The Silver Spring Penguin

Photo: It gets dark really early around here. Courtesy of MoWorld; reprinted with permission.

PART TWO — Metro’s Red Line could be swamped with rush-hour commuters by 2025, even sooner for the rail system’s other lines, one transportation expert warned. So what the hell is a transit authority supposed to do?

First, it can make use of existing infrastructure, one Action Committee for Transit member suggested at a meeting in July. (Didn’t catch his name — my bad.) MARC’s Brunswick line, which runs parallel to Metro’s Red Line, could serve commuters between Silver Spring and Union Station if additional stops were added along the route.

“There’s existing capacity there that’s underutilized,” the dude said. “Why not take advantage of it?” (more…)

PART ONE — That morning Red Line train might not be too crowded with commuters when it rolls out of Silver Spring, but chances are it’ll be slammed with people by the time it hits downtown DC. At least in the year 2025, anyway, one transportation expert predicted.

Photo: Please don't crowd the doors with your fat head. Courtesy of PunkWalrus; reprinted with permission.

“We’ll hit one million riders a day in 2020 — that was the system on Inauguration Day,” warned Nat Bottigheimer, an assistant general manager with Metro. “We’re looking at very packed [train] cars starting in the next couple of years.”

Bottigheimer, who unleashed his predictions on the Action Committee for Transit this summer, said the problem isn’t in Metro’s ability to transport riders from Glenmont and the system’s other outer reaches. Instead, the problem is what to do with all those commuters once they get into The District’s core, where all the juicy jobs are.

“Even at stations designed to pump people in and out, we have to think about moving them,” Bottigheimer said. Additional stairs and entrances might be needed in stations like Farragut North and Judiciary Square just to keep the platforms from becoming mosh pits and impeding train movement, he suggested. (more…)