This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
6/19/2019
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) earlier this week announced the launch of a two-year study of potential improvements to the Blue, Orange and Silver (BOS) lines.
The BOS lines all share a single set of tracks between the Rosslyn Station tunnel and the Anacostia River, creating a bottleneck that limits the number of trains that can cross between Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, WMATA officials said in a press release.
With the current configuration, a disruption on one line can have a ripple effect on all three lines, officials said.
The study's first phase will assess key issues and trends and document why improvements to the Blue, Orange, and Silver lines are necessary. Subsequent phases will address the development and evaluation of alternatives, as well as an analysis of costs and benefits, with recommendation of a preferred alternative expected to occur by fall 2020.
Ultimately, the study will identify and analyze a range of potential alternatives before recommending a preferred alternative to move forward with federal environmental review, full design and competition for federal funding.
Over the next two years, WMATA will engage the community, stakeholders and transit experts to gather feedback and make recommendations.