Yellow Line (Washington Metro)

Infobox rail line
name = color box|#WMATA color|Yellow Yellow Line


image_width =
caption =
type = Rapid transit
system = Washington Metro
status =
locale = Fairfax County, Alexandria, and Arlington, VA
Washington, D.C.
start = Huntington (south)
end = Fort Totten (north)
Mt Vernon Sq/7th St-Convention Center (north—peak hours only)
stations = 12
ridership =
open = April 30, 1983
close =
owner =
operator = Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
character = At-grade, elevated, and underground
stock =
linelength =
tracklength =
notrack =
gauge = RailGauge|sg
el = Third rail
speed =
elevation =

WMATA Yellow Line

The Yellow Line of the Washington Metro consists of twelve rapid transit stations from Huntington to Mt Vernon Sq/7th St-Convention Center. The line is extended to Fort Totten station during off-peak hours, as part of an 18-month trial program that began on December 31, 2006. The line starts in Fairfax County, Virginia, crosses the Capital Beltway, goes through Alexandria and Arlington, crosses the Potomac River via the Fenwick Bridge, and continues north in the District of Columbia as far as M Street NW, at the entrance to the Washington Convention Center.

The line shares tracks with the Green Line from the convention center northward to Fort Totten during off-peak hours. It is the quick link between downtown Washington and National Airport, and shares nearly all of its track with the Green and Blue Lines. The Yellow Line has only two stations of its own at the southern end of the line, and only two sections of track of its own – the section at the end of the line, and the section between the L'Enfant Plaza and Pentagon stations, including the Fenwick Bridge.

Yellow Line needs ten 6 car trains to run at peak capacity. [ [http://wmata.com/about/board_gm/FY2009_Approved_Budget.pdf page 80] ]

History

Service on the Yellow Line began on April 30, 1983, adding Archives–Navy Memorial–Penn Quarter to the system and linking the two already-built stations of Gallery Pl-Chinatown and Pentagon with a bridge across the Potomac River. It was extended beyond National Airport by four stations to Huntington on December 17, 1983, the first station outside of the Capital Beltway. When the Green Line link to U St/African-Amer Civil War Memorial/Cardozo opened on May 11, 1991, it acted as an extension of the Yellow Line until the southern Green Line branch was completed. When Green Line service began, the Yellow Line was truncated at Mt Vernon Sq/7th St-Convention Center, where a pocket track exists to relay trains.

The Yellow Line was originally planned to follow a slightly different route. The plan would have sent Yellow Line trains to Franconia-Springfield, with Blue Line trains serving Huntington. This was changed due to a shortage of rail cars at the time of the completion of the line to Huntington. Because fewer rail cars were required to operate Yellow Line service than would be required to run Blue Line service out to Huntington – due to the Yellow Line's shorter route – the line designations were switched. Currently, the Yellow Line operates to Franconia–Springfield on July 4, as part of Metro's special service pattern on that day.

Extension to Fort Totten

In 2006, Metro board member Jim Graham and D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams proposed extending Yellow Line service to Fort Totten or even to Greenbelt, which was the originally planned northern terminus for the line. Their proposal did not involve construction of any new track, because either extension would run along the same route as the existing Green Line and would thus relieve crowding on that line. Suburban members of the board initially resisted the proposal. Through a compromise that also increased service on the Red Line, on April 20, 2006 the WMATA board approved a Yellow Line extension to the Fort Totten station during off-peak hours. An 18-month pilot program began on December 31, 2006, at a cost of $5.75 million to the District of Columbia. [cite press release |publisher=Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority |date=April 20, 2006 |url=http://www.wmata.com/about/met_news/PressReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=1187 |title=Yellow Line to extend to Fort Totten; off-peak Red Line turn backs at Grosvenor to end. |accessdate=2007-03-22]

List of stations

The following stations are along the line, from south to north.

Stations served during all operating hours
* Huntington
* Eisenhower Avenue
* King Street (Joins Blue Line on same track)
* Braddock Road
* Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport
* Crystal City
* Pentagon City
* Pentagon (Blue Line diverges)
* "Crosses Potomac River via Fenwick Bridge"
* L'Enfant Plaza (Transfer station for the Blue, Orange, and planned Silver Lines, and joins Green Line on same track)
* Archives–Navy Memorial–Penn Quarter
* Gallery Pl-Chinatown (Transfer station for the Red Line)
* Mt Vernon Sq/7th St-Convention Center. Transfer station for the Green Line during peak hours. (Yellow Line trains terminate on a pocket track north of the station during peak hours.)

Additional stations served during off-peak hours (Monday-Friday 9:30AM-3PM and 7PM-closing, all day Saturday and Sunday, and selected holidays.)
* Shaw-Howard Univ
* U St/African-Amer Civil War Memorial/Cardozo
* Columbia Heights
* Georgia Ave-Petworth
* Fort Totten (Transfer station for the Red Line and the Green Line). Yellow Line trains cross back over to the southbound tracks via the crossover just north of Fort Totten station.

The final two trains which depart from Huntington before afternoon peak continue north beyond Fort Totten on to Greenbelt and service the remaining Green Line stations. [citation |last=Thomson |first=Robert |title=The Way to Expand Transit |newspaper=Washington Post |pages=page C02 |year=2007 |date=January 14, 2007 |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/13/AR2007011301016.html |accessdate=2007-03-23] Additional Yellow Line trains may continue passenger service to Greenbelt during off-peak and weekends in order to stage them for Green Line service or for storage at the Greenbelt rail yard. Likewise, trains departing from Greenbelt may be signed as Yellow line trains and travel to Huntington. [citation |title=Metrorail Timetable: Weekend |date=May 26, 2007 |year=2007 |url=http://www.wmata.com/timetables/rail/Weekends.pdf |accessdate=2008-09-25] [citation |title=Metrorail Timetable: Weekday Evening |date=April 14, 2008 |year=2008 |url=http://www.wmata.com/timetables/rail/weekday_evenings.pdf |accessdate=2008-09-25]

See also

* List of Washington Metro stations

References

External links

* world.nycsubway.org: [http://world.nycsubway.org/us/washdc/yellow.html Yellow Line]