Community Corner

Could Georgetown Get a Metro Station?

Metro's Momentum proposal includes a possible tunnel under M Street in Georgetown.

Metro's Momentum strategic plan includes a locally significant possibility: a metro line under Georgetown's M Street.

The Momentum plan offers a variety of potential options to achieve strategic goals like reducing congestion, maximizing capacity and improving efficiency for a growing DC region.

One of these tentative solutions would involve building a tunnel under the Potomac River between Rosslyn and Georgetown. The goal is to separate the Orange and Blue lines, which currently share a river crossing.

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According to the momentum report, a "tunnel would provide additional east-west capacity and create a new Blue Line alignment through Rosslyn to
Georgetown and along M Street NW to Thomas Circle."

Find out what's happening in Georgetownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Note, however, a tunnel does not necessarily mean a station.

Tom Harrington, the report's author, told The Georgetown Current that the tunnels are drawn as arrows and without suggesting station locations.

“The bottom line is, at this stage, we’re talking about the need to separate the two lines,” Harrington said.

Separating the Blue and Orange Lines is the priority, not necessarily a Georgetown metro station.

Georgetown has long been the subject of an urban legend that residents stopped the Metro from coming to the neighborhood to keep out the riffraff.

Though the myth has been frequently debunked—the bedrock beneath Georgetown proved too difficult and expensive to dig through for a tunnel—Georgetowners might have the opportunity to do away with the notion once and for all. Metro could come to Georgetown.

Should it? Where to?

Jack Evans told The Georgetown Current that he'd like the idea of a tunnel to Georgetown. But he would also want that tunnel to have capacity for cars to help reduce Key Bridge congestion.

Joe Sternlieb, executive director of the Georgetown Business Improvement District, told the Current a stop at M Street and Wisconsin Avenue would be "ideal" for bringing more shoppers and diners to the neighborhood.

And what about the funding?

Topher Mathews at The Georgetown Metropolitan notes that this is not the first time Metro has presented such ambitious plans and he worries that once again funding will be its downfall.

Rightly so.

Momentum describes what this grand vision would take:

  • $1 billion per year to maintain the current system,
  • an additional $500 million a year to maximize the capacity of the existing system core and to coordinate with planned projects in other jurisdictions
  • $740 million additional per year to put toward long-term growth (including the Georgetown tunnel)

What do you think? Is a tunnel to Georgetown a good idea? Would you want to see a Metro stop in Georgetown? Where? Tell us in the comments.


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