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Another "cheap" idea to deal with the Rosslyn tunnel/switch problem is to build a track that allows travel from Court House to Arlington Cemetery.

That way, the blue line cold run from Vienna to Franconia-Springfield. The Yellow line keeps doing what it does and the Silver line continues to Largo picking up the eastern end of the rerouted blue line.

The great advantage would be that there would be no more need for the switch in the Rosslyn tunnel, because the Silver and Orange lines would all go the same way. This would lead to a real increase in capacity.

And if you want to complain about the cost of constructing that extra stuff in Rosslyn, please consider that the only other serious way of increasing capacity across the Potomac is to build a second tunnel.

IMHO, this whole realignment of the blue and yellow lines is just kicking the elephant in the room further down the road. Let's face it: Both the crossing over and under the Potomac are at max capacity. Creating 5 or 10% extra capacity is not a serious solution to the lack of capacity.

by Jasper on Jul 12, 2010 1:14 pm • link • report