Let me say first off that I understand the reasons Metro has done it, and I agree that for those reasons it’s probably a good idea. Installing new red light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs in the platform edge lights will save money.
My problem is that the lights make everything look cheap.
You know how it looks when somebody puts red plastic over a light bulb at Christmastime and does the same thing ingreen to a light right next to it? It looks tacky. I get the same feeling from these new LEDs.
You know the feeling you get when you walk down the Oudezijds Achterburgwal in Amsterdam’s famous Red Light District?
OK, maybe that’s not the same feeling and maybe that’s going a bit far for a comparison, but either way it just lacks some of the class that our system deserves. The other thing that’s rather odd about these new lights at the Gallery Place-Chinatown station and several others on the Red Line is that for most of us “red” means stop.
Even a flashing red light means to stop before proceeding. Will those from out of town be confused, or will they just follow the crowds of more experienced passengers and get onto the trains despite what could be interpreted as a warning? I don’t know, but it will be interesting to follow.
Dick writes with a very good question: “With all the publicity about the extension of Metro to Dulles (which I think will be a great plus), a bigger need has never been mentioned in the news. With the [Base Realignment and Closure] moving 10,000 or more jobs to Fort Belvoir in 2011 or so, it seems like a no-brainer to me that the Metro should be extended from Franconia-Springfield to Fort Belvoir.
“I have never seen this idea mentioned. Is there some reason it can’t be done? All anyone ever talks about is the roads in the area.”
There are actually five very major issues that impact what is otherwise a very good idea: M – O – N – E – Y.
The costs of the rights-of-way would put such an extension into the stratosphere. Keep in mind that most of the land for the Dulles Rail Project is coming from the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.
Still, that project is currently budgeted at $5 billion, and there are those who believe it will be much higher even without the land costs that would normally go along with such a project.
Extending the rail to Fort Belvoir is a very good idea and one that the federal government should support in the same way that it has the Pentagon Metro station and its related facilities.
