I recently spent a lot of time in downtown DC with two toddlers, and the headways were absolutely amazing. Never waited for more than 3 minutes for a train. Almost felt like the US was a fully developed country.<p>I would love nothing more than to move my family to such a situation full time. I have immense thanks for the architect and executors of the DC metro, and whatever operational genius has restored amazing service levels post-Covid, when most transit agencies have anemic service and are now in a death spiral.
> <i>Knowing that the project could easily get bogged down in bureaucratic delays and debates from WMATA’s board, the manager of WMATA, Jackson Graham (a former brigadier general of the Corps of Engineers) adopted a cynical, realist strategy of project management:<p>"...we want to get as much under construction as we possibly can, so it would cost more to cover it up than it would to finish it. Always we wanted to give the board…an unacceptable alternative, so that we would take them down the road we wanted to go. If we hadn’t done that, everything would have bogged down into bureaucratic debate, and quibbling, and so forth that goes on all the time."</i><p>...<p>> <i>But Metro proved hard to kill. The financing bust inspired another round of studies, but these tended to find that paring down the system based on what was already under construction was surprisingly difficult. The individual lines were “like colored wires on a B-movie time bomb: clip one and the whole thing explodes”:<p>"Deleting any route would provoke the affected jurisdiction to demand tens of millions of dollars back from the Authority, with interest. It was easier for WMATA to keep borrowing, especially since each cut would only save a small percentage of the system cost."</i><p>Looks like the general's plan actually worked!
> The second period of subway building began in the 1960s. The downsides of the car and the infrastructure it required were becoming apparent, and some cities turned to subways to address the problems of traffic congestion. Metros built in this period include Atlanta’s MARTA in 1979, San Francisco’s BART, and Los Angeles’ Metro Rail.<p>Miami's Metrorail deserves a mention:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrorail_(Miami-Dade_County)" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrorail_(Miami-Dade_County)</a>
I live in DC and have travelled to Asia, Europe, and South America. The dc metro pales in comparison. All other ones were cheaper, had more frequent trains, and were more modern. Asia and Europe also had more extensive coverage. Still even a worse metro is a lot better than driving on the beltway and I feel fortunate that it exists.
"The Architect of the Capitol, George Stewart, wouldn’t allow a station to be built under the Capitol, requiring it to be moved a few blocks away. The University of Maryland rejected a proposed station on campus, forcing “a complicated redesign that later caused commotion in College Park.”<p>The most difficult government agency proved to be the National Park Service. WMATA had originally planned many station entrances in the city’s downtown parks, like Farragut Square, McPherson Square, and the National Mall.<p>A planned station at Farragut Square that would have required moving the statue of David Farragut was rejected, resulting in two separate stations – Farragut North and Farragut West – just a few hundred feet apart."<p>This part is great, answers some questions I've had for a long time. Though there's at least one mystery unanswered: why is the Woodley Park station nearly half a mile from the Zoo?
Wish us luck. Metro has a projected $750m budget shortfall next year. Very unclear what's going to happen next. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2023/09/26/dc-metro-budget-cuts/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2023/09/26/dc-...</a>