The first of the 7000-series rail cars has arrived at the yard at Greenbelt. Dan Malouf has the pic.
Category: Transit in D.C.
Silver Line progress report: 32
Sandbox John gave me the tip that signage was in place at the Wiehle station. The typography appears to be a mix of the heavier-weight Helvetica that has been used in the system from the start (over the station entrance) and a lighter weight on the pylon. I’m also seeing this fresh-looking lighter weight in new platform location signs along the Blue and Orange Lines downtown; the signs set aside empty space for the Silver Line route information to be added when the Line goes live.
John also reports:
The north end of the pedestrian bridge at the Wiehle-Reston East station is a little interesting. It just ends at the corner of the plaza of the Comstock Partners Reston Station property. No sloping canopy like at the bottom of the escalators at the entrance pavilions. There also is no entrance pylon marking its purpose. Adjacent to the end of the pedestrian bridge is a set of stairs that descend to the loading dock access road to the buildings that have not been built yet. Not sure why it is there, best guess is it there to allow access to the north side of the station from the location where the fire trucks would connect fire hoses from the fire hydrant to the dry standpipe.
Silver Line progress report: 31
Metro has released a map with Phase 1 Silver Line stations marked. Whiskers win out over pills.
Tortoise and hare
It’s a race between the District’s H Street/Benning Road streetcar line and Metro’s Silver Line as to which one will go into revenue service first. The streetcar looks to have the, um, inside track, with passengers riding perhaps at the end of the year. Martin Di Caro has video of a test run.
Silver Line progress report: 30
Sand Box John keeps us up to date:
Wiehle-Reston East is mostly done. Finishing work was being done in the area of the south entrance pavilion, Reston Station Metro Comstock Partners property south of the station has begun work to ready their project accessible to the north pedestrian bridge.
Silver Line progress report: 29
A sneak peak at the reconfigured Metro map when Silver Line service opens (December is still promised).
82 to Branchville
Matt Johnson annotates a video, from film shot in the late 1950s, of a streetcar trip from downtown to Branchville in Prince Georges County.
Silver Line progress report: 28
Karen Goff recaps the quarterly progress report for Silver Line construction, as presented by Pat Nowakowski. The contractor completion date for Phase 1 is set for 29 August, with the work at the West Falls Church yards to finish on 20 December. The new 8000-series rail cars will not start arriving until 2014; service will begin with the existing rolling stock.
The contract for Phase 2 is expected to be awarded this May.
Silver Line progress report: 27
Take it away, Sand Box John:
The feeler car is now located in the Falls Church Yard. This could mean that WMATA is close to making the first run on the route under third rail power. Word has it this move should happen before the middle of December.
At least the train goes to Airport
Yuck. Ersatz D.C. Metro system with a nonsensical map and extra helpings of brown and muddy orange in the color scheme.
The producers of TV’s Leverage slapped some signs on a Portland light rail station and rolling stock to make it look part of the Metro system—excuse me, the District of Columbia Subway Transit System. Perhaps the silliest sign is the one posted in the Washington Park station (the only fully underground station in that system): it says “DC Subway.” How many signs do you see inside a subway station that tell you, yes, you are indeed in a station of the system you are traveling on? Fox forbid that I should step out of a Chicago Red Line car at Jackson and need the reassurance that I’m not, in fact, somewhere on Boston’s T?
Silver Line progress report: 26
It’s been a while since I photographed the construction site at the future Wiehle Avenue (temporary) terminal. The building definitely resembles a station at this point. See how nice and clean all that gravel ballast is.
Work for the pedestrian overpasses is also progressing nicely, and the canopy over the west end of the platform is in place.
Silver Line progress report: 25
Matt Johnson checks out the hard mockup of the new 7000 series cars.
Silver Line progress report: 24
V-DOT has released a set of aerial photos of the line’s silver band of concrete and steel looping through Tysons Corner.
Silver Line progress report: 23
The last section of aerial structure that will carry the Silver Line through Tysons Corner is complete, as Armando Trull reports. Farewell to the blue and yellow horizontal crane that we’ve come to be friends with.
They didn’t ask Leta about the tile
Aaron Myers remembers the 17-foot-long mock Metro station built in 1968 as a prototype for testing materials and construction techniques.