Washington Metro

[Joe323]

Well I got to ride on the Washington Metro today.  It's everything the NY subway should be Clean fast and comfortable.

[jonathan]

My family and I use the Metro frequently.  Sure beats trying to drive and park in the DC area.

The other advantage is many of the lines run parallel to the Northeast Corridor.  Many foamer opportunities...

Regards,

Jonathan

[mhampton]

I've ridden both Metro and the NYC subway and both are light-years ahead of what's in my area - nothing.  Our only mass transit is a bus system that I think needs to have its routes drastically altered.  The city fathers are considering a light rail system, but that's not good for riding yet.

[mlrr]

In NYC Transit's defense, it was primarily built by individual, private companies which had different vehicular specs based on their tunnel designs.  These were later consolidated and taken over by the government but not before the system was allowed to deteriorate when vehicles were supposed to "replace transit" during the post-war boom.

DC Metro is great but it had some advantages to its construction, namely; it's the nation's capitol so it is going to get favoritism when it comes to government funding for capital construction as well as expediency.  It was also constructed when it was apparent that cars alone would not be sufficient to improve transportation in major metropolitan areas. 

One thing that still has DC Metro beet by NYC Transit is that there is WAY more redundancy built into the NYC transit system.  There are still options to get where you want to go using the subway system.  DC METRO's redundancy mostly occurs closer to downtown (as the redundancy concept in todays transportation planning dictates).  But once outside the core, you're pretty much screwed if something happens along your line.  The stations in DC are also located in odd places at times.  The station names can be misleading as it will be named after a certain place/center/landmark, but the actual destination is pushing 1/2 mile.

I could go on but I'll save the rest for my co-workers, lol.

I still like both systems.  Both have there strengths and weaknesses but can be attributed to construction at different times, generations even.

[Joe323]

As I recall at one point wasn't the track gauge different for the IRT BMT and IND Lines.

I tend to agree that some of the difference between the 2 subways is related to age as well as the size of the system (The NYC subway is larger) and mlrr looking at the metro map it does appear to be less redundant then the NYC system The Metro Map looks like a series of spokes with a downtown hub there is no wheel so to speak circling the spokes.

[mlrr]

As I recall at one point wasn't the track gauge different for the IRT BMT and IND Lines.

I tend to agree that some of the difference between the 2 subways is related to age as well as the size of the system (The NYC subway is larger) and mlrr looking at the metro map it does appear to be less redundant then the NYC system The Metro Map looks like a series of spokes with a downtown hub there is no wheel so to speak circling the spokes.

Very good observation!  The more modern subway/METRO systems (majority of which have only been partially built like in my current city of Baltimore, LA and San Fransisco to name a few) were planned as a radial system providing access for surrounding suburban areas.  Both DC and Baltimore are somewhat radial in nature and so it's no surprise that you have spokes in the system like you observed.