The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) is making updates to wayfinding and service starting June 22. Some changes are improvements, some are downgrades.
Update Wayfinding
Line iconography
Over a decade ago, WMATA updated Metro line iconography to include the first letter of each line and an “L” in the corresponding colored circle. “RL” for Red Line, “BL” for Blue Line, etc. Now, it’ll just be the color’s first letter – R, O, B, G, Y, S.
Is this a tacit admission that the agency has given up on ever having a Brown, Black, Beige, Gold lines? Not shocking since a recent expansion proposal had the Blue Line expanding into a loop “the Bloop” but that’s been shelved.
I suppose Aqua, Coral, Pink1 and Teal2 are still available. Maryland poached purple for a light rail line that is still under construction.3
It will be interesting to see if over time Washingtonians start referring to lines with letters (take the B train) instead of the colors, like New Yorkers.4 I kind of doubt it though; I still say “National” to refer to the airport with the code DCA. We can be stubborn like that…5
On occasion, I have dropped SOB for the Silver, Orange, Blue trunk line though the District, but it’s not common yet.
New Metro logo
A slight change to the Metro mark – the “metro” is no longer in the same black box as the M.
It’s a downgrade in my opinion, but one that will probably go mostly unnoticed. The trademark TM is a conspicuous addition.
Map changes
Unlike the 2013 map redesign, the colors appear to be the same6, at least based on cursory comparison of the official map PDFs from the WMATA web site.7 The main changes, other than the service discs, include:
- the Silver Line forking to Downtown Largo and New Carrolton
- station names will have Av. instead of Ave.
More station changes
Station changes like giving exits their own designations “EXIT A” etc. have already started at transfer locations and are starting on the iconic Metro pylons. It’s an upgrade and kind of amazing it took nearly 50 years to start labeling exits.
New Bus Route designations
Every Metrobus line will have a new name, if not new routing as well. It’s intuitive with its beginning locality reflected in the prefix.
- “A” for Arlington/Alexandria
- “C” (crosstown) or “D” (downtown) for DC
- “F” for Fairfax City, Fairfax County, and Falls Church
- “M” for Montgomery County
- “P” for Prince George’s County
- Limited-stop Routes are indicated by an “X” at the end of their names
So, the 21C will become the A28, and so on. Some routes dated back to the streetcar era8, over 60 years ago!
Will somebody start selling “I’m still calling it the X2!” t-shirts?9
I still miss the old school Metro sign though
Service changes
While the wayfinding is almost uniformly good, the service changes are more mixed.
Bus changes
In my neighborhood, I’m just going to call the “Better Bus” initiative bad of Metrobus customers.
I have been a daily 8W commuter since 2014 (aside from unpleasant times when I wasn’t going into an office). I have lived at three locations along the line and my “forever house” selection was influenced by its proximity. However, WMATA decided to turn the route around to go through more of Alexandria and not get onto the I-395 express lanes until Shirlington, instead of Seminary Road. That’s a lot less direct and much longer.
I’m fortunate that I have a back-up, the current 21C accessible because there is a bridge across Holmes Run nearby. That’s going to be a longer, more crowded route though, especially with the loss of 8W service along North Van Dorn Street. It’s not uncommon to see 30 or more passengers on the line10 around 7:15 a.m.
People in the middle of my neighborhood will be less fortunate as Holmes Run crossing are half a mile apart.
Over the last two years, I attended “Better Bus” public information sessions, filled out several surveys, spoke to the previous mayor of Alexandria on the Yellow Line and Metro GM Randy Clarke.11 This did not save the service for my neighborhood. In fact, I learned of this proposal at the Potomac Yard Metro station dedication when someone when up to Mayor Justin Wilson12 and Paul Smedburg, then WMATA board chair, and insisted they save the 8W.
They didn’t. The Alexandria city council’s silence on Better Bus is a real source of frustration for this resident. I can only hope Randy Clarke’s WMATA has flexibility to fix this in short order.
Rail changes
On the bright side, the Red Line is getting more rush hour service and late this year, some Yellow Line trains will go all the way to Greenbelt. So, good job there WMATA.
Footnotes
- Chicago has a Pink Line
↩︎ - Disney World has a teal monorail train – if you get the song as an earworm though, that’s on you. ↩︎
- Stupid NIMBYs/BANANAs clogging that up in the courts. ↩︎
- Speaking of New York, the subway map had it’s first major redesign (MTA) in decades this year. ↩︎
- There might be a Commanders quip in here somewhere, but as lame as that nickname is, it’s at least not overtly racist… ↩︎
- Based on comparing colors from PDFs that I snipped, put in MS paint and read the hex values. ↩︎
- The shower curtain I gave my sons for Christmas in 2023 is getting more obsolete, though I’d rather it be for more stations… ↩︎
- Well, the original streetcar era, not the current one which is coming to and end (NBC Washington). ↩︎
- X2…has a reputation. ↩︎
- I shouldn’t have erased this photo from my camera roll, would have been good to embed here… ↩︎
- This was at a Meet the GM event at Tysons Metro in 2023. A photo of us was shared in social media. I was wearing my Uni Watch cycling jersey, so somebody shared it on the ticker (which I can’t find). My water bottle with a Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail sticker on it was also noticed and let to an invitation to work on the Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail web site. ↩︎
- He decided to use up his political capital stumping for a lazy, right wing governor’s plan to give a Maryland billionaire a new arena (Alexandria Now). ↩︎
