In 2023, I visited more Metro stations than ever before. My tally of Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority rail stations entered, exited or transferred is 42! That is easily the most I have ever recorded in a single year. Most of them I had visited by the end of the third quarter.
At the start of my last 2023 Metro commute, I saw car 2023 pulling out of Eastern Market. Had I been 30 seconds earlier, I would have had time to take the perfect hero photo for this post. Alas…
The tally
- Smithsonian
- Pentagon
- Pentagon City
- Metro Center
- Gallery Place
- Van Dorn Street
- Federal Triangle
- Eisenhower
- Rosslyn
- Herndon*
- Braddock Road
- Arlington Cemetery
- L’enfant Plaza
- Navy Yard-Ballpark
- Farragut West
- Farragut North
- Cleveland Park
- Woodley Park
- Waterfront
- King St-Old Town
- Huntington
- Mt. Vernon Sq
- Foggy Bottom-GWU
- U Street
- Archives
- Vienna
- Potomac Yard VT *
- Van Ness-UDC
- Eastern Market
- Judiciary Square
- Union Station
- Columbia Heights
- Dupont Circle
- National Airport
- Spring Hill
- Tysons
- NoMa
- Franconia-Springfield
- Ballston
- Potomac Avenue
- Capitol South
- Stadium-Armory
There are several reasons I checked so many off:
- I changed jobs (with an interregnum with interviews in between)
- More stations are open – I visited two of the newest stations for the first time, Potomac Yard VT and Herndon.
- The Yellow Line reopened
- More active – I checked off a few stations because I was going to group bike rides too far from home to bike the whole way
“only 42”
I expected to get to a few more checked off – I considered going to the Penn State at Maryland football game and even a Washington Commanders game if tickets were cheap enough. That’s not how it worked out, so sorry College Park-UMd and Morgan Boulevard. In fact, I didn’t take Metro to Maryland at all in 2023.
I also considered going out to Ashburn and biking back to Alexandria, but only went out to Herndon. Maybe in 2024!
Still, 42 stations is easily the highest number ever by a good 10+ stations. That’s going to be challenging to surpass.
At least I didn’t have to go up to Hyattsville Crossing to get the Metro lost and found.
Other modes and systems
I’m a regular Metrobus rider as well, though that’s in jeopardy with WMATA’s doomsday budget. If I lived in Old Town, VRE would probably be my preferred option for commuting to the District.
Metrobus
8W, 21C, 29K, 36
DASH
30, 31, 32, 35
VRE
Union Station, Alexandria
Philadelphia
There was the Philly trip too that had me on SEPTA regional and subway; PATCO too.
I’m hoping to get to another major transit city this year, so I’ll have more to report. I might make it back to the Philly Bike Ride too.
