DC Metro Expansion

[carolinagarnet]

It looks like the metro is going to get a lot more crowded:

 

 

Of the 5.5 million square feet of office space under construction in the region, about 4.6 million of it, or 84 percent isn’t just near a Metro station but within a quarter mile of one, according to data from Jones Lang LaSalle, CoStar Group and Delta Associates.

 

 

Metro has unveiled $6 billion worth of improvements it says are needed by 2025, among them increasing trains from six to eight cars ($2 billion), redesigning track connections or adding a new station in Rosslyn ($1 billion) and adding pedestrian tunnels connecting Metro Center to Gallery Place and Farragut North to Farragut West ($1 billion).

 

I heard the director of development for WMATA speak and apparently the current capital campaign doesn't even touch any of these goals.The system is going to need tens of billions of dollars to get anywhere close to keep pace with the regional growth considering it has not been very well maintained for the past thirty years.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/2013/10/11/0b93b7f0-3067-11e3-9ccc-2252bdb14df5_story.html?hpid=z2

[Lady Celeste]

$1.9B loan approved for the Silver Line's second phase. 

 

 

I am so happy to see the Silver Line secure this loan. Now one can potentially ride all the way from Loudoun County to the heart of DC. I'm excited because once it opens, I can take the METRO to Dulles instead of flying in and out of Reagan. 

 

 

 

 

Phase II of the 23-mile Silver Line, which will link Wiehle Avenue in Reston with Route 772 in Loudoun, is scheduled to open in 2018. The TIFIA loan was critical not only for Silver Line construction, but to keep tolls down on the Dulles Toll Road, whose daily riders are bearing the brunt of the Silver Line price tag.

 

 

 

Read more here: http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/2014/05/1-9b-loan-approved-for-silver-lines-second-phase.html

[carolinagarnet]

I knew I liked Anthony Foxx! This is such a big deal. Dulles passenger numbers have been declining for years, partially because it's not metro accessible. There's a bus from Rosslyn, but even that's not easy to use for people coming from places that are not on the orange and blue lines. I wonder what the timeline will be once the approval process is complete?