Comments on Which Metro stations are busiest? - Greater Greater Washington

Comment by Abby

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 21:37:36 EDT

I think that Metro Center and Gallery Place being popular exit points during midday has a lot to do with the great number of stores and restaurants by those stations. You get a lot of people who work non traditional hours there and then of course customers that frequent those places.

Comment by kk

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 21:10:22 EDT

@Dave & Matt Johnson

Even if they could not get a station in the park there is still no excuse to not have one station a few blocks away. Considering that the entrances to both stations are 17th & I, Conn & K, Conn & L, and 18 & I why not place the station at 18 & K

Comment by MLD

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 11:56:44 EDT

To me, the absence of U St. from that list is the MOST surprsing.

It's not that surprising to me - If you're coming from downtown, the places you would access from the U Street Metro (along U and down 14th) are just as easy or easier to get to by bus, or by a VERY cheap cab ride (<$10) if you are in a group.

Comment by LuvDusty

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 10:58:15 EDT

Columbia Heights and Fort Totten are both stations that haven't appeared in other top 10 counts, so their inclusion is somewhat surprising.

I don't find it surprising at all that the CoHe exit is in the top 10 for PM exits. I mean, have you been to CoHe lately? It's a major nightlife area now---actually, I'd say it's much more of a nightlife hotspot than Dupont Circle is. I'd say it's 2nd probably only to Gallery Place and maybe U Street.

To me, the absence of U St. from that list is the MOST surprsing.

Comment by Dave

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 19:58:44 EDT

Thanks Matt -- At first I didn't understand why all the tree would have been cut down -- I realized the whole park would have been open up to build a station (and would have been another transfer station like Metro Center and Gallery Place). Then why didn't we build a tunnel back then? If the answers are in Zach Schag's book, I guess I need to get hold of the book.

Comment by Matt Johnson

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:25:41 EDT

@Dave:
It's in Zach Schrag's book, "Great Society Subway."

The reason NPS objected was because while the Red Line could be tunneled under the park without disruption, a station being constructed there would have required all the trees in Farragut Square to be cut down.

Comment by Dave

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:23:09 EDT

Interesting quote from Matt Johnson: "Also of note, the 2 Farragut Square stations combined handle more than twice as many exits as the third place station, Metro Center. Without the objection of the National Park Service, the Farragut stations would have been one station" -- I may have missed history on Metro -- could someone provide me a link to this story? I wonder if the NPS now regret their decision?

Comment by MLD

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 11:58:00 EDT

Here's a way to look at the data that illustrates the idea that while the closely spaced stations may individually have fewer trips than the big park & ride hubs at the outside, they serve a lot of people as well:

I matched up each station with the zones in the theoretical zone map posted on GGW here: http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/9261/should-metro-switch-to-zones-no/

When you look at the AM Peak time, about half the trips originate in Zones 1&2, and half in 3-4-5.

In the PM Peak, about 57% of trips END in zones 1&2, and 43% in 3-4-5.

When you look at total station traffic (entries + exits) over the entire day, 44% of trips go through zone 1, 27% through zone 2, 11% zone 3, 11.5% zone 4, and 6% zone 5.

So while some outer stations may have lopsided trip numbers because they funnel lots of people, inner stations have a lot of traffic that is spread out more evenly.

Comment by andy2

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 08:49:33 EDT

Thanks Matt!

Comment by Matt Johnson

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 20:07:45 EDT

@Payton:
I've revised the maps to make them easier to read by color-blind readers.

Comment by AlanF

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 16:13:47 EDT

With regards to a possible Orange line extension in VA and Red Line extension beyond Shady Grove, there are projected ridership numbers for extending those 2 lines and others in the TAG #8 presentation from earlier this year. I don't recall seeing the recent TAG #9 presentation discussed on GGW. For those interested in the presentations, try http://planitmetro.com/?s=TAG+Meeting.

I think an extension of the Orange Line along I-66 to west of Rt. 50 with a station maybe serving the mall there and allowing some sort of access to the Fairfax county gov centers is reasonable. Extending it to Gainesville or west on Rt. 50 to South Riding is way too expensive to build and operate. Gainesville & Manassas are commuter distance communities, they are best handled by a VRE extension to Gainesville with eventual expansion of VRE to a 7 day a week regional rail service.

Extending the Red Line beyond Shady Grove 3.5 miles with 2 new stations had a new ridership gain of 6700 weekday trips. Since that should not be that expensive an extension ($600 to $800 million?), it might someday happen. However MD has to figure out how to pay for and start construction of the Purple and Baltimore Red Line LRT projects before MD takes on any other major Metro projects.

The bottom line remains that before the region starts on significant extensions of the existing lines, a consensus must be reached on capacity expansion in the core starting such as the re-route of the Blue Line to Georgetown and M street.

Comment by Jasper

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 15:16:20 EDT

@ Vik:I completely agree that the Orange Line ought to be extended in Virginia. What I'd love to see, although unlikely, is a simple extension to the Rt. 50 or thereabouts. I pick there because in addition to serving a need, that area is ripe for TOD.

Well, I think the Orange line should just follow I-66 and then bend off to Warrenton. I agree with a missed opportunity along US-50. Personally, I think a new metro line all the way from DC to Middleburg along US-50 would fit well. US-50 near South Riding is already becoming unridable. It is surprising to see that Fairfax is building a new 'old Tysons' there while they're busy cleaning up the mess they made at Tysons.

Comment by jh

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 14:35:39 EDT

@Payton

"Also, the downtown transfer stations see more passengers than just the entry/exits reported above, but transfers aren't counted."

Should be easy enough to estimate transfers at certain stations based on origin and destination. That may not work too well, though, for transfers on lines that share multiple stations (Orange-Blue, Blue-Yellow, Yellow-Green). While Yellow/Green-Red has two transfer stations, I think it's safe to assume where transfers occur for most o-d pairs.

Comment by Sage

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 14:15:53 EDT

@everyone (above):

Very well put responses. Thank you. I tend to agree with what's been said.

For me, the ridership numbers laid out in the tables highlight the strength of the commuter rail aspect of Metrorail. While long cognizant of the hybrid nature of Metrorail, the popularity of the extended commutes, compared with those more close-in, was a bit of an eye opener.

Comment by Payton

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 14:15:34 EDT

Re: Jasper's question of station flow capacity, there's no one answer. (Tokyo's Shinjuku station complex handles ~3.5M people a day, counting transfers. That's equal to the entire London Underground, which often feels even more crowded!) Just as with a chain and its weakest link, any one station's capacity is limited mostly by its bottlenecks: too few entries or escalators, too narrow of a junction between two walkways. WMATA did a station access & capacity study in 2008 which found that 7 stations would require additional vertical or faregate circulation by 2030, and has subsequently done a detailed study of Union Station's entrances

Also, the downtown transfer stations see more passengers than just the entry/exits reported above, but transfers aren't counted.

Comment by Vik

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 14:04:15 EDT

@Jasper

I completely agree that the Orange Line ought to be extended in Virginia. What I'd love to see, although unlikely, is a simple extension to the Rt. 50 or thereabouts. I pick there because in addition to serving a need, that area is ripe for TOD. I know that if we were to extend it, it would likely go to Rt. 28, which is fine, or beyond, which is less alright, IMO. I know that for political and fiscal reasons, we prefer more dramatic extensions, but I wish the discussion with respect to metro focused more on incremental extensions, infill, and expanding the core capacity.

Comment by drumz

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 13:52:56 EDT

My bad, I forgot to refresh and see that most people had already tackled this.

Comment by drumz

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 13:50:58 EDT

Sage,

Well this is only the top 10 stations. It's incredibly likely that the more in town stations beat the more peripheral stations on average.

Moreover, when you live closer to your job you also have more options to get to work. It's easier to bike, walk, or take a bus. Meanwhile if you live in fairfax but work in DC you're options are more limited than if you lived in DC. Smart growth is more than a metro line.

Comment by Falls Church

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 13:42:33 EDT

@inlogan & @Transport

Thanks for the link!

Comment by Nick

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 13:39:22 EDT

@grumpy: "I was surprised that Fort Totten popped up on the last list - is it really that big of a bus hub? "

http://wmata.com/rail/station_bus_maps/PDFs/Fort%20Totten%20Station.pdf?

Yeah, Fort Totten does have a lot of buses. 9 bus bays with a variety of lines (I've seen these bays crowded at many points of the day. You've got the very frequent K6 (eastern moco), which serves NH ave (filling the gap between the red and green lines. Some of the 60 buses stop there. I've also seen very crowded R line buses (northwest prince georges - riggs road).

Comment by jh

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 13:36:00 EDT

@Sage

The car-centric commuter stations serve a larger population base. Vienna serves people from Vienna to Manassas and points beyond.

A station like Ballston basically only serves Ballston. Once you live beyond that, you have other options. To the East, you have other Metro Stations. To the West, you have car-centric stations that draw people from the car-centric neighborhoods from the North, South, and West of Ballston.

Comment by AWalkerInTheCity

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 13:34:16 EDT

sage

Take the orange line in NoVa for example. The transfer focused stations (not all park and ride, but including lots of bus transfers as well) are Vienna, West Falls Church, and to SOME extent, Dunn Loring. So that segment divides among three stations, mostly. The very TODish stations are Rosslyn, Court House, Clarendon, Va Square, AND Ballston. Five stations. That means the TOD segment is more divided up (I leave out EFC, which I think has elements of both - bu the parking lot is small) If each of the TOD stations had riderships as high as the highest transfer focused station, that would mean a much larger than is reasonable majority for the TOD stations. I think this may be even more true for the Red Line.

It would be like deciding that North America is more populated than Europe, because the USA is more populated than than Germany.

Comment by Steven Harrell

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 13:31:45 EDT

@Sage: because of park-and-ride and commuter buses, those beltway stations are serving much larger areas than core stations like Dupont and U Street. Core residents also have more options; not only do we have more metro stations to choose from, we can also walk, bike or take a bus. I commute downtown 8-10 times per week. Of those trips, I take the Red Line 3-4 times, bike 3-4 times, and either walk or take the Green Line for the remainder of those trips.

Also, because my commute is a lot shorter, and because I have so many more options, most of my commutes are a little off-peak. I enter the system a little later than the average Shady Grove commuter in the morning; in the evening, I usually work a lot later than the bridge-and-tunnel folks as well. I also often run errands, go to the gym, or eat out while my exurban peers are on the road.

@Jasper: I think I'd rather see a beefed up VRE and MARC instead of an extended Metro. I'd rather see Metro spend it's scarce resources expanding and improving service in the region's core. While I don't think VRE/MARC will ever be DC's RER, I'm worried that Metro can't continue to be both an S-bahn and a U-bahn and serve both the region's core and the exurbs equally well. Still, given Metro's funding situation, I suppose we'll just see more of the same, if we see anything at all.

Comment by Sage

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 13:24:44 EDT

@Alex et al.:

The intent of my earlier post was to point out that the car-centric, commuter stations (Shady Grove, Vienna, etc.) have higher peak ridership numbers than close-in, TOD stations, with the exception of Union Station. I found this, well, surprising.

To be sure, TOD-oriented stations offer more balanced transportation alternatives—bicycling, walking, bus—nevertheless, the car-centric ones farthest out had higher riderships numbers. This applies to even overall DAILY usage.

From the linked list for daily Metrorail usage in Alex B's post:

2012

Bethesda 10,888
Shady Grove 13,870

Ballston 12,042
Vienna 13,773

Comment by jh

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 13:18:48 EDT

Bethesda appears to have the most equal ratio of entrances and exits during the peak periods. In both the AM and PM, they are right around a 1:1 ratio.

Stations with entrances and exits within 10% (arbitrarily picked a number) of each other during a peak are:

Station - Time - Exits/Entrances

King Street - AM Peak - 0.91
Union Station - PM Peak - 0.92
Brookland - AM Peak - 0.92
Dupont Circle - PM Peak - 0.93
Pentagon - PM Peak - 0.93
Shaw-Howard University - PM Peak - 0.96
Tenleytown-AU - PM Peak - 0.97
Reagan Washington National Airport - PM Peak - 0.97
Bethesda - AM Peak - 1.00
Brookland - PM Peak - 1.01
Bethesda - PM Peak - 1.05
Pentagon - AM Peak - 1.07
Navy Yard - PM Peak - 1.08

Comment by tour guide

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 13:09:38 EDT

I frequently exit at Columbia Heights between 10pm and 11pm on both weekend and weekdays. The crowds are huge. Lines at the escalators. Lines at the exit turnstyle. The 14th street bus service becomes spotty by then and it is much more pleasant to wait inside for a Metro train than outside at a lonely bus stop. The additional $.15 is well worth it for both comfort and safety.

Comment by grumpy

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 13:09:11 EDT

I'm not surprised by the top 3 mid-day stations. In terms of restaurant and shopping options, Metro Center and Gallery Place offer the best destinations to go out to lunch or run an errand (plus they both serve multiple lines and are therefore a straight shot for anyone working downtown regardless of what line they work near). I was surprised that Fort Totten popped up on the last list - is it really that big of a bus hub?

Comment by Vik

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:54:25 EDT

Franconia-Springfield would be much higher if it weren't for all the slugging and success of the HOV lanes on 395.

Comment by Alex B.

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:53:13 EDT

@Sage:

It's very surprising that of the top 10 "peak" morning entry stations only one is in the District — Union Station. What does this say about walkable neighborhoods and transit?

I don't think that is surprising at all.

What it says is that walkable neighborhoods are more balanced in use, and the transit patterns reflect that.

This post looks at peak flows, and therefore the stations that rank highly are the ones that have the peak-iest passenger flows. Now, compare that total ridership throughout the day:
http://www.wmata.com/pdfs/planning/FY12_Historical_Ridership_By_Station.pdf

Columbia Heights gets 12,800 boardings per day, Vienna gets 13,700. But that usage at Columbia Heights is not solely inbound in the AM and outbound in the PM like it is at Vienna.

You'd expect the stations with the park-and-rides to rank highly in peak boardings because that's what the land use around those stations is geared towards.

Saying Bethesda is 'outclassed' by Shady Grove based on this numbers is a misinterpretation, I think.

Comment by andy2

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:51:41 EDT

@AL - yep - I had to blow it up to see it - and even then it was difficult.
Glad to know I wasn't the only one.

Comment by Matt Johnson

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:48:37 EDT

@Jack Love:
Ah. I see what you mean. I'll see what I can do.

Comment by Steve Strauss

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:47:48 EDT

Sage,

Many DC residents have good bus options to compete with Metrorail at a lower cost. Our Metrorail stations don't have 5,000 car parking garages and our height limit holds down the density even though transit's market share may be high in these DC neighborhoods.

Comment by Jack Love

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:45:18 EDT

@Matt Here's a graphic showing rider paths in 2009.
http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/4068/directional-rider-flows-on-metro/
The issue with using this data to create one is figuring out how people travel, since there are often multiple paths (like Petworth to Judiciary Sq, or PG Plaza to Dupont)."

Cool, thanks for that link... I vaguely recall it when it was first posted.

But what I was thinking about - and apologies for not being clearer - was station-size representation being proportional to entry and exit counts, not the passenger volume on individual segments.

So Union Station would be the huge blob that ate Northeast, while Arlington Cemetery might be a blip.

Comment by iaom

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:43:04 EDT

As someone who gets stuck in the lines to get out of Columbia Heights station in the evening fairly often, I'd say a lot of the people getting off there are people from other parts of the city going shopping after work too. You can always see folks coming and going with shopping bags from Target, Marshall's, Giant, etc., and heading back to the trains afterwards. Those riders combined with all the new residents moving in to the neighborhood (who of course exit and then don't go back into the system until the next day) would add up to some pretty big evening exit counts.

Comment by AWalkerInTheCity

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:42:07 EDT

sage

OTOH, Silver Spring and Pentagon City are smart growth stations, where peds combine with bus riders. And not all of the terminus stations are smart growth free - Vienna has nearby MetroWest and some slightly older TOD, Huntingon has some new development within walking distance, and Franconia has a hi rise within walking distance - and of course all get bus transfers.

That said, what this shows is that because the Park and Ride crowd tends to concentrate at a few terminus stations, it will show bigger numbers than any individual TOD focused station - esp as many of those are far from built out, or are in parts of DC where development is held back by zoning, hist preservation, and/or the height limit.

Comment by Transport.

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:30:35 EDT

@Falls Church, I looked and found some info on the Fairfax Connector site: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/connector/routes/dullesrail/

All of the Connector bus routes in Reston and Herndon are proposed to serve Wiehle. I guess that recently added canopy at WFC should have been placed elsewhere...

@AlanF, thanks for the info on Crystal City.

Comment by inlogan

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:28:39 EDT

@Falls Church
Fairfax County posted their busing plans for when the first phase of the Silver line opens. The routes will be changed to terminate at Wiehle

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/connector/routes/dullesrail/

Comment by Sage

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:25:57 EDT

It's very surprising that of the top 10 "peak" morning entry stations only one is in the District — Union Station. What does this say about walkable neighborhoods and transit? Where does Dupont fall on the list? U Street? Columbia Heights? All of these seem like candidates for busy morning usage, with the short commute downtown.

Oddly, too, Bethesda and Ballston are not listed as well on ANY of the top 10 tables. Both are considered smart growth communities and are bus hubs, yet are outclassed in numbers by Shady Grove and Vienna, respectively.

Comment by John

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:25:48 EDT

@ Chris Slatt Yet the streetacar will not serve the riders transferring to buses at Pentagon, many of whom are either price-sensitive enough to take advantage of a free bus transfer or commuting to low-wage service jobs that are off-Metro (i.e. poor people). Note also that the Pentagon is already a more popular station overall than Pentagon City.

Comment by Falls Church

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:22:44 EDT

What effect will Phase 1 of the Silver Line have on the AM entry/PM exit numbers for Vienna & WFC?

A very significant number of WFC riders come from the commuter (non-WMATA) buses that terminate at WFC. The question is whether those buses (which mostly come via the DTR -- there's an exclusive entrance/exit for buses between the DTR and WFC station) will start terminating at Reston-Wiele instead, once that station opens.

On one hand, terminating at Reston makes more sense. On the other hand, there's no way those buses can terminate there unless they're building bus bay infrastructure at Reston. Considering they just upgraded the infrastructure at WFC (adding canopies, etc.) it would probably be a waste to duplicate it at Reston.

Comment by charlie

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:22:18 EDT

At least on the orange line, I'm finding a lot of people who moved to the more outer ring -- say Ballston onwards -- are saying, f*ck it, I'm moving into DC, I can't take the metro commute anymore.

Interesting strategy for urban revitatilization. There are other amenities, of course (nightlife) but the expressed preference is bad commutes.

Comment by Matt Johnson

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:21:37 EDT

@Jack Love:
Here's a graphic showing rider paths in 2009.
http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/4068/directional-rider-flows-on-metro/

The issue with using this data to create one is figuring out how people travel, since there are often multiple paths (like Petworth to Judiciary Sq, or PG Plaza to Dupont).

Comment by Jack Love

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:18:33 EDT

Excellent work as always Matt.

Wondering now if we can get a traffic cartogram? Or how I could go about creating such a beast?

Comment by Matt Johnson

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:07:18 EDT

@AlanF:
There will be more posts analyzing the data, yes.

Comment by AlanF

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:06:03 EDT

I don't see any real surprises in these rankings. The weekday peak AM rankings for the end stations on the Virginia lines highlight that one partial solution to AM/PM peak capacity overload for the Virginia lines is to expand and improve VRE for the commuters.

@Transport, to see if BRAC has had a measurable impact on Crystal City numbers, it would be useful to compare May 2012 versus 2-3 years ago. The WMATA annual station average weekday numbers sheet does not show a drop for Crystal City through 2011.

What effect will Phase 1 of the Silver Line have on the AM entry/PM exit numbers for Vienna & WFC? I expect Wiehle Ave-Reston will draw some traffic away from Vienna and WFC, but given the drive to those stations from Reston, Sterling, north Herndon, Ashburn, probably not that much. Wiehle Ave-Reston is going to add a number of commuters who currently drive to Rosslyn and DC from the Reston-Sterling-Herndon region. Hopefully WMATA will post the May numbers every year so changes in the rankings and traffic patterns can be summarized as the Silver Line and major TOD projects open.

@Matt Johnson, any plans to post a similar summary of the peak stations for Saturdays & Sundays or combined as weekends?

Comment by Jasper

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 11:58:48 EDT

I think this map is a great point of data for the prioritization of the extension of the metro system.

Based on the business in Vienna, the Orange line desperately needs extension. Now, it's getting that more or less with the Silver Line.

Next is the Shady Grove side of the Red line.

And more or less equal are Franconia-Springfield, Huntington and New Carrolton. For those first two, things are moving (way too slow). I am not aware of a push for extension of the Orange line in MD, although the Purple line could alleviate some of the problems there.

The downtown numbers are more than sufficient motivation to expand the system downtown as well.

Does anybody know what the maximum number of people is that a station can handle (per hour)? And how close we are to that number at these busy stations?

Comment by Matt Johnson

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 11:55:17 EDT

@jh:
You are correct. I grabbed data from the wrong table.

Crystal City ranks #16 for PM Peak entries with 5,201.7 entries and #18 for PM Peak exits with 4,215.6 exits.

Comment by jh

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 11:51:12 EDT

@Matt Johnson

Those are the Midday entrances and exits for Crystal. The PM Peak entrances is 5202 and exits is 4315.

Comment by Nick

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 11:49:56 EDT

"Columbia Heights and Fort Totten are both stations that haven't appeared in other top 10 counts, so their inclusion is somewhat surprising."

Columbia Heights has a lot of young people that get home a bit later than the standard PM rush period (conjecture).

Fort Totten is a working class area and there are a lot of bus transfers there. My guess is that workers who work later shifts (say, 11-7 or 12-8) go to Ft. Totten and go home later. Fort Totten is not your standard 9-5.

Comment by kinverson

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 11:46:41 EDT

Columbia Heights and Fort Totten are both stations that haven't appeared in other top 10 counts, so their inclusion is somewhat surprising.

Columbia Heights doesn't surprise me at all, considering the nightlife and new housing in the area, but what is up with Fort Totten?

Comment by AWalkerInTheCity

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 11:38:35 EDT

@payton

almost everyone boarding at Pentagon in the AM is transferring from a bus (except for folks getting off an overnight shift at the Pentagon) there are no residences or non DoD parking thats closer to there than to Pentagon City.

I dont know how much of Pentagon City boarding is bus transfers

Comment by Payton

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 11:34:09 EDT

I would hazard that a good many passengers traveling through Pentagon and Pentagon City are people transferring to 395/PikeRide buses; those stations serve both major local destinations and as "terminals" of a sort.

Interesting to see that the Blue/Orange main line's peak downtown demand is spread among more stations than the Red's. That, plus the tight conditions at Union Station and Gallery Place, might contribute to Red Line riders' greater perception of crowding on the system.

And just as a friendly reminder to the always-resourceful Mr. Johnson, 8% of men (including me) are red-green colorblind and can't easily distinguish between the two colors -- so please consider using a different pair of colors (or outlines, shading, patterns, etc.) to distinguish between categories. Thanks!

Comment by Alex B.

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 11:30:07 EDT

Surprised to see how low Franconia-Springfield is on the list for commuters;

Don't just look at the rank, look at the tables.

For AM entries, there are three big stations with 9k+ entries: Union Station, Vienna, and Shady Grove. Then there is a big gap, followed by a bunch of stations in the 6k range.

Comment by Matt Johnson

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 11:24:27 EDT

Regarding Crystal City, just because it's not in the top 10 does not mean that it's not a busy station.

For the AM Peak, Crystal City is #16 in entries and #16 in exits. For the PM Peak, Crystal City is #15 in entries and #18 in exits.

For context: At Crystal City, there are 4,105.1 AM Peak entries and 4,911.5 AM Peak exits. There are 2,757.0 PM Peak entries and 2,176.6 PM Peak exits.

Comment by AL

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 11:22:47 EDT

Just a note from a colorblind reader: The colors used for "rank by entry" and "rank by exit" are almost indistinguishable for me unless I view the full-size images.

Comment by Transport.

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 11:20:20 EDT

I wonder if the BRAC relocations from the past few years have had a negative impact on passenger counts at Crystal City Station. If I recall correctly, a lot of the DOD offices were BRAC'ed to not so transit friendly locations, such as Ft. Belvoir and the now massive Mark Center complex along I-395 at Seminary Road.

Surprised to see how low Franconia-Springfield is on the list for commuters; not surprised at all by Vienna. The Silver Line will probably knock West Falls Church out of the top ten when service begins.

Comment by Jack Love

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 11:13:06 EDT

I too was struck by the absence of Crystal City. There is a study currently in progress that would open up the station to a second entrance, close to the corner of 15th St and Crystal Drive. This certainly doesn't add a lot of momentum to that effort.

While the station feels busy and crowded, it obviously sees nowhere near the usage as that encountered at Pentagon City, which gets a bump from the retail presence.

What it does show is the need to improve the flow at Union.

Comment by Chris Slatt

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 10:29:50 EDT

I'm intrigued by Pentagon City's presence and Crystal City's absence. It certainly presents a problem for the Streetcar detractor's cries of "Nobody wants to go to Pentagon City!"