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cfitzpancake t1_ir60ucc wrote

Reply to comment by AfghanHokie in Train to Ashburn! by albinotuba

Because the Metro was designed to be part true subway, part commuter rail. If you look within city limits (probably more helpful when comparing to Vienna, which has less of an American-looking sprawl), you see trains lines doubled and tripled up, such that (under regular operation) you get 4-10-minute headways, more similar to NY’s MTA and European systems.

That being said, is WMATA a world-class powerhouse compared to European systems? Absolutely not, and transit-oriented innovation, development, and incentives have a long way to go here.

But especially as you look out along the suburban strands of every metro line, it’s important to note that it operates like an electrified commuter rail for the purposes of an electrified commuter rail, rather than a true subway. The demand isn’t there right now for trains to serve Ashburn — an exurb over 30 miles from the downtown core — at a frequency of 4 minutes.

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well-that-was-fast t1_ir627q1 wrote

Exactly this.

There is no way you can run trains on 4-minute headways out to suburban parking lots -- which is what most of the system is outside of DC.

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sagarnola89 t1_ir6g6e7 wrote

Agree wholeheartedly except I'd amend this to say outside of the Beltway. Stations outside of DC but within DC (Arlington, Alexandria, Bethesda, Silver Spring, College Park , etc) usually aren't on suburban parking lots.

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well-that-was-fast t1_ir6gzra wrote

I agree there are few non-parking lot stations outside of DC, but this:

> outside of the Beltway.

is pretty generous. Alexandria Eisenhower looks like this and King St isn't vastly better.

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sagarnola89 t1_ir6hx8d wrote

That's fair. Alexandria is especially bad. Better examples would be Arlington, Bethesda, and Silver Spring, all of which have walkable urban cores around their metro stations.

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