Transport America Redux

[FDW]

I don't see a subway connection between DC and Baltimore. However, the reason isn't so much a lack of investment...it's more that you're likely to see one of the railroads (B&O, Pennsy, etc.) up frequencies and/or improve the alignments on the existing services.

I would think otherwise.

However, this does raise an interesting thought: Could you get a development corridor paralleling the main rail lines running from Baltimore to DC? Also, it does seem plausible that you could eventually get an integrated alignment (look at the Metro running right next to the RF&P main line these days), but I think that project might get shelved.

There already is steady corridor of development between the two cities IOTL, so yeah, I assume the same case ITTL.

Another bit of food for thought: Could more Metro lines be oriented towards Washington Union Station? IRL, only the Red Line runs through there...would it be possible to slide one or two of the other lines there and have Union Station displace one of the other main junctions (preferably including the Dulles-serving line) so as to make transfers easier?

Well, given that DC will have more metro lines than OTL in my plan, there will most definitely be more than one serving the station.

 

[Bureaucromancer]

I have to agree that in DC/Baltimore at least the prospect of mainlines torpedoing the metro just isn't that strong. In the time that these thing were being built a pretty big part of building a heavy rail metro was prestige. Beyond that, while there will very likely be more service between DC and Baltimore the mainlines will almost certainly see more value in higher speed, longer distance services. I'd think that the Baltimore subway will get to BWI quite early, while the Washington metro won't be extended for some time, a good part of the delay being arguments about the value of duplicating the mainlines. That said, North American transit politics being (more or less) what they are I rather think that the combination of Metro's multi state governance and the apparent attractiveness of a connection (whether it is REALLY valuable or not to someone being asked to vote on a ballot measure or a politician asked to authorize funds with no real expertise such a line is easy to argue for) Metro to BWI will happen eventually (there are serious calls for it now OTL, and earlier will really only make it more likely. Once you have both heavy rail systems there the odds really are for a direct connection.

As far as Union Station goes I'd think that the metro lines will probably look more or less as they do OTL, though with more lines total. That leaves a real potential for a separate Blue Line and something like this idea's (http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/627/wmata-fantasy-combo-map/) Brown line hitting Union. More generally I'd expect Metro to eventually end up with tunnels (as opposed to routes, not really sure how they'd end up breaking down actual service at this point) amounting to a Blue/Orange Line that doesn't dip south downtown, and a second north south route across the core east of the Yellow/Green tunnels. The Red line may also end up with the base of its U further south if the network design includes these lines from the beginning (or even as two separate and parallel lines depending on how everything shakes out).

So short answer yes, there will very likely be more service to Union Station; I doubt it will become the centre of the network by any means, and there are a lot of variations on how it could work out, but the single line of OTL seems to be about the absolute minimum any TL with a subway in DC could see (considering that the Red line was the first line to open I would think even a less extensive system would be comparable at Union).

 

[FDW]

snip

That map includes a number of the ideas I had for DC, the rest of my concepts come from this article from The Transport Politic here and few other articles from Greater Greater Washington that involved around a new Yellow and Red Line Branches.

 

[Bureaucromancer]

Ok, first and foremost I'm bumping this to let people know that I'm working on part II of my Detroit bit again... It's length got kind of out of hand before which discouraged me, then it was into finals and all (but hey, I graduated, so whatever) but a new attempt is coming and I have a much better idea where its headed this time.

That aside though, I was wondering if we might want to consider integrating something like https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=241828 into the revival of American cities. Militarily and politically there are some interesting implications as well, especially if it DOES let the Soviet Union lurch along a few more years, but I'm particularly intrigued by the idea of the Electrovette (and really, I'm not trying to make a GM wank here... it just seems to keep ending up back there somehow).

 

[FDW]

Ok, first and foremost I'm bumping this to let people know that I'm working on part II of my Detroit bit again... It's length got kind of out of hand before which discouraged me, then it was into finals and all (but hey, I graduated, so whatever) but a new attempt is coming and I have a much better idea where its headed this time.

That aside though, I was wondering if we might want to consider integrating something like https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=241828 into the revival of American cities. Militarily and politically there are some interesting implications as well, especially if it DOES let the Soviet Union lurch along a few more years, but I'm particularly intrigued by the idea of the Electrovette (and really, I'm not trying to make a GM wank here... it just seems to keep ending up back there somehow).

Then I shall get back to this as well.

 

[Dumitru Ivanov]

That map includes a number of the ideas I had for DC, the rest of my concepts come from this article from The Transport Politic here and few other articles from Greater Greater Washington that involved around a new Yellow and Red Line Branches.

Quite a fair point. Unfortunately most of the ideas have never been applied in the US or Canada.
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Dumitru
https://www.cargolution.com/en/transport/