Day 5,500 on the Metro: fifteen years after Washington's Metro Rail system went into operation, some of the major players recall how they helped to bring plans for a world-class system to reality - Washington D.C

Railway Age, May, 1991 by Luther S. Miller

That was the opening paragraph of a story entitled "Day I on the Washington Metro" which appeared in the April 12, 1976, issue of Railway Age.

Fifteen years later, on approximately Day 5,500 of Metro operation, let it be recorded that Washingtonians are still in love with their subway. As long-time WMATA director Carlton Sickles recently observed, "The honeymoon isn't over."

On opening day in 1976, 52,000 of the curious-believers and nonbelievers alike-rode the initial 4.6-mile, five-station route of the Metro, nearly six times as many first-day riders as the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) had expected. Beginner's luck, muttered those who had opposed construction of the rail system.

Today, more than half a million riders a day, all of them believers, routinely use the Metro, which has grown to 73 miles and 63 stations served by a fleet of 660 rail cars, a total investment of $7 billion. Construction continues toward an ultimate 103 mile system. This year three more small segments are being opened; by 1993 new construction now under way will bring the system to 89.5 miles; after that comes the final sprint, for which Congress has already authorized more than $1 billion as the federal share.

For those who keep tabs on such things, this year's activity will include: May 11-opening of the first Green Line segment, from Gallery Place-Chinatown to U Street-Cardozo, with stations at Mt. Vernon Square-UDC and Shaw-Howard University; June 15-extension of die Blue Line from King Street to Van Dorn Station; late 1991-extension of the Green Line from L'Enfant Plaza to Anacostia, with stations at Waterfront and the Navy Yard.

In late 1993, WMATA will open a transfer station at Fort Totten and four new stations on the Green Line: West Hyattsville, Prince George's Plaza, College Park, and Greenbelt. This will bring the system to 89.5 miles and 74 stations. Construction of the 13 remaining miles is to begin in FY 1992.

* The LBJ mandate. By all accounts, this is a world-class transit system-which is exactly what President Lyndon B. Johnson asked for in the famous letter that he sent on Feb. 22, 1966, to Walter J. McCarter, former general manager of the Chicago Transit Authority who had come out of retirement to head what was then called the National Capital Transportation Agency (now WMATA).

President Johnson gave McCarter a sweeping mandate:

"The Congress, in enacting the National Capital Transportation Act of 1965, authorized construction of a rail rapid transit system that eventually will be expanded to serve the entire National Capital Region. Transportation is a critical problem for all major urban centers, and what is done here will have significance far beyond this region.

"While we seek to resolve problems of moving people and goods within the congested National Capital area, our concerns must not be confined to the utilitarian requirements of transportation alone. We must take this opportunity to make our Capital a more attractive and inspiring place in which to live and work. The Congress has already enacted legislation to assure that beautification is a major consideration in the development of our highway system. The same concern must guide development of plans for mass transit.

"In designing the system for the Nation's Capital, I want you to search worldwide for concepts and ideas that can be used to make this system attractive as well as useful. It should be designed to set an example for the Nation, and to take its place among the most attractive in the world. In selecting the architects for this system, you must seek those who can best combine utility with good urban design. As you search for the new and innovative, you must also take advantage of the experience of other cities."

The story of how this Presidential mandate was carried out-how it was translated into a transit system that fully lives up to the LBJ vision-is a drama with a cast of thousands: planners, engineers, architects, construction workers, and above all, legislators who stubbornly refused to cut off the money when the going got rough and when Presidents less friendly to transit than LBJ occupied the White House.

To get a feeling for Metro as it exists today, and Metro as it was conceived and brought to full flower over the last quarter century, Railway Age recently talked with some of the major players.

One question that kept coming up: Is the Metro really worth the billions that have been poured into it?

* Costs vs. benefits. WMATA has a friendly constituency in Congress, many of whose members use the rail system every day to get to and from work. But while no recent Presidents of the United States have been known to ride Metro, they have not been slow to criticize it, and in die interest of helping to balance the budget they have tried repeatedly-and unsuccessfully-to truncate the system.

To these critics, WNUTA's assistant general manager for rail, Fady Bassily, points out that the rail system is recovering 76% of its costs from revenues-"the highest of any major system in the U.S." These revenues come almost entirely from fares and advertising. Very little comes from joint development, which has been left to the private sector. Bassily believes that if WMATA directly recaptured the benefits of the economic growth and development it has spurred-as do many transit systems around the world-it would pay its way handsomely.