What would a successful urban NFL stadium look like in DC?

I had started jotting down notes about a new stadium at RFK back in 2015 when Events DC hosted a series of planning meetings about the topic. Parts of this post have been sitting in my drafts folder since then.

And since 2015, a lot has changed. The local NFL team is now on its third name, and Virginia seems set on throwing money at the team to build a new stadium somewhere in the hinterlands of Loudoun or Prince William counties.

Legislators seem entranced by the idea of building a new city around the stadium, with a dome to host events year-round – Super Bowls, Final Fours, etc. Such promises of large-scale events are almost required in order to justify the multi-billion dollar price tag. Spending that much for a facility that only hosts a dozen events a year seems hardly worth it.

However, the only suitable parcels for such a large footprint are further and further from the center of the region. One of the potential locations (near the Jiffy Lube Live amphitheater) is so far from the core of DC that Baltimore’s NFL stadium is both closer and easier to access for a huge portion of the City. How attractive will a stadium that’s 30 miles from the city (and the bars and hotels and hospitality) be to a host committee picking venues for the Final Four or a Super Bowl?

Back in the District, Mayor Bowser expressed support for bringing the team back to RFK, but there doesn’t seem to be any appetite on the Council for matching Virginia’s offer.

And yet, the more things change, the more they remain the same.

There are lots of reasons to oppose any deal with the current team and owner. The team is bad and poorly run; the owner is (by all accounts) an awful person and unlikely to be a good partner in any city-building exercise; the financial incentives for NFL teams in general are extractive and lack strong ties to the community. All of this was true in 2015 and remains so today.

Then there are the externalities: stadium opponents will often cite large parking lots hosting tailgate parties as if those are requirements for building. Yet they do not need to be. And if we think beyond the narrow NFL vision for what a stadium should be, there are all sorts of opportunities.

It’s worth thinking through what it would take to get to ‘yes’ on a new football stadium in DC. Assume we had a different owner; one willing to fund a stadium privately. RFK has hosted sporting events since 1961; the site has lots of advantages. What would I need to see to get to ‘yes’ on a new stadium at RFK?

  • Minimal parking; no surface parking – Plan for fans to arrive via transit, potentially including infill Metro stations.
  • A civic center built to host multiple events
  • Connected to dense, urban development on the City side
  • Integrated into parkland on the river side

It’s not too hard to envision an urban stadium and waterfront park, both as a vision for the future of the RFK site and as a reference to past plans.

Planning Precedent

Before the District broke ground on D.C. Stadium in 1960, planners identified the need for a stadium in Washington to host large events, and at the intersection of East Capitol Street with the Anacostia River as early as the 1930s – often with the eye on hosting the Olympic Games.

1941 NCPC Plan for an East Capitol Mall.
1941 NCPC Plan for an East Capitol Mall.

A series of plans in the 1920s and 30s involved a massive expansion of DC’s monumental spaces. Very little of the plan was implemented, but one common element included a stadium and other athletic facilities (including a tennis arena, natatorium, and ballfields, with an eye toward hosting an Olympic Games) where East Capitol Street meets the Anacostia River.

east cap mall crop stadium
Cropped image of the 1941 plan; includes #71 stadium, #72 sport field, #73 natatorium, and #74 tennis stadium as well as a railroad station at the bottom of the image.

This version of the plan includes a new stadium located opposite of the existing DC Armory, as well as a large ‘sports field’ built into the hillside. The plan contains many similar elements to Berlin’s olympic park, including the massive Maifield located next to the Olympiastadion.

Aerial view of Berlin's Olympiastadion, along with the Maifield. Image from Bing Maps.
Aerial view of Berlin’s Olympiastadion, along with the Maifield. Image from Bing Maps.

The stadium was built for the 1936 Olympic Games in a park to the west of Berlin’s center city. The Maifield was built for holding annual May Day celebrations, as well as hosting large events. After World War II, the Maifield was the base of operations for the British soldiers occupying their sector of West Berlin.

Following reunification, there was a long debate in Berlin about what to do with the stadium built by the Nazis. Some favored demolishing it and replacing it with a new stadium, others argued it should be left to crumble as a ruin. The end result was a renovation, completed in 2004 in anticipation of hosting the 2006 World Cup.

The renovation includes an underground parking garage directly linked to the VIP seating areas via a large below-grade atrium. The renovation managed to add premium seating areas while completely preserving the exterior. There are a modest number of surface parking areas, but they are either well landscaped or paved in a manner that allows for other uses. Nearby transit lines include both the U2 U-Bahn line as well as the S5 S-Bahn, complete with a large multi-platform station to accomodate big crowds.

  • Built: 1936
  • Renovated: 2004
  • Capacity: 74,475
  • On-site parking: 815 spaces

The stadium isn’t without its challenges. The main tenant is Bundesliga club Hertha BSC, which wants to build a dedicated soccer stadium (without the running track) and a smaller total capacity.

Events DC’s master plan for RFK abides by the terms of the lease on the land for ‘recreational purposes,’ and actually ends up with a vision for a waterfront park (with or without a stadium) and various sports and recreation venues not dissimilar from the Olympic Park ambition.

RFK Stadium and the challenge of multi-use venues

As mentioned above, the dilemma for any modern NFL stadium is the relative paucity of events compared to the cost of the edifice. Building a multi-use facility is the obvious solution, but the history of such venues in the US is murky. RFK is the original concrete donut, built to host football and baseball – admirably adaptable, a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none kind of design.

These multi-purpose stadiums were once common; now almost all have been demolished – usually requiring separate baseball and football venues as replacements.

At some level, a stadium is a stadium. The basic design parameters for a football field haven’t changed that much over the decades. There are plenty of college football stadiums approaching (if not exceeding) a century of service. They’ve been renovated and added to over the years, upgraded to meet modern standards and the increasing professionalization of college football. Yet the institutional context means teams won’t ever move to a different city in order to get a better deal. Similarly, it’s not an accident that the NFL’s longest tenured team in a single stadium (albeit one substantially altered over the years) is the league’s only community-owned franchise – the Green Bay Packers.

The modern challenge is building a stadium capable of hosting more events than just NFL gamedays in order to justify its own existence, yet doing so without draining the public coffers.

The latest set of domed NFL stadiums (SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis) all make use of ETFE roofing to provide an indoor venue that doesn’t ‘feel’ indoors – and arguably feels more open than the previous generation of retractable roof designs (in Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, and Indianapolis). But for all of them, the roof is a critical element to enable additional events that justify the stadium’s existence and expense.

However, successfully hosting those kinds of events also relies on a central location in the region. Many of the domed NFL stadia are ‘downtown’ or immediately adjacent. Others are centrally located within the region. Only Phoenix is truly on the fringe (yet still just 12 miles from downtown as the crow flies).

As part of a regional plan, it’s much easier to justify that level of investment and land use intensity at a place like RFK than it is in Gainesville (31 miles from the Capitol Dome) or Ashburn (25 miles). If it were just a football stadium, hosting a dozen events a year, surrounded by surface parking lots, then a location on the fringe is preferable.

It’s a shame that the institutional context doesn’t allow for the kind of long-standing reinvestment and evolution, building off of the planning history for the RFK site. It’s also a shame that there’s not an obvious partnership between the primary user of a stadium and both the surrounding grounds as well as the neighboring community. But that’s not the world we have.

But it can be fun to dream.

WMATA Infill Stations: Berwyn & New Hampshire Ave

The single-highest scoring infill station location from my back-of-the-envelope comparison was Berwyn, thanks to good transit connections, strong land use and development potential, as well as relatively easy construction. Infill stations at Kansas Ave or New Hampshire Ave are also common among crayonistas.

Berwyn

At first glance of a map, there’s a strong case for adding an infill station on the Green Line between College Park and Greenbelt. The two existing stations are 2.3 miles apart. The only road crossing the tracks in that span is Greenbelt Road, approximately halfway between the two stations.

I’ve opted to call this location ‘Berwyn’ due to the proximity to the Town of Berwyn Heights, and because the name would fit well as a unique addition to WMATA’s station name, but we’re talking about a station to be built near where Greenbelt Road crosses the tracks.

The wide right-of-way includes three Metro tracks and CSX’s Capital Subdivision (home to MARC’s Camden Line). WMATA’s third track isn’t used for regular service, but for testing new railcars, which are usually delivered to the system’s Greenbelt Yard.

View of the tracks, looking south from Greenbelt Road. Metro tracks on the left, CSX/MARC on the right

Connections: Because Greenbelt Road is a bit of a choke-point in crossing the railroad tracks, it already hosts a fair amount of bus service. Additionally, many of the routes traversing Greenbelt Road eventually turn north to terminate at Greenbelt Station, adding time and distance to a journey that could be shorter – if only there were a station where Greenbelt Road crosses the tracks.

Connecting bus service at Greenbelt station. Note all the routes feeding from the south that use Greenbelt Road.

Land Use: The Berwyn location is already seeing transit-oriented development with the townhouse project just north of Greenbelt Road – but it’s counted as part of the Greenbelt station development, despite the fact you can’t really walk between the two.

However, there are great development opportunities next to an infill station. Immediately to the west is the University of Maryland’s Severn Library, a high-density storage facility located in a former Washington Post printing plant. The site includes ample surface parking lots, ready for redevelopment. To the east is Beltway Plaza mall, already planned for additional housing. And in between, lots of properties fronting on Greenbelt Road are ripe for suburban retrofits and incremental additions of density.

Ease of Construction: The big reason Berwyn scored as the best overall infill station opportunity is because of (hopefully) easy construction. The right of way is generous; there would seem to be opportunities to add platforms with minimal track reconfiguration; or, use the generous spacing to reconfigure the tracks to make room for an island platform. Regardless of the design, the available space opens a lot of doors.

An ideal configuration would link mezzanine access directly to the Greenbelt Road bridge, allowing for easy bus-to-Metro connections and simple pedestrian access. Some additional work is required to create welcoming walking environments.

New Hampshire Ave

Should we call this spot Kansas Ave? New Hampshire Ave? That’s part of the conundrum. You can’t really do both, you’d have to pick one. And each avenue has big drawbacks.

Station location (orange rectangle) shows the Kansas Ave location

The context here is a 1.8 mile gap on the Red Line between Fort Totten and Takoma stations. Adding a station at either Kansas Ave or New Hampshire Ave would be plausible.

Connections: existing bus service shows a clear preference for connections at New Hampshire Ave, which hosts WMATA’s K6 and K9 Metro Extra routes. Kansas Ave, by contrast, is home to only the modest K2 bus, with just 22 round trips per day.

Land Use: a quick glance at a Google Maps aerial shows why NH Ave has the bus service: Kansas Ave terminates at the DC line, whereas NH Ave turns into a major suburban commercial strip.

However, within the District, the situation is reversed: Kansas Ave is surrounded by industrial uses and potential redevelopment sites, while NH Ave is hemmed in by parkland and steep slopes before you hit existing single family residential areas.

DC has a interest in protecting some industrial sites; but doing so is incompatible with adding a new Metro station, which will basically require high-density land use.

DC Future Land Use Map on left; Aerial Photo on right

Ease of Construction: this is the real challenge for either location: it would be a massive construction project – something on the scale of the original construction of the Red Line itself.

The Red Line is sandwiched between two tracks of CSX’s Metropolitan Subdivision. Building Metro required a complete reconstruction of the entire rail corridor; WMATA used the center of the ROW to preserve freight rail access to sidings along the route – most of which have since been abandoned.

Adding platforms at either location requires relocating the CSX tracks at a minimum, and perhaps the WMATA tracks as well (depending on platform configuration). Additionally, the New Hampshire Ave location is amidst a slight curve, further complicating construction.

Either location would be expensive, decreasing the prospects for these locations. However, the Kansas Ave location would seem to be the more challenging site, requiring rebuilding the existing underpass, acquiring adjacent properties, etc. The existing NH Ave overpass provides a bit more margin, but still presents a tight fit.

WMATA Infill Stations: Oklahoma Ave and River Terrace

Because of the challenges in adding underground infill stations, most candidates are going to be at grade or above ground. Almost by definition, that means fewer opportunities for infill stations around the core of the system, and therefore within Washington’s city limits.

The existing system features a huge gap as the Orange/Blue/Silver lines cross the Anacostia River. The east of the river stations (Minnesota Ave and Benning Road) are both two miles from Stadium-Armory.

Filling this gap is not a new idea – early WMATA plans called for stations at both locations. Oklahoma Ave was on the books long enough for renderings to be drawn up.

WMATA Adopted Regional System, 1968

WMATA originally considered the area next to the Benning Road Power Plant for a rail yard (the “S&I” oval on the map above, for service and inspection). The adjacent Kenilworth Ave station eventually moved east and became Minnesota Ave.

These two sites are unique in that they do not parallel any existing railroad services, where future regional rail might offer faster, longer-distance service, allowing Metro to focus on shorter distance travel markets. Part of the argument for more infill stations, particularly in the suburbs, is the promise of regional rail. However, these two locations do not need that promise to fulfill their roles – they offer compelling visions on their own.

Oklahoma Ave

Metro planners envisioned Oklahoma Ave as a park and ride station, taking advantage of the extensive surface parking for nearby RFK Stadium on non-event days. The nearby Kingman Park community vociferously opposed a parking-focused station, and WMATA eventually dropped the station in 1977.

1970 Rendering of elevated Oklahoma Ave. Station

Adding an infill station at Oklahoma Ave would likely follow the same concept from the 70s: two side platforms along the existing elevated guideway.

Connections: Potential transit connections from Oklahoma Ave are relatively weak. Almost all transit is located just north along Benning Road, including the DC Streetcar as well as extensive bus service. It wouldn’t be difficult to extend those lines to connect with the station, but the expense (and ongoing time penalty for bus riders) for doing so would depend on the broader plan – if Oklahoma Ave were built together with a River Terrace station, the latter could offer superior transit connections.

Land use: This is another challenge for the area. The immediate surroundings are the northern parking lots for now-vacant RFK Stadium. A large portion of those parking lots are now athletic fields. The parking lots were originally created by filling in the Anacostia’s tidal marshes. As a result, the entire area is within the floodplain, and unlikely to ever be developed as housing or office.

Redevelopment of the remainder of the RFK site outside of the floodplain is a contentious topic with complicated jurisdictional issues yet to be resolved. If the site were to return to a stadium/venue use, the ability to disperse crowds to multiple Metro stations would be a potential advantage.

Without an intense use at RFK, the rationale for Oklahoma Ave is less clear, particularly if River Terrace were built. However, if RFK Stadium were to be redeveloped as some sort of venue with large crowds, then the case for Oklahoma Ave is much stronger.

Ease of Construction: The biggest benefit at Oklahoma Ave is that construction ought to be easy – existing elevated track in the middle of a parking lot. The potential complications would involve any operational changes to the existing line, and determining any role for this location in future Metro expansion plans.

River Terrace

An infill station at River Terrace presents a tantalizing opportunity. The existing tracks are located at a key chokepoint and river crossing, served by one of the busiest bus lines in the city. The existing neighborhood to the south of Benning Road is isolated, separated from the rest of the city by the river to the west, DC-295 and the railroad tracks to the east, and the former Pepco site to the north.

Connections: Benning Road serves as a critical choke point for transit service, making it a great candidate for improved infrastructure. Lots of bus services cross the river here; the nearest crossing to the north (US-50) is along a freeway, and to the south (East Capitol Street) lacks good service. The DC streetcar terminates just to the west, with longstanding plans to extend it along this stretch of Benning Road.

In the future, the H/Benning corridor has long been targeted for Metrorail service. One of the longstanding concepts would be the “separated Blue line,” a new trunk line through the District to separate out existing Blue Line services from Orange and Silver services. Such a vision ought to include River Terrace as a four-track station enabling cross-platform transfers.

WMATA is currently in the midst of their ‘Blue/Orange/Silver’ study. The concepts released in 2021 did not include a new connection at River Terrace. These larger network designs will impact the kind of infill station design for River Terrace.

DC’s once-ambitious streetcar plans have been substantially curtailed. However, the one extension still officially on the books (though controversially) is the Benning Road extension, passing through the River Terrace site. One rationale for the extension is to connect the eastern end of the streetcar line to something, preferably a Metro station. However, because of the D&G junction, splitting Metro service along the Orange Line and Blue/Silver lines, connecting at Benning Road means losing the value of connections for Orange Line passengers.

Benning Road Streetcar Extension Plan – adding a Metro connection at River Terrace (34th St NE) improves connectivity for all users.

Land Use: Immediately adjacent to the station site is Pepco’s now-demolished Benning Road Power Plant site. The plant was demolished in 2012, and in later years was only used during peak periods of demand for a few days per year.

The plant was once the source of a huge amount of pollution, particularly in the Anacostia riverbed. Large-scale remediation and clean-up will be needed before redevelopment is feasible. Additionally, the site retains electrical distribution infrastructure and support for Pepco operations.

Despite all the challenges, it’s a 70+ acre site in the middle of the city with (potentially) excellent transit connections.

Ease of Construction: Compared to Oklahoma Ave, just adding platforms to the existing elevated section would be extremely complicated.

First, this section of track includes the notoriously unreliable D-route pocket track. The pocket track was originally slated to turn terminating Silver Line trains, but WMATA determined it was not suitable to serve that purpose reliably, and investigated alternative designs.

Second, the location of the pocket track (the straightest section) extends over the Anacostia River. Furthermore, the track itself is immediately adjacent to the Benning Road right of way, requiring some combination of road and bridge relocation or a station cantilevered over Benning Road.

Any design with side platforms ought to consider the possibility of a new Blue Line connecting through this location. The ideal design would allow for a future cross-platform transfer between the existing tracks and future Blue line services.

Third, Benning Road itself provides an opportunity for a creative and efficient passenger transfer from Metro to buses and streetcars. Doing so will involve extensive reconstruction in the area, meaning this won’t be a simple infill station – but the opportunity is too large to pass up.

There are lots of examples of efficient transfers between streetcars and rapid transit. Toronto is full of them, such as this one at Dundas West.

St. Clair West is another, featuring a fully-integrated streetcar and bus transfer loop built around (not just next to) the entrances to and from the subway. Passengers can transfer easily while protected from the elements and with minimal walking distance.

(side notes: Dundas West includes a small McDonalds, hitting on another minor obsession of mind, in-station retail. Also, do check out the excellent Station Fixation blog for a full visual tour of the entire Toronto system)

At River Terrace, this might involve diverting the streetcar tracks off of Benning Road itself to encircle a ground-level mezzanine for the Metro station, offering quick and direct transfers for passengers moving between modes.

WMATA Infill Stations: Blue/Yellow Line Ideas

Diving into some details about infill station locations, starting with the Blue and Yellow Line.

Franconia Road

The Virginia portion of the Blue Line features several long stretches without stations. Today’s Franconia-Springfield Station hyphenated after the system’s original plan to serve each location with a separate branch fell through.

The Blue Line follows the existing RF&P railroad corridor, first built in the 1870s. Today’s transit services are much newer – the Blue Line was extended to Van Dorn Street in 1991 and to Franconia-Springfield in 1997. VRE launched service in 1992 and added a station at Franconia-Springfield in 1995.

Aside from the Capital Beltway, the only street to cross the tracks between Van Dorn and Franconia-Springfield is Franconia Road, reflecting the age of the corridor.

Connections: Franconia Road sits more than a mile from Franconia-Springfield station and more than two miles from Van Dorn Street. Existing east-west travel in the area along Franconia Road provides potential for connecting transit and last-mile trips.

There is limited existing bus service across this stretch of Franconia Road, but adding a station here (and the potential connections it can offer) would open the door to a rider range of services.

Land use: The area is surrounded by mostly single-family residential uses (a combination of detached houses and townhouses), with a mix of auto-oriented retail and institutional buildings. Assuming that the residential uses are unlikely to change, the remaining areas offer only modest redevelopment potential.

The existing streetscape along Franconia Road itself isn’t friendly to walking. However, with modest suburban retrofits, this area could be transformed.

Ease of Construction: One potential benefit is that a station here ought to be easy (and cheap) to build. The WMATA tracks are straight as an arrow, with plenty of space between the CSX/VRE right of way and adjacent development. Adding side platforms to the existing rails ought to be a simple design.

Test fit of side platforms at Franconia Road.

Additionally, having platforms straddle Franconia Road’s overpass allows for headhouses along both the Eastbound and Westbound travel lanes, creating a chance for easy and direct bus connections.

Alternatively, the platforms could be entirely on one side of the overpass or another; there’s plenty of space. Likewise, if there’s a need to minimize vertical circulation to save cost, you could arrange to change the track geometry here to fit an island platform in. Point being – there are lots of options.

Eisenhower Valley

Eisenhower Valley is one of the areas where WMATA planned for a potential infill station from the start, preserving an area with sufficient space for a station, located near the eastern edge of the Alexandria rail yard.

Planned location for an Eisenhower Valley infill station.

The existing site has the right geometry for an island platform station – even the third rail is already positioned to the outside edge.

An alternative site is available closer to Telegraph Road, which offers better connections to existing development south of the tracks, as well as existing access to development in the Eisenhower East area of Alexandria via Mill Road.

Alternative location for Eisenhower Valley infill station.

This site is located along a four-track WMATA section – the two outer tracks serving the Blue Line, and two inner tracks feeding the Yellow Line from the Alexandria Yard.

Screenshot from OpenRailwayMap, indicating the alternative location.

Adding side platforms along the outer tracks should be relatively simple. Additionally, the warehouses immediately south of this location are owned by WMATA and potentially redundant facilities, as WMATA finishes work on their new Alexandria office building nearby.

Either location fills a lengthy gap on the Blue Line. Eisenhower Valley is nearly two route miles from Van Dorn Street and 4/5ths of a mile from King Street/Old Town. The alternative location is approximately 2,000 feet as the crow flies from the existing Eisenhower Yellow Line station.

Connections: Here’s the rub – without a much larger project, there aren’t many good connections here. Almost all travel in the area is east-west along either Eisenhower Ave or Duke Street. Adding a north/south street would be a big (and contentious) investment. Absent a major change to the street network, passengers on foot would either face a long walk to Duke Street, or force buses along Duke into a lengthy detour.

The alternative location has a better existing street network to build upon, including the potential Mill Road connection – but has the same issues connecting north across the tracks towards Duke Street.

Land Use: Most of the surrounding areas are commercial or light industrial uses, with some newer residential buildings included. However, the biggest parcels (like WMATA’s Alexandria Yard) aren’t redeveloping anytime soon – and I’m not holding out for Hong Kong-style platforms over rail yards, either.

To the north, the industrial uses could be redeveloped, but this area also includes several facilities critical to Alexandria’s operations, including their police HQ, DASH bus garage, and others.

The alternative location would be adjacent to existing and planned high rise development.

Ease of Construction: At the originally planned location, the station itself should be a breeze. Just add a platform – no track relocation required. It’s the additional projects that increase the complexity – do you add a roadway connecting north/south across all the rail tracks? What kind of redevelopment do you plan for?

Slaters Lane

The only underground infill station location on my initial list is Slaters Lane. The site is located along a short (~2,500′ long) duckunder tunnel, where the WMATA tracks dive beneath a rail spur that formerly provided rail access to Alexandria’s waterfront and a now-defunct coal-fired power plant, set to be redeveloped soon.

With the Potomac River Generating Station closed, the rail spur no longer has any customers. Sufficient space exists without existing structures to allow for a station platform.

Potential infill station location at Slaters Lane

Connections: There’s an opportunity to offer good transit connections at Slaters Lane. The site is close to the existing Metroway BRT, and potentially additional services that could make use of the Route 1 transitway.

Spacing to existing stations is appropriate – Slaters Lane is approximately 2,000 feet north of Braddock Road and ~4,000 feet south of the Potomac Yard infill station. Infill stations have the potential to make Metro a suitable option for travel within Alexandria itself, while the current network focuses mostly on regional travel.

A critical element will be providing for walking access on both sides of the RF&P tracks, either via an overpass or underpass.

Land Use: The big benefit of a station in this location is land use. The area west of the railroad tracks was part of the earlier phases of the long-term redevelopment of Potomac Yard, including a mix of mid-rise residential buildings and townhomes. Both Slaters Lane (to the east) and Monroe Ave (to the west) include commercial uses. And within a short walk of a future station, there are several potential redevelopment sites, including the now-closed power plant.

Potomac Yard in the 1980s. Note the Braddock Road Metro station (opened Dec. 1983) in the lower right, and tracks ducking under to the north.

Ease of Construction: As I mentioned in the opening piece, my list of infill stations is almost exclusively above-ground locations. I’m not aware of any examples of building infill stations on an existing subway line without some kind of pre-existing design accommodation. Adding a connection to an existing, in-service rail tunnel is incredibly complex, expensive, and disruptive.

And yet, there are several reasons to include this location:

Shallow Tunnel: the existing tunnel was only put in place as a duck-under for the rail spur connecting the RF&P’s Potomac Yard to the Waterfront. The shallow design means only a small amount of excavation would be necessary.

Surface Conditions: the land atop the existing tunnel is either used as a roadway or open space, making an open-cut station design (similar to White Flint, Branch Avenue, Grosvenor-Strathmore, or Prince George’s Plaza) possible. Roadway reconfiguration would be required, adding to the project’s complexity.

Construction Methods: at the crayon level, the combination of surface conditions and shallow tunnel depth would make cut and cover construction feasible, potentially minimizing cost and complexity. Even if the final station design were underground, using cut and cover techniques on an open site is potentially beneficial.

Even so, this site is far more ambitious than any of the aboveground locations, and also risky.

Crayon Plans – WMATA Infill Stations

Adding stations to the existing Metro system is a plausible way to expand the transit system without some of the costs involved for new routes. The region has a modest track record for infill stations – the NoMa station opened in 2004, and the Potomac Yard station is set to open in 2022.

Both NoMa and Potomac Yard share several characteristics: above-ground tracks passing through formerly industrial areas ripe for redevelopment.

Potomac Yard Metro Station under construction, August 2021 – photo from Wikipedia

Some criteria for infill station sites:

  • Ease of construction: Above-ground locations are the only feasible sites. Lots of planners and crayonistas call out the possibility of below-ground infill subway stations, something that (to my knowledge) has never been done without accommodations for a station from the start.
  • Potential surface transportation connections: connecting to arterial streets that can carry connecting bus transit, as well as walkable street networks is vitally important.
  • Redevelopment opportunities: these places were bypassed for stations for a reason. Plausible transit-oriented (re)development sites and planning are critical elements.

As it happens, the kinds of places that meet these criteria are often the parts of the network already parallel to existing commuter rail lines. Overlapping services opens the door for additional infill stations on the Metro network.

Let’s imagine a future world where the DC region’s commuter rail systems have been integrated into a coherent regional rail network offering rapid transit service. Even compared to WMATA’s already lengthy suburban routes, those networks extend well beyond the end of the current system. Commuter rail evolves into regional rail; and WMATA (conceived as a hybrid between regional rail and urban rapid transit) evolves further along the rapid transit spectrum.

Based on those criteria, I have twelve possible infill station sites on the existing WMATA network. Many are aspirational, particularly in terms of land use.

Here’s the list:

Location: State:Services:
Franconia RoadVA🔵
Eisenhower ValleyVA🔵
New Hampshire AveDC🔴
BerwynMD🟢 🟡
Edmonston/WoottonMD🔴
Montgomery CollegeMD🔴
Gude DriveMD🔴
Centerville RoadVA⚪️
Oklahoma AveDC🔵 🟠 ⚪️
River TerraceDC🔵 🟠 ⚪️
Wolf TrapVA⚪️
Slaters LaneVA🔵 🟡
Potential WMATA Infill Station Sites

Some of these sites are opportunistic. That is, the site could support an infill station built at a reasonable cost, even if the land use (both current and future) aren’t likely to change much. Franconia Road is one where adding some platforms to existing track ought to be an easy task (with the caveat that nothing in American transit construction is easy at the moment).

Others are targeted at potential large-scale redevelopment of low-density land uses. And some (e.g. Wolf Trap) are longstanding ideas that might not make much sense, but I’ve included them here anyway.

Take the three criteria above, and score each on a 1-3 scale (with 3 being the best) and this is the back-of-the-envelope ranking:

These twelve additional stations (in addition to the 98 currently open or under construction) have the potential to increase the system’s ridership. Each additional node in the network can increase the value for the network as a whole, particularly given the redevelopment prospects for the region.

Some caveats: Obviously, I’m just spitballing here. The ‘ease of construction’ is all relative, and leaving aside the larger issues of transit construction costs for the time being. Controlling costs will be critical to making any additional infill stations feasible, yet alone stations with marginal scores.

Still, all but one of these locations are above ground, and the one that’s in a tunnel is a short cut and cover segment. There’s precedent for building stations in this way.

I hope to go through the details of each station area in future posts…

Four Years of Tracking my Metro Trips

Not much has changed, and yet everything has changed.

The last two years have been… unusual to say the least. With the pandemic, lockdown, and working from home, I overhauled my commute, just like many others. And my Metro data tells the tale:

Four years of Metro Trips, logged

You can see the exact moment when the world shut down. From mid-March 2020 through Mid-January, 2021, I took a grand total of seven unlinked Metro trips. By mid-march 2021, I had resumed a new commute pattern, mostly for the purposes of daycare drop-off.

Metro during the pandemic has been different. 92.4% of my trips in 2021 have been on a 7000 series train, and the remainder have been on 3000 series. I haven’t ridden either a 6000 or 2000 series train since the pandemic began.

Some trivialities:

  • The entire 7000 series fleet is in service, and I snagged a ride on the newest car (Number 7747) on August 17, 2021.
  • Of the current fleet, I’ve ridden 1137 of the 1284 cars in service (what counts as “in service” is a bit of a moving target), or 88.6%
  • My most frequently ridden car is 7673, which I’ve caught ten times over four years.
  • The longest gap between cars I’ve managed is 1,382 days, on car 7111. That’s 3.78 years of the current 4 year timespan.

With life changes, so to will my commute patterns. The ‘new normal’ remains uncertain for balancing working in the office vs. working at home. My kid is now attending a school within walking distance. I’ve felt comfortable on transit during the pandemic with a mask and with relatively sparse crowds, but the pandemic’s continued impact on travel demand is painfully uncertain.

Who knows what the next year will bring?

Crayon plan for VRE’s Manassas Line

As part of the Transforming Rail in Virginia plan, the Commonwealth purchased half of the RF&P railroad (home to VRE’s Fredericksburg line) from CSX. The agreement includes not only the right of way, but also an agreement for shared dispatching and scheduling authority, opening the door for better on-time performance and more control over passenger rail schedules in a mixed passenger/freight corridor.

Unfortunately, the plan has yet to include any (public) agreements with Norfolk Southern, who owns the tracks for VRE’s Manassas Line. In many ways, the Manassas Line has more potential than the Fredericksburg line – the Manassas line travels through relatively densely developed suburban areas along a corridor that lacks competing highway travel options. The rail line is already double-tracked and mostly grade separated, yet doesn’t host much freight traffic for NS. With the eventual expansion of the Long Bridge enabling more Amtrak and regional rail traffic, the line is a perfect candidate for increasing service.

The vision for regional rail in the DC area: run it like rapid transit. Frequent, all-day service.

My basic, quick-and-dirty vision for the line:

  • Purchase the line from NS
  • Electrify the line, and link through to the NEC
  • Develop stations to maximize ridership
https://twitter.com/alex_block/status/1427640804517060614?s=20

The last item would represent the biggest physical change on the line. The railroad itself is a large barrier in this part of suburban Virginia – only a handful of north-south roads cross it. Conveniently, these areas also include areas with commercial and industrial land uses (orange) ripe for eventual redevelopment as station areas (green).

Crayon of the new VRE Manassas Line – Close the existing Rolling Road station; add new stations at Rolling Road, Burke Lake Road, and Old Ox Road.

The existing Rolling Road station would close. All stations would be rebuilt to enable operation on both tracks in both directions, as well as to provide pedestrian and bike connections to neighborhoods on both sides of the tracks. Locating stations near the north/south roads also creates the opportunity for connecting bus transit, which currently doesn’t exist.

Other ideas for the Manassas line:

Add a station at Clifton, VA – limited development potential due to historic preservation, but a strong, walkable small town core.

Consider an extension to Haymarket, VA – VRE studied this, but it would require splitting already infrequent trains among two termini, as well as require extensive investment to avoid NS conflicts.

Two years of tracking my Metro trips

Two years ago, I started tracking my WMATA rides for extremely trivial reasons. After a while, my curiosity is now ingrained as a habit, a small bit of gamification of my commute (even if that game is basically Calvinball).

(Since I originally started doing this to see how quickly I would ride in the same car, I should note that on three occasions, I’ve ridden the same car twice in one day. The longest gap between rides on the same car is 707 days between rides on car 3230.)

With two years of data in the books, I thought I’d share some highlights: 2,013 unlinked trips, using 986 unique railcars, covering about 73% of the current fleet. Seventy five of those cars will never be ridden again, retired as part of the 5000 series. From the current fleet, there are 333 cars I’ve yet to ride, and an additional 113 that have been retired before I had a chance to ride. The fleet makeup is constantly evolving as Metro continues to accept new 7000 series cars, so the precise numbers change often.

My obsession has provided means to monitor the introduction of the newest members of the 7000 series, with 706 cars of the 748 ordered now in service.

Beyond changes in the Metro fleet, I’ve been able to document changes in my own life – different daycares, different jobs, and different commutes. I’ve also noticed how Metro changes their operations and railcar assignments as they take on major track work and as their fleet evolves.

Some charts:

Most of my trips are commute trips; red bars correspond to WMATA’s peak fare periods.
I’ve ridden all but 2 of the 2000 series cars that are in service; I rode 75 of the 5000 series before they were retired.
More than half of my rides have been on 7000 series trains.
My regular trips make frequent use of all services except for the Red Line. Most trips are still tied to the Orange/Silver/Blue lines, serving my home station.

I was also curious if I could put two years of tracked trips into one chart, so here’s an annotated version:

You can see the retirement of the 5000 series cars, the slowly increasing size of the 7000 series fleet, re-assigment of cars around the system, particularly in response to this summer’s lengthy Platform Improvement Project shutdown. The retirement of most of the 5000-series fleet also shifted the 6000 series – previously common on the Green line, but then shifted to the Orange/Blue/Silver lines.

You can also see how some cars tend to stick to certain portions of the system. This is easiest to see with the Red Line, since it’s both the most isolated from other lines and the line I ride the least. Before the PiP, you can see how most 3000 series cars with numbers above ~3175 were assigned to the Red Line. Likewise, most 7000 series trains between ~7150 and ~7300 are also isolated on the Red Line, except for a few weeks during this summer’s shutdown.

Missing a chance to create a great transit hub – New Carrollton

If you were to rank Metro station areas by some abstract measure of ‘potential,’ New Carrollton would have to be at the top of your list. It’s not in Washington’s ‘favored quarter,’ but as development moves east, it’s well positioned to take advantage of new and old transportation links.

The eastern terminus of WMATA’s Orange Line; easy MARC access to DC and Baltimore; Amtrak service to New York and the rest of the Northeast Corridor. For auto access, you’ve got freeway links in all directions via the Beltway and US 50 into the District and connecting to Annapolis. Now add in circumferential transit: construction is underway (if behind schedule) for the Purple Line light rail system.

Beyond just the transportation links, New Carrollton has land. Lots of parking lots and underdeveloped sites can support much more density – all within a short walk of these valuable transit connections.

There’s the opportunity to transform New Carrollton into a walkable, transit-oriented business district, but some of the Purple Line design choices might limit that potential.

The Vision: Mass Transit ‘Theater’

Start with MNCPPC’s 2010 plan for New Carrollton: It calls for, among other things, making the station entrance a civic place, surrounded by development and active uses. The stated goal is to create a ‘transit theater,’ not just connecting the infrastructure but creating a place to support adjacent walkable development.

Diagram of north side station area (including the Purple Line), 2010 TOD Plan. Note the existing IRS office building in the lower right.

The transit station is uniquely important at New Carrollton. Not just because of the transit links, but because of the development potential around it. While there’s substantial development potential on either side of the railroad tracks, there’s no way to get between the two sides except by going through the station. Even car circulation between the two sides requires getting on one of the adjacent freeways.

Fully realizing the development potential on both sides of the tracks means making the station itself the critical hub for all kinds of circulation. It’s the kind of place that doesn’t just need to function, it needs to be great. The success of the transit station and the surrounding development depend on it.

Executing the Vision with WMATA Joint Development

Complex development projects don’t move fast. Almost as soon as the MNCPPC plan finished, WMATA put out a solicitation to develop their parking lots – and the first phase of this development is just now taking shape.

Just to get a sense of the timeline: MNCPPC published their plan in May 2010. In September of that same year, WMATA and the State of Maryland jointly issued an RFQ for development partners to execute that plan. In 2011, the selected a development team (a joint venture of Urban Atlantic and Forest City).

Negotiations for the full development agreement concluded in 2015, when the developers released their vision for the south side of the station – fully embracing the 2010 plan’s vision. In April 2017, developers signed a tenant to anchor their office component, allowing them to break ground in October 2017 on the first phase.

Rendering of the WMATA Joint Development by Urban Atlantic/Forest City for the south side of New Carrollton

The developers and WMATA have taken care to create a sense of place, meet all of WMATA’s programatic needs (bus bays, parking, etc – documented in this lengthy report) and support a substantial development project. The lengthy partnership between the parties also helps align their incentives.

Purple Line Planning:

The 2010 plan located the Purple Line station next to Ellin Road, reserving space between the Purple Line and the Amtrak right-of-way for development.

Site Plan for New Carrollton – note the provision for future extension of the Purple Line to the south

By the time the Purple Line was in preliminary engineering, the plan called to shift the tracks and LRT platform to abut the Amtrak ROW and position the platform immediately adjacent to the existing Metro station entrance. Bus bays, kiss-and-ride, and short-term parking would occupy the rest of the space between the railroad and Ellin Road, suitable for future redevelopment and with logical circulation for both cars and pedestrians.

2013 Purple Line design, with the LRT platform as close as possible to the existing station entrance; bus bays and short-term parking configured around ‘normal’ signalized intersections.
Original Purple Line design for New Carrollton.

The original concept also included an extension of the existing WMATA station tunnel, new vertical circulation to connect passengers between the bus bays/LRT station to an extension of the existing tunnel to WMATA/Amtrak/MARC/South Side development.

As the Purple Line finally started construction, the contractor and State of Maryland agreed to several design changes to save money, particularly notable at Silver Spring. The contractor also put forward an Alternative Technical Concept for New Carrollton, which the State accepted.

As WMATA is involved in station planning to integrate the Purple Line at transfer stations, some of their Board of Directors presentations have hinted at the alternative designs.

Alt. Concept for New Carrollton, via WMATA. I believe the red box indicates the future north side joint development area.

The new layout limits costs by retaining the existing entrance (6 in the image above) and avoiding alterations to the pedestrian bridge. Bus bays and parking are re-arranged to allow the LRT station and tail tracks to shift north alongside Ellin Road.

Two concerns with the new design: first, the Purple Line platform is now further away from the Metro station entrance, asking more walking of passengers making the transfer. Second, the design doesn’t improve on the current north-side passenger experience – theres no sense of destination. Third, the barriers around the LRT station and tracks (including retaining walls) means that pedestrian circulation to the potential development sites to the north are limited and indirect.

All pedestrians from points north must use either the existing pedestrian bridge or the LRT entrance via the far side of Ellin Road/Harkins Road

Ellin Road’s current condition as a suburban stroad isn’t welcoming to pedestrians, so this hardly seems like a loss under the circumstances. But the potential of New Carrollton as a walkable place depends on the quality of the walk to and from the station.

Most of the parking shown here is part of future phases of the WMATA Joint Development, so this isn’t a permanent condition. Additionally, the developer’s efforts to improve the south side bus bays is encouraging. Still, there’s a big contrast between the importance of place to the development team (as shown on the south side) and the incentives to shave costs by the Purple Line team on the north.

Electric cars will not save us

A nice picture of a two-way protected bike lane, with lots of bikes using it.

In addition to lots of twitter arguments about the Green New Deal, my feed has also been full of arguments about the relative role for electric cars.

I get the appeal of electric cars: it’s hard to envision any scenario where we address climate change without relying on electrification of our vehicle fleet. It’s a technology that has lots of promise. These cars appeal to our desires for innovation, yet still recall previous moments of national pride.

All that said, the simple math on emissions remains clear: electric cars alone won’t solve our surface transportation GHG problems. We have to drive less.

A number of articles in recent months have tried to emphasize this point, but they don’t often seem to break through. I’d like to highlight this one from Meredith Hankins:

…when we’re all driving zero-emission vehicles that plug into a zero-carbon grid, our transportation emissions will indeed be extremely low carbon. But here’s the thing: that future is a long way off. California’s ZEV mandate calls for only about 8% of new vehicle purchases to be ZEVs by 2025–and that’s just new vehicles. The average car sold today will be on the road for at least 11 years, locking in a decade plus of GHG emissions for every non-ZEV sold. In addition to our long-term electrification plans, we have to focus on strategies to reduce emissions from those non-ZEVs in the near term by getting them off the road.

The basic facts about cars (regardless of their power source) haven’t changed. They’re remarkably large and inefficient vehicles. They take up large spaces and require lots of energy to move.

Since the ultimate goal here is to reduce GHG emissions, making transport more energy-efficient in total is an important intermediate objective, we need to not just shift the energy sources to electricity, but also consider the overall efficiency.

Limiting automotive GHG emissions isn’t simply about making cars cleaner, but also about limiting how much we use these inefficient modes of transport. In other words, driving less.

Don’t take my word for it, just listen to the IPCC. Here’s Meredith Hankins again:

But here’s the thing: we can’t afford to ignore significant climate mitigation measures just because they are politically difficult.
The IPCC’s recent bombshell report notes that “demand-side mitigation and behavioural changes” are going to be needed to avoid the worst climate change impacts. Transportation mitigation pathways for limiting global warming to less than 1.5 degrees require not just “[t]echnology-focused measures,” but also strategies based on “[s]tructural changes that avoid or shift transport activity” that have “received lesser attention in most global transport decarbonisation pathways up to now.”  

(emphasis added)

To make things a bit more tangible, here are the kinds of targets California thinks they need to hit:

  • Quadruple the proportion of trips taken by foot by 2030 (from a baseline of the 2010–2012 California Household Travel Survey).
  • Strive for a nine-fold increase in the proportion of trips taken by bicycle by 2030 (from a baseline of the 2010–2012 California Household Travel Survey).

Dramatically increasing bike and walk trips (and doing so immediately) is both a simple goal, yet a radical one. It’s a radical change from the status quo, but also something simple enough to do. Meeting these goals doesn’t require any technological miracles (or even any new technology at all).

Breaking it down a bit further, hitting those targets realistically requires policies that impact both the supply of places that support bike and walk trips, as well as policies that increase demand for them.

On the supply-side, hitting these targets means increasing the supply of places suitable for bike and pedestrian trips: safe bike and pedestrian infrastructure, expanded at a massive scale. These are proven and relatively simple tasks, but the scale called for here is still daunting. Ask anyone who’s worked on these projects about the effort required to build 9x as many protected bike lanes.

Additionally, all of these supply-side elements are things local governments can do. For all of the Mayors out there talking a good game on climate, here’s the biggest bang for your buck. Furthermore, places that are already walkable and bikeable will be far better suited to accommodate shifting behavior. It’s entirely plausible to picture a nine-fold increase in biking in a big city.

The demand side perhaps more important in shifting behavior, particularly for pricing incentives (against cars, for walking/biking/transit). Some of this can happen at the local level (parking policy, pricing) while others will require state-level and national action. Just look back at the increases in transit usage when gas prices go up.