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Seems to me a lot of commenters here mistake the purpose of the virtual tunnel. It isn't to save people money, raise more revenue, or reduce trip time. It's to distribute transfers more broadly outside of Metro Center, Gallery Place-Chinatown, and L'Enfant Plaza which have become dangerously congested. It's a problem resulting from the hub-and-spoke design of the original system; Fort Totten is the only transfer point outside the downtown core. A grid-like system, or one with more redundancy, wouldn't have the problem of forcing so many riders through the core. If you distribute more ridership outside the downtown core, you free up capacity to either be safer or run trains through it more often.

Chicago uses out-of-system transfers in the loop. They're farther apart and not as easily understood as the block between the Farragut stations. I was on the Sierra Club Transportation Committee roughly 2003-05, and another member back then asked about a SmarTrip-based free transfer between the Farraguts. I can't believe it's still not in effect. I do think real tunnels should eventually be built between the Farraguts and between Metro Center and Gallery Place. London and Paris have combined stations like this, among others. Look at Chatelet-Les Halles. Or even Chicago and NYC. Add retail and you add revenue for WMATA and life to the tunnels and subway system--though at a cost to above-ground life and retail. When Montreal built their underground network, Ste. Catherine St. retail took time to recover.

As a ped advocate, I'd also make the point that wayfinding signs with avg. walking times rather than physical distances could be pretty effective. I'm not sure most people have an instinctive idea of how far 1/4 mile or 1320 feet is, but "Metro Center ~5 mins. -->" would help.

by Jon Morgan on Sep 3, 2011 3:10 am • link • report