Fairfax Connector now operating express bus between Bethesda and Tysons

An old idea that flopped before is being tried again. There was once an express bus that ran between the Bethesda Metro Center and Tysons, but it was eventually terminated due to low ridership. Now that Montgomery County has fallen in status to become a bedroom community for the booming job centers in Northern Virginia, Fairfax County sees potential in the growing numbers of MoCo residents who commute to work in the Tysons area each weekday.

A secondary market is shoppers who would use the new Route 798 to reach malls in Tysons, or Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda. I suspect that ridership is going to be minimal at best, especially with weekday-only service.

Route 798 stops in Bethesda at Montgomery Lane and East Lane, Medical Center Metro station, Montgomery Mall, Tysons Metro station, and Tysons West Park transit station. The base fare without transfers or one of several discounts is $4.80.

Bethesda and Medical Center Metro stations closed this weekend

The Bethesda and Medical Center Metro stations are closed today, Saturday, September 14, 2019 and tomorrow, Sunday, September 15. WMATA is repairing leaks in the stations and tunnel. Shuttle buses will replace trains between Grosvenor and Friendship Heights.

WMATA to replace escalators at Bethesda Medical Center, Friendship Heights Metro stations

Friendship Heights Metro station,
ugly new ahistorical lighting
and all

Metro will be replacing more of the original, aging escalators at Red Line stations in Bethesda and Chevy Chase. A similar project was just completed at the Bethesda Metro station. Now, commuters who use the Medical Center and Friendship Heights stations will be getting an upgrade.

Both stations opened on August 25, 1984, and their escalators are just as old. WMATA will any day now begin replacing 3 long entrance escalators at the Friendship Heights station, and the last-remaining original bus bay-to-landing short escalator. At Medical Center, contractor KONE will also replace the 3 long entrance escalators. Medical Center's are 202' long, while the entrance escalators at Friendship Heights are only 130' long.

The work means one escalator will be out of service at all times, at both stations, over the next two-and-a-half years. Elevators will remain open at both, and escalator technicians will be standing by at both stations at all times, in case any of the escalators in service break down. Should escalator capacity or station overcrowding issues arise, both stations could temporarily shut down, and be bypassed by trains until the situation is resolved. WMATA recommends riders sign up for MetroAlerts so they will know if either station is closed.

BRAC MD 355 tunnel project scheduled to begin Tuesday in Bethesda

Construction of a pedestrian tunnel under Rockville Pike (MD 355) to create a safer pedestrian connection between the Medical Center Metro station and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center was expected to begin in mid-2017. But contractor Clark Construction has already requested a noise waiver from Montgomery County, and the County states that the preliminary work will begin Tuesday, December 13.

The project, on which the Montgomery County Department of Transportation is the lead agency, is being fully funded by the federal government (a.k.a. you, the federal taxpayer) to the tune of $110 million. In addition to the tunnel, high-speed elevators open to the public on the Walter Reed side of the Pike will give access to the Metro underground.

Once excavation of the tunnel gets underway (they are going to use cut-and-cover rather than a boring machine to dig the tunnel), there will be lane closures on Rockville Pike. That will pile-on to the existing traffic nightmare.

Completed projects on Jones Bridge Road and Connecticut Avenue, which promised to move cars between Walter Reed and NIH and the Beltway, turned out to be a complete failure and waste of taxpayer dollars. Residents gave up big chunks of their front yards for nothing. The line to turn left onto Connecticut during the afternoon rush is, if anything, longer than it was before. Jones Bridge is a nightmare, as is 355. And traffic now backs up from the on-ramp to the Inner Loop, jamming traffic on Connecticut. 

Long stretch of Beltway
that runs alongside
Walter Reed campus would
have been the logical place
to use $110M to construct
ramps and flyovers to keep
base traffic off local roads

Hopefully this project won't deliver such disastrous results, but the money $11 million spent on that, the $110 million going to the tunnel, and the "Herculean efforts of Senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin and Congressman Chris Van Hollen," - to quote County Executive Ike Leggett - would have been better spent on forcing the feds to require direct access ramps into and out of Walter Reed from the Beltway. 

We are led by very stupid people, folks. Montgomery County needs to be smart to move forward, and we clearly don't have that leadership now. What good is all of the "deep intellect" and "experience," if you don't know what the hell you're doing?

Update 12/12/16: The project is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, December 13 and end in May 2020.

BETHESDA AND MEDICAL CENTER METRO STATIONS CLOSED THIS WEEKEND

Driving is the best option this weekend for anyone living in Bethesda or beyond on the Red Line.

Metro is closing the Bethesda and Medical Center stations for "track work," etc.

You know the drill:  Closures and delays for "repairs" that have yet to produce any tangible improvement in service or safety.

Gluttons for punishment will be able to board shuttle buses between Grosvenor and Friendship Heights.  Personally, I would just drive.

Metro got their fare increase.  Pepco got their rate increase.  We're paying for it all, yet our customer experience has not improved.  Yet politicians' bank accounts grow fatter by the day, and they heartily approved all of the above.

The "new" Metro "repairs" and "work" are the Emperor's New Clothes almost as much as Bus Rapid Transit.

No one can show any tangible improvement in Metro performance, yet closures and inconvenient weekend schedules persist.

MDOT AWARDS

FUNDING FOR

BETHESDA

BIKE ROUTE

BETWEEN

MONTGOMERY MALL

AND

BETHESDA METRO

STATIONS

"BRAC" Bike Path's Route is

Not Specified

Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley announced a grant today of $21,000 for a 5.2 mile, signed bicycle route, connecting Westfield Montgomery Mall with the Bethesda and Medical Center Metro stations.

The FY2012 Maryland Department of Transportation award is one of the first such grants given under the state's new Maryland Bikeways program.

No route map or details have been provided. A large, statewide map showing all bikeways is available, but not a zoomed-in map for the Bethesda route. While it makes perfect sense for the Bethesda Trolley Trail to be part of the route, that path was not mentioned in the announcement.

The announcement did differenciate street routes from bike paths; the Bethesda route did not say "on-road route" as similar projects in Howard and Prince Georges County did. So that means the Bethesda route will not be entirely on the street.

Considering the size of the award, that would only cover the cost of metal signs, paint, labor and - maybe - a bit of paving here or there. So we are certainly not talking about a new bike trail here.

Much like a Fort Meade area award, this bike route has partly been planned as another small-scale BRAC traffic solution. But put major emphasis on "small," as this will have a negligible impact on Bethesda traffic.

What this would do is allow NIH or Walter Reed employees to live in housing around Montgomery Mall, and bike to work.

More significantly, it further enhances Westfield's major efforts - in partnership with Montgomery County - to make the mall even more accessible via alternate forms of transportation. (As reported here, a new mall Transit Center is in the works).

That fits with Gov. O'Malley's stated goal of making "bicycling a true transportation alternative and to encourage more Marylanders to get out and ride."

BETHESDA'S

WOUNDED WARRIORS

ENJOY SPECIAL

SUPER BOWL PARTY

The U.S. Department of Defense has released details of a special Super Bowl party held for wounded servicemembers and their families here at Bethesda's Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Celebrity guests included Jon Voight, famed Washington Redskins Roy Jefferson and Carlton Kammerer, and the Washington Redskins Cheerleaders.

Pulled pork, chicken, Buffalo wings, pizza and nachos were among the fare served, according to the Defense Department.

Defense.gov noted this was the largest event held at Walter Reed since it moved to Bethesda's Naval Medical Center site in 2011.