What was up with the one-way Orange-Blue?

Transit

What was up with the one-way Orange-Blue?

by David Alpert • October 7, 2008 12:22 pm

I was just looking again at the 1982 Metro map I posted this morning. After the Orange and Blue lines split at Rosslyn and Stadium-Armory, each branch is Orange one way, Blue the other.

Metro map, 1982.

Why did they do this? If a train leaves National Airport heading north, it'll be Orange. Then Orange trains go to New Carrollton. When it turns around, it'll be Blue, and Blue trains go to National Airport. So you have one service going from National to New Carrollton, and another from Ballston to Addison Road.

Other than the fact that the termini are flipped around from what we have today, why not simply have one color for National-New Carrollton and another color for Ballston-Addison? The whole Orange in, Blue out thing seems pointless and completely nonsensical. What am I missing?

Update: OK, thanks to commenters I think we've explained it. From any station, the Blue trains are headed toward National and Addison, which is where Blue trains go today, and the Orange trains are headed toward Ballston and New Carrollton, which is where those go today. So this gets riders used to boarding the correct color train to go from the central business district to an outlying area. However, they still board the wrong color train heading inbound, but from there, there are fewer choices and less opportunity for error.

6 comments

Tags: maps, WMATA

Metro work to close Orange, Blue lines this weekend (Nov 3, 2010)
Proposed "Blue Line split": why blue? (Mar 12, 2008)
Why the Blue Line needs to keep calling at Rosslyn (Jul 1, 2010)
Communication is everything on "Blue Line Realignment," a.k.a. the "Yellow and Orange Line Service Increase" (Jul 12, 2010)
Metro FAQ: How will Silver, Orange, Blue fit at Rosslyn? (Jun 30, 2010)

David Alpert is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington and Greater Greater Education. He worked as a Product Manager for Google for six years and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He loves the area which is, in many ways, greater than those others, and wants to see it become even greater.

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I noticed it too, and the only reason I could come up with was that this avoided having to change a single terminus sign on a station pylon. As the directions by the escalators are named for their ending terminus (as opposed to the starting terminus), this could save on signage costs.

by Joey on Oct 7, 2008 12:28 pm • link • report

Oh, contrary to your original post, David, the *outbound* termini follow today's routing. If you hopped on a blue-line train at, say, Rosslyn, you'd have two choices: heading to Addison Road or National Airport. If you hopped on an orange-line station there, you'd have two choices: heading to New Carrolton or Ballston.

by Joey on Oct 7, 2008 12:32 pm • link • report

That was actually an interim configuration so WMATA could figure out volumes to optimize the permanent configuration that we have today.

by Andrew on Oct 7, 2008 3:16 pm • link • report

I used to live in Arlington with the option to take Orange or Blue line, but I really don't remember there being a difference inbound, maybe the interim config was very short lived.

I'm nostalgic tho for the Orange line conductor who on the way home would say in a sing song voice after leaving Rosslyn, "If you wanted National Airport, you're on the wrong train." On Friday mornings he would say something like, "It's Friday! Smile!," and people would.

by Lynn Stevens on Oct 7, 2008 4:33 pm • link • report

Actually, and I can remember this like it was yesterday, it was due to a car shortage and in the name of efficiency, this took care of a capacity issue. To put it bluntly, back in the day, the Orange Line was heavy on the New Carrollton end, while the Blue Line was heavier on the National Airport end...so, in the name of efficiency, Metro operated trains from National Airport to New Carrollton and from Addison Road to Ballston....then, after the Yellow Line opened between Gallery Place and the Airport, all things reverted back to normal. Hope this helps

by coneyraven on Oct 8, 2008 12:36 am • link • report

The map design also had to do with the limitation of the roll signs on the cars at that time. There were no Blue signs for New Carrollton and Ballston, there were no Orange signs for Addison Road and National Airport.

I will also note, when the east end of the railroad was extended from Stadium-Armory to New Carrollton on 12 20 1978 all trains heading east were labeled Orange, all trains heading west were labeled Blue. Ballston opened 12 01 1979. The maps were not modified to show that fact.

by Sand Box John on Oct 8, 2008 9:01 am • link • report