How about a North Capitol Red Line branch?

Large mixed-use development projects at the McMillan Sand Filtration site and Armed Forces Retirement Home will add density and thousands of residential units to an area far from Metro. Current Bloomingdale residents are concerned about increased traffic, as the area is already a bottleneck, pinched between parks, universities and cemeteries that have severed the street grids. Upstart anti-McMillan development blog No Drilling at McMillan cites an old WMATA study stating that the Washington Hospital Center is the “most dense commuter destination not served by transit rail.” Can we we add some transit serving this area?

Richard Layman suggests that DC should require these developers to pay into a fund for future transit enhancement, as Arlington County often does. Streetcars or priority bus corridors along the congested North Capitol Street are distinct and viable possibilities.

But maybe it’s worth thinking bigger: how about heavy rail using the Red Line? The Northeast leg of the Red Line followed the railroad right of way rather than a path to maximize TOD, such as Georgia Avenue. Many residents of Brookland and Takoma strongly oppose development, and neither is among the top stations in ridership. What about a separate branch of the Red Line?

Alternating eastbound Red Line trains could split off after the New York Avenue station and service new stations before ultimately linking back up at Silver Spring. This would increase the coverage of Metro to DC residents and add TOD opportunities with minimal impact to travel times for suburban commuters headed downtown and to NoMa. In the long run, this segment could get its own service entirely as part of a possible Brown Line.

Top priorities for the North Capitol route include serving the new developments and the hospital, the commercial nodes of existing communities, preserving the Fort Totten Green Line transfer, and accessing areas with more opportunity for infill stations in the future. Along the existing Red Line track I also added a Kansas Avenue infill station, located in an area of light industrial that could be prime for TOD redevelopment.

Stations along this route could include:

• Bloomingdale: Rhode Island Ave at First Street NW

• McMillan: Michigan Ave at First Street NW

• AFRH: Irving Street NW at North Capitol Street

• Fort Totten: On parallel platform

• Brightwood: Missouri Ave at Georgia Ave NW

Future infill stations could go at commerical nodes like Kennedy Street at 3rd Street NW, Georgia Ave at Piney Branch NW, and Georgia Ave at Kalmia Road NW.

What’s the best way to serve the cluster of McMillian, AFRH, and Washington Hospital Center? With the Hospital at the physical midpoint, one station to serve these three areas would be the least costly. However, the groups making the most trips would probably be, first, residents of the new communities, then hospital workers, retail customers of the new developments, and finally patients. Residents and retail customers would be more sensitive to long walks or shuttle buses, while workers are more likely to view a shuttle that connected the two nearby metro stations and circulated the hospital campus as an amenity.

This concept is admittedly off the cuff. I haven’t vetted it rigorously by evaluating bus ridership and capital costs. Streetcars may be more cost-effective. However, while I do support streetcars across the city, I would also like to see us continue to expand heavy rail. This concept could extend the reach of heavy rail with minimal disruption to core capacity. I thought it was worth serving up in raw form for discussion. I welcome feedback and will work it into further refinement of this concept.