Metro officials Thursday recommended constructing underground walkways between stations and building inter-line rail connections to help the agency solve an impending capacity crisis.
The stations least able to handle more riders are Metro Center, Farragut North, Gallery Place, L’Enfant Plaza and Shady Grove, according to staff analysis.
To help ease platform and train crowding at Metro Center and Gallery Place, the planning staff wants to build a mezzanine-level walkway between the two transfer stations that would run directly above the trains.
“Instead of transferring to a train to go one stop, you could just walk there,” Metro Planning Chief Nat Bottigheimer said.
Staff members proposed building a similar walkway between the south end of the Farragut North station and the east end of the Farragut West station, essentially making those two stations new transfer points between the Blue/Orange and Red lines.
Bottigheimer estimated each of the projects would cost $50 million.
The staff analysis showed the Orange Line, which is already reaching capacity, would be partially relieved when Metro begins running more eight-car trains next year, but would reach capacity againby 2015 and exceed it by 2020.
To help relieve crowding at transfer chokepoints such as Rosslyn, Metro staff recommended building a series of inter-line connectors, including one that would run from the Courthouse Orange Line station to the Arlington National Cemetery Blue Line station.
Those connectors are estimated to cost $200 million per mile.
“The inter-line connectors, I think, almost certainly should be done given the growth process,” Metro Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman said, adding that Metro saw many of the same proposals several years ago, when capacity was first analyzed.
Metro staff members said last week that the agency was predicting a 42 percent growth in ridership over the next 25 years, with daily ridership reaching 1 million passengers by 2030.
