Metro to consider splitting Silver Line, running Yellow trains to Greenbelt again
Documents released Monday show Metro is considering splitting the Silver Line in two east of Stadium Armory, as well as once again, sending some Yellow Line trains to Greenbelt.
One proposal Metro is exploring is to send half of all Silver Line trains to New Carrollton instead of ending all of them at downtown Largo.
Metro said by adding some Silver Line service in addition to the Orange Line service that already serves New Carrollton, riders on the section of the Orange Line east of Stadium-Armory would see trains arrive every 6-8 minutes instead of every 10-12 minutes. The possible change would also allow riders in that area to go straight to places like Dulles Airport and Tysons without transferring trains.
However, on the portion of the Blue/Silver lines east of Stadium-Armory, service would decrease. Trains would only arrive every 6-8 minutes instead of every 5-6 minutes as is the case now.
Another proposal Metro is exploring is to once again run some Yellow Line trains to Greenbelt. Currently, Yellow Line trains have a "turnback" at Mt. Vernon Square and don't run any further north. Metro is considering running half of all Yellow trains to Greenbelt and continuing to end service for the other half at Mt. Vernon Square. All Yellow Line trains used to go to Greenbelt, but Metro moved the end of the line to Mt. Vernon Square in 2023.
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The Metro documents released Monday indicate Metro is exploring these ideas as part of an effort to make the best use of the resources it has. Metro is hoping to help relieve overcrowding and decrease travel times by making changes during the busiest times and in the busiest areas of the rail system.
"These are concepts we are analyzing in preparation for the [WMATA] General Manager's budget proposal next month," Metro spokesperson Tierra Hill wrote in an email to 7News Monday.
Metro's board of directors is scheduled to meet Thursday and talk about the possible changes.
Also, although Metro said its long-term budget still looks dire, new documents released Monday show that in the short term, the budget is doing better than expected.
One reason - rail riders are paying more often instead of evading the fare.
Although rail ridership is up just 7% versus a year ago, the amount of money Metro is collecting from rail riders is up 33%.
However, besides less fare evasion, a fare hike is also partially the reason for that increase in revenue.
Despite that fare hike, on Metrobuses it's the opposite story: ridership is up 12%, but revenue is only up 6% as many riders continue to fare evade.
