATA.. for some reason, every single report I had read suggested it was a joint project led by WMATA - or started there.. Reporters, gotta love 'em. Thank you to those who pointed out where I can do better, I appreciate the feedback and will strive to do better.
The book 'Great Society Subway' by Zachary Schrag is an interesting history of the origins and development of the Metro system. As I understand it, Arlington was on board with incorporating Metro into their urban planning from the beginning, which is why we have those dense business districts around Rosslyn and Crystal City. In contrast, Fairfax County was less enthusiastic, so the Metro lines to Fairfax ended up in expressway medians serving park-and-ride stations. Montgomery County had a bit of both. They made sure important business centers like Bethesda and Silver Spring were served by Metro, but also supported auto-centric suburban development, such as the 270 corridor. Quick clarification. The Purple Line project is being carried out by the Maryland Transit Agency (MTA), not WMATA. I don't even know if it will be fare integrated with Metro or show up on official Metro maps. The project ran into big trouble with the contractors in about 2020 or 2021, which stopped work for the better part of a year while the state found new builders.
I probably shouldn’t give such a strong opinion about DC’s metro, or it’s public transport. However, as the countries Capital, of all 50 states, and it doesn’t have a strong light rail line, or a well connected tram line blows my mind.
When the Silver Line openned to Dulles after however many years, local news interviewed a few tourists who gave off "why is this a big deal? vibes. The country as a whole, but especially DC needs better.
I think it should be made clear here that the Purple Line is not part of Metro. It is a light rail system that merely connects to Metro, and is not managed or operated by WMATA. You are quite right that NIMBYism was largely responsible for the delays in the Purple Line-Chevy Chase residents who had purchased homes along the right of way that had been planned as light rail since the 1980s tried to stop the process in numerous ways, including by building on the right of way, multiple lawsuits, claims that a threatened species of amphipod lives in Rock Creek and that the Purple Line would disturb its habitat, standing up a "Friends of the Capital Crescent Trail" group in the guise of protecting the co-aligned Capital Crescent Trail but with the actual intent of stopping the Purple Line and all of the improvements to the trail that would come with it, and more. The years-long delays caused by these tactics ultimately led the primary contractor to abandon the project, and Maryland had to find a new contractor which then had to reassess the construction status all along the line before developing its plan to continue construction. As for the Silver Line, it additionally suffered delays because of defective concrete slabs provided by a contractor.
See, everything I'd read about the Purple Line pointed to is being this "barely a ring line" extension of Metro.. that MTA was just going to handle, because it's 99% in Maryland. If memory serves, the Silver Line was taken over by WMATA from VDOT at one point .. whether that was due to delays, I'm not sure.. but I had seriously thought it was all under WMATA. We don't call MARC the "Baltimore-DC Line".. I saw several maps that gave me the belief it was an extension of the Metro. Damn. Didn't know the deep lore about the NIMBY group, I knew it existed but not to that degree.. interesting stuff. Thank you for providing feedback!
It’s interesting how all the rail fans are quick to criticize CAHSR which is about 50-60% over budget in inflation adjusted terms over the original $44 billion cost, but no one ever criticizes Brightline West for being over 2x delayed on their 2020-2024 timeline and over 250% over the original budget. Curios anti-public transit bias y’all have there.
@@UniquelyUnseen No, you did fine. It's just weird to constantly see CAHSR being made the poster child for delays and cost overruns when there are much more egregious examples that everyone seems intent on ignoring. At least superficially this seems to be an anti-public transit bias because neither Brightline West nor Texas Central are ever criticized for this even though they are both substantially more delayed and more over budget than CAHSR. Even HSR projects in other countries like that are 2x or more delayed and over budget are criticized less. Both Indonesia's (built by supposedly fast and frugal Chinese HSR companies) and India's (built by speed and budget efficiency personified - Japan Railways/JR) are faaaaaar more delayed and over budget than CAHSR and you literally never hear any mention of their foibles. But when it comes to highlighting CAHSR's issues, everyone is all to happy to jump onboard.
Man redo this video....Most of your facts are innacurate and dated....Doing a correction in the comments is a HALF ASS fix. Fix the whole damn thing and do it right.
CORRECTION: The Purple Line is being operated and managed by MDOT, not WMATA.. for some reason, every single report I had read suggested it was a joint project led by WMATA - or started there.. Reporters, gotta love 'em. Thank you to those who pointed out where I can do better, I appreciate the feedback and will strive to do better.
Excellent broadcast, well-researched and informative on DC subways... thanks for pulling it all together in an high quality Manner.
The book 'Great Society Subway' by Zachary Schrag is an interesting history of the origins and development of the Metro system. As I understand it, Arlington was on board with incorporating Metro into their urban planning from the beginning, which is why we have those dense business districts around Rosslyn and Crystal City. In contrast, Fairfax County was less enthusiastic, so the Metro lines to Fairfax ended up in expressway medians serving park-and-ride stations. Montgomery County had a bit of both. They made sure important business centers like Bethesda and Silver Spring were served by Metro, but also supported auto-centric suburban development, such as the 270 corridor.
Quick clarification. The Purple Line project is being carried out by the Maryland Transit Agency (MTA), not WMATA. I don't even know if it will be fare integrated with Metro or show up on official Metro maps. The project ran into big trouble with the contractors in about 2020 or 2021, which stopped work for the better part of a year while the state found new builders.
Thank you for commenting and providing clarification! I had no idea about that book.
I probably shouldn’t give such a strong opinion about DC’s metro, or it’s public transport. However, as the countries Capital, of all 50 states, and it doesn’t have a strong light rail line, or a well connected tram line blows my mind.
When the Silver Line openned to Dulles after however many years, local news interviewed a few tourists who gave off "why is this a big deal? vibes.
The country as a whole, but especially DC needs better.
I think it should be made clear here that the Purple Line is not part of Metro. It is a light rail system that merely connects to Metro, and is not managed or operated by WMATA. You are quite right that NIMBYism was largely responsible for the delays in the Purple Line-Chevy Chase residents who had purchased homes along the right of way that had been planned as light rail since the 1980s tried to stop the process in numerous ways, including by building on the right of way, multiple lawsuits, claims that a threatened species of amphipod lives in Rock Creek and that the Purple Line would disturb its habitat, standing up a "Friends of the Capital Crescent Trail" group in the guise of protecting the co-aligned Capital Crescent Trail but with the actual intent of stopping the Purple Line and all of the improvements to the trail that would come with it, and more. The years-long delays caused by these tactics ultimately led the primary contractor to abandon the project, and Maryland had to find a new contractor which then had to reassess the construction status all along the line before developing its plan to continue construction.
As for the Silver Line, it additionally suffered delays because of defective concrete slabs provided by a contractor.
See, everything I'd read about the Purple Line pointed to is being this "barely a ring line" extension of Metro.. that MTA was just going to handle, because it's 99% in Maryland. If memory serves, the Silver Line was taken over by WMATA from VDOT at one point .. whether that was due to delays, I'm not sure.. but I had seriously thought it was all under WMATA.
We don't call MARC the "Baltimore-DC Line".. I saw several maps that gave me the belief it was an extension of the Metro. Damn.
Didn't know the deep lore about the NIMBY group, I knew it existed but not to that degree.. interesting stuff. Thank you for providing feedback!
@@UniquelyUnseen It's certainly filling in a gap in Metro's design. Thank you for another interesting essay.
It’s interesting how all the rail fans are quick to criticize CAHSR which is about 50-60% over budget in inflation adjusted terms over the original $44 billion cost, but no one ever criticizes Brightline West for being over 2x delayed on their 2020-2024 timeline and over 250% over the original budget.
Curios anti-public transit bias y’all have there.
I didn't once level criticism against CAHSR.. Maybe my tone wasn't precise, but I'm all for projects like that going ahead.
@@UniquelyUnseen No, you did fine. It's just weird to constantly see CAHSR being made the poster child for delays and cost overruns when there are much more egregious examples that everyone seems intent on ignoring. At least superficially this seems to be an anti-public transit bias because neither Brightline West nor Texas Central are ever criticized for this even though they are both substantially more delayed and more over budget than CAHSR.
Even HSR projects in other countries like that are 2x or more delayed and over budget are criticized less. Both Indonesia's (built by supposedly fast and frugal Chinese HSR companies) and India's (built by speed and budget efficiency personified - Japan Railways/JR) are faaaaaar more delayed and over budget than CAHSR and you literally never hear any mention of their foibles. But when it comes to highlighting CAHSR's issues, everyone is all to happy to jump onboard.
Man redo this video....Most of your facts are innacurate and dated....Doing a correction in the comments is a HALF ASS fix. Fix the whole damn thing and do it right.