The soaring monuments and grand memorials of Washington D.C. are so captivating, it's easy to miss one of the city's grandest accomplishments--its hidden Metro subway system, that speeds passengers under the busy streets, below rivers, and back and forth to its growing suburbs in Virginia and Maryland.
Karl Eisenhower is a typical Metro commuter. "I leave my house in Fairfax City, Virginia, drive to Vienna Station at the end of Orange Line and ride the Orange Line right into D.C. without having to transfer," he said.
Eisenhower works in the heart of the capital. As an editor for an online news service, he said he prefers to begin and end his day on a train instead of a highway.
"I can sit, I can read a book. I can read the news instead of sitting behind the wheel of a car staring at the bumper of the car in front of me," he said.
Well, sometimes he can sit.
"A lot of people refer to a ride on the Orange Line as the 'orange crush.' When it gets bad people have trouble even squeezing in the doors," he said.
Metro's daily ridership is nearly 700,000 people--that's more than the entire population of Seattle. In the summer tourists months, daily ridership can reach 1 million.
Metro has come a long way from the tiny subway line that opened four decades ago with just 4.5 miles of track. The system is now 30 times that big, making it the second largest heavy rail system in the country behind New York's.
And Metro wasn't built just to move people--it was built to impress them. The long underground stations are spacious enough to hold a Washington Monument laid on its side (the monument is 555 feet tall). The stations' acclaimed vaulted roofs are architectural gems.
But behind the glamour lies an ugly reality.
Eisenhower's father Warren retired from Metro 20 years ago. He said his dad was proud of the expansive transit system—like many people who live and work in and around D.C.
"That pride is still there, the stations are beautiful…it's just frustration that if you can't depend on it, it doesn't matter how beautiful the station is, how well designed, if trains are breaking down and you can't get to work," Eisenhower said.
Eisenhower said Metro users are increasingly frustrated with the system's lack of reliability. He finds himself driving about one day a week because of problems with the trains.
It wasn't always like this. Eisenhower said he was ten when the subway opened.
"It was very exciting because it was new and quiet and fast and efficient and for about 25 years as it was continuing to build, there was excitement and pride. It's not a new system anymore and it's starting to break down, so it's different now," he said.
Metro is showing its age. Trains are wearing out, delays are frequent, and escalators are breaking down. Management blames many of the system's problems on years of deferred maintenance.
"Early decisions not to reinvest into the existing infrastructure. Early decisions to continue operations even though there was maintenance issues that needed to be taken care of…that's what's critical, understanding that, and we are recovering from those early decisions," said Rob Troup, Metro's deputy manager of operations.
But even three years into a $5 billion rebuilding effort, Metro is struggling. In August, a derailment on a track used by three different lines caused such chaos that Metro issued refunds for the first time in its history.
And in January, a 61-year-old Virginia woman died and dozens of people were sent to hospitals after an electrical malfunction caused a train to fill with smoke. The NTSB said the smoke was generated after something came into contact with the high-voltage third rail and cause an electrical arc.
"They've got such a huge backlog of repairs that need to be made, updates that need to be done, no matter how much work they do, it just doesn't get better," Eisenhower said.
There's clearly a lesson here for Seattle: As Sound Transit extends its 16-mile light rail line north and east and looks to a possible $15 billion expansion, managers need to make sure there's money not just to build the system but to operate and maintain it into the future.
"Look at the long view and take the big picture and say that this is an investment that we need to make to be able to compete 40 years from now," said Steve Davis, deputy communications director of Transportation for America, an alliance of elected, business and civic leaders from across the country that helps cities brainstorm transportation solutions.
Despite its stumbles, Davis believes Metro can teach Seattle a lot -- not just about keeping a rail system running, but about ways to build it so that it will transform neighborhoods and improve the city.
Davis said that when private property owners and developers set their sights on building a livable, workable, walkable urban village in a largely industrial part of DC, city leaders said yes--with one condition.
"They said, 'The traffic is too bad. We can't throw up a bunch of big buildings without some way to carry the traffic load,' so the people who owned the land and built the big buildings actually kicked in about 20 percent of the cost of the new Metro station, named NoMa," Davis said.
Davis said that Seattle should take heed: The people who were set to benefit financially from a new transit station were required to pitch in and help fund it.
The final cost was roughly $100 million with the federal government and private land owners each contributing $25 million and the D.C. government picking up the rest.
The elevated platform station opened in 2004 under the name New York Ave-Florida Ave—Gallaudet U, but that was shortened NoMa-Gallaudet U Station in 2012. It's commonly referred to as NoMa and it's been a catalyst for development. All around the station new buildings and businesses have been popping up.
Carpe Librum is a "pop up" bookstore run by the nonprofit Turning the Page that sells donated books to raise money for D.C. literacy programs. The bookstore moves around the city, staying at different locations for months at a time before moving on. The NoMa location has been one of the most successful.
"It's just a wonderful place for us to be. It's right where we want to be," said Turning the Page Development Coordinator Robin Crowell. "We would not want a pop up far from the Metro. We love that it brings the foot traffic back and forth. And it really makes a difference in our staff getting here, volunteers who are getting here, and people who can donate books. If you say you can donate at the NoMa popup bookstore and it's right by the Metro it's a lot easier."
It's a winning formula. And at least one Seattle-based business appears to be watching--REI is advertising that it will open a flagship store adjacent to the NoMa station in 2016.
But Metro's massive subway system (supplemented with buses) hasn't solved everything. A recent study ranked D.C. traffic the worst in the nation for rush hour congestion--82 hours of delays added to the average commute every year.
To that, Metro riders say, "Think how bad it would be if the subway had never been built."
"If it weren't for Metro there would be at least 300,000 more people on the roads every day and I don't know where they'd go," Karl Eisenhower said, "and once they got to work, where would they park?"
Eisenhower said part of what makes D.C. special is that it isn't full of parking lots and car-choked streets that would destroying the city's ambiance and walkability.
Despite the transit system's problems, supporters say that without Metro, "Washington Gridlock" would have a whole new meaning and the nation's capital would be a completely different city--and not for the better.
THURSDAY NIGHT: Join KING 5's Jean Enersen for a Fighting Traffic Town Hall, where we'll put your questions to the transportation experts. The Town Hall will air on KING 5 right after the Patriots-Steelers game.
