An 18-month pilot program extending Metro’s Yellow Line from Gallery Place-Chinatown to Fort Totten is expected to be approved today after Maryland and District officials reached what some say “is a good compromise.”
The $5.75 million proposal would extend the Yellow Line during off-peak and weekend hours to help ease congestion that has plagued the Shaw, U Street, Columbia Heights and Georgia Avenue stations for the past year.
Metro interim General Manager Dan Tangherlini said off-peak and weekend ridership has increased by double digits in recent years. Off-peak systemwide travel increased 19 percent last year alone.
The corridor has seen a development boom in recent years, and the new D.C. USA retail development, which will showcase the city’s first Target store, is expected to increase off-peak and weekend ridership, officials said.
In a compromise to appease Maryland representatives on the Metro board, the District’s representatives agreed to back off their “consistent opposition” to expanding Red Line service to the Shady Grove station during off-peak and weekend hours.
Many Red Line trains now turn back at the Grosvenor-Strathmore station, causing massive passenger overflows at the station.
The Red Line service improvements would cost $2.25 million for a similar 18-month pilot program, Metro officials said.
On Wednesday, Metro Board Member Jim Graham, also a D.C. Council member and the project’s main proponent, said the deal is a “good compromise.”
Metro Board Member Robert Smith, who led an effort to delay Graham’s proposal last month, said he also believes both projects can now move forward.
» Yellow Line trains would run on existing Green Line tracks. No new tracks would be built.
» Ridership in the five-station corridor has increased by as much as 20 percent in the past two years, officials said.
» The corridor averages 19,000 riders during off-peak hours on weekdays, compared with 34,400 during peak hours.
» Saturday ridership averages 35,200 riders.
