Mid-Atlantic Mass Transit

by Jim Parsons

Though not immune from funding problems, the Mid-Atlantic's major transit agencies appear to be making more headway than their colleagues on the highway side.

The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation will start construction in December on the 23-mi. extension of Metro's Orange Line to Loudoun County. The DRPT is leading the project with the assistance of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority, VDOT, federal agencies and local governments. This spring, Dulles Transit Partners, which is owned by engineering and construction firms Bechtel Infrastructure, based in San Francisco, and Washington Group International, based in Boise, had completed preliminary engineering work for the extension's first phase, which will extend Metro service from the existing East Falls Church Station to Reston.

Estimated at $2 billion, the project will include the technically challenging aspects of integrating the line into the densely developed and geologically problematic Tysons Corner area.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority will play a prominent role as the extension makes its way to Washington Dulles International Airport and beyond. In March, Virginia transferred control of the Dulles Toll Road to MWAA, which will use toll revenues to fund the Metrorail project and for roadway maintenance and improvements. Plans call for the extension to be complete by 2015, with WMATA slated to own and operate the rail line.

Response and renewal Meanwhile, WMATA is focusing on routine track maintenance work, adding more canopies at underground station entrances and two alternatives for a new parking garage at the Glenmont station at the Red Line terminus that would add up to 1,200 parking spots.

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With its $150 million double-tracking of Baltimore's light-rail line completed in February, the Maryland Transit Authority is taking a long-range look at options for bringing transit service to a 10.5-mi. east-west cross-city corridor and a 4-mi. corridor from Johns Hopkins University to northeastern Baltimore, known as the Red and Green lines. MTA's studies will weigh light rail, subway, enhanced bus and bus rapid transit options.

Facility upgrades have been the priority for the Southeast Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, with the $63 million renovation of Suburban Station in Philadelphia slated to be complete this summer.

"This is the first significant renovation since the station was opened in 1929," said Terry Heiser, SEPTA's senior project manager for design and construction.

Next on SEPTA's facility upgrade agenda is City Hall station, scheduled to begin in the fall of 2009. The project will completely modernize the station's systems, safety and access networks, including improved connections to the Suburban and 15th Street stations.