theater, natural history and conservation, the utterly mundane, and Etruscan 8-tracks
So, um, I was apparently the first Twitterite to notice that the pylons at the reconstructed Van Dorn Street station were borked.
In Metro’s defense, as Jordan Pascale reports,
“… yesterday’s media tour preceded Metro inspections that would have flagged and corrected this issue,” Metro spokesperson Ian Jannetta said in an email.
Barring new hitches, MWAA has set 16 July 2020 as the opening date for Phase II, according to reporting by Max Smith. WMATA is noncommittal on the date.
The irritating canard about Metro service to Georgetown, exploded one more time: “How the urban legend of Georgetown residents halting a Metro stop came to be,” by Topher Mathews.
I researched the archives of the Washington Post and the Washington Star, looking for contemporaneous mentions of local opposition to a Metro stop in Georgetown. Throughout the period of the planning of Metro (i.e. the 1960s through to the system’s opening in 1976), I could not find one example.
Phase II may not be in revenue service until this time next year. Quality control has been a sticking point.
More bumps in the road for Phase 2. Lori Aratani has the report.
Earlier this week, test trains began running on the section of track from Innovation Center to west of the airport, as reported by Max Smith.
ICYMI: An archive of conceptual designs for Metro’s system map by Massimo Vignelli.
Defects in precast concrete panels at five of the six stations under construction threaten to delay a 2020 opening of Phase 2 of the Silver Line.
Lori Aratani has an update on Phase 2: design and construction 67% complete, and the project is two years from “substantial completion.” Come Phase 2 in 2020, I will miss boarding at the terminus in the morning, but presumably I will be jostling with fewer people on the platform for a seat.
Don’t go up that green ramp, #1115!
The first of Metro’s 1000-series cars is taken out of service, to live on a nice farm.
This week, crews will be blasting rock at the future site of the Loudoun County yards near the Silver Line terminus. Boom.
Meanwhile, on 15 March, Metro will start removing revenue-service 1000-series cars from the line and shipping them off for scrap.
“It’s certainly the end of an era, no question,” [spokesman Dan] Stessel said. “They have a distinctive character to them that is unique to Metro. Even that high-pitched squeal they make when they’re braking — that’s unique to the 1Ks.” (Here, Stessel emitted a high-pitched squeal, then chuckled.) “That sound you hear as the train pulls into the station and is slowing down, that squeak: No other cars make that sound.”
Dan Malouff rides the H Street streetcar on opening day.
Sand Box John gives us an update on Phase 2 construction.
Metro has announced that the first train made up of 7000-series cars will be in passenger service on 14 April, on the Blue Line.