New Division, New Name

[WayneNYC]

Western would close for the "Walter Reed" site?  Isn't that a bit of a distance?

Southwestern is supposed to be CNG capable as well, right?

Yea. From what I've heard SW is supposed to be CNG capable. Also, I've seen some timelines about possible rebuild of Western and Northern (2 years possibly) which puts them in line with when Cinder Bed Road and Southwestern are supposed to go online. Also, with the new Southwestern, they might be able to do some Northern/Annex/Bladensburg routes.

From what I assumed when SE closed was that the former SE routes now covered by Northern, Annex, and Bburg would eventually be served by the new SE again once it opens. If that's the case, the Northern/Western/Montgomery trade-off routes would go back to normal as well? Like for the 60s, L line, and N line.

I definitely wouldn't assume that the opening of the new depot will send things back to "normal" as we knew it to be.  When the dust settles, there's a good chance that the new depot won't necessarily have the same routes that SE used to handle.  My guess is that things will get shuffled a bit.

[79MetroExtraMD]

I feel alot of the PG commuter routes might get shifted to Southwestern leaving the southern PG routes still being Annex. Some of the southeastern loops and feeders could go to Southwestern in terms of closer proximity, shortened deadheads. So far, that's all that could be a possibility.

[WMATAGMOAGH]

Western would close for the "Walter Reed" site?  Isn't that a bit of a distance?

Southwestern is supposed to be CNG capable as well, right?

Yea. From what I've heard SW is supposed to be CNG capable. Also, I've seen some timelines about possible rebuild of Western and Northern (2 years possibly) which puts them in line with when Cinder Bed Road and Southwestern are supposed to go online. Also, with the new Southwestern, they might be able to do some Northern/Annex/Bladensburg routes.

From what I assumed when SE closed was that the former SE routes now covered by Northern, Annex, and Bburg would eventually be served by the new SE again once it opens. If that's the case, the Northern/Western/Montgomery trade-off routes would go back to normal as well? Like for the 60s, L line, and N line.

I definitely wouldn't assume that the opening of the new depot will send things back to "normal" as we knew it to be.  When the dust settles, there's a good chance that the new depot won't necessarily have the same routes that SE used to handle.  My guess is that things will get shuffled a bit.

I agree with you Wayne, but I'd also like to think that WMATA would want to eliminate some of the long deadheads for the Ls, Ns, and 60s.

[79MetroExtraMD]

Western would close for the "Walter Reed" site?  Isn't that a bit of a distance?

Southwestern is supposed to be CNG capable as well, right?

Yea. From what I've heard SW is supposed to be CNG capable. Also, I've seen some timelines about possible rebuild of Western and Northern (2 years possibly) which puts them in line with when Cinder Bed Road and Southwestern are supposed to go online. Also, with the new Southwestern, they might be able to do some Northern/Annex/Bladensburg routes.

From what I assumed when SE closed was that the former SE routes now covered by Northern, Annex, and Bburg would eventually be served by the new SE again once it opens. If that's the case, the Northern/Western/Montgomery trade-off routes would go back to normal as well? Like for the 60s, L line, and N line.

I definitely wouldn't assume that the opening of the new depot will send things back to "normal" as we knew it to be.  When the dust settles, there's a good chance that the new depot won't necessarily have the same routes that SE used to handle.  My guess is that things will get shuffled a bit.

I agree with you Wayne, but I'd also like to think that WMATA would want to eliminate some of the long deadheads for the Ls, Ns, and 60s.

I agree with you. It's like an 8 or so mile deadhead from Montgomery and I can imagine how long the response would be if a bus were to break down in the city. Also, when Western and Northern both close for rehab or replacement, there's still that issue of shifting around assignments so I doubt anything would change in the northwestern part of the city.

[Annex4421]

STOP THE PRESSES...LOL I've always wanted to say that but now the name has changed again this time Shepherd Parkway Division

http://www.wmata.com/about_metro/news/PressReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=4824

[NewFlyer9736BCT]

STOP THE PRESSES...LOL I've always wanted to say that but now the name has changed again this time Shepherd Parkway Division

http://www.wmata.com/about_metro/news/PressReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=4824

for some reason, until now I thought the new SE (or SW) division was going to be around Nats Stadium like the old SE, but after seeing where Shepherd Pkwy is, I can see how things wouldn't go completely back to the way it was when SE closed. seems to me that the P6 will remain a Bladensburg route, etc etc...

[79MetroExtraMD]

Shepherd Parkway? Blue Plains would have worked out better but like why the sudden change after it was already finalized?

[Scrabbleship]

Shepherd Parkway? Blue Plains would have worked out better but like why the sudden change after it was already finalized?

Because it's easier to change the name of a building when it's hasn't been built yet probably. Still seems quite sudden and a bit out-of-left-field.

Had it been known as Blue Plains, I wonder if WMATA would've realigned the depot letters, moved P there, and made Annex/the future annex replacement S?

[79MetroExtraMD]

Shepherd Parkway? Blue Plains would have worked out better but like why the sudden change after it was already finalized?

Because it's easier to change the name of a building when it's hasn't been built yet probably. Still seems quite sudden and a bit out-of-left-field.

Had it been known as Blue Plains, I wonder if WMATA would've realigned the depot letters, moved P there, and made Annex/the future annex replacement S?

The depot letters will probably still be the same. Cinder Bed Road might still carry the R designation to keep things simple (such as West Ox keeping the A from Arlington). To be honest, the letter designation is just a stand in for the two different garage number designations and for the blocks. As it stands now with 9 garages, the five digit block numbers work but with more than 10, it poses a problem.

[WayneNYC]

The depot letters will probably still be the same. Cinder Bed Road might still carry the R designation to keep things simple (such as West Ox keeping the A from Arlington). To be honest, the letter designation is just a stand in for the two different garage number designations and for the blocks. As it stands now with 9 garages, the five digit block numbers work but with more than 10, it poses a problem.

Maybe.  Looking in from the outside, it seems to me that WMATA doesn't really need to have more garages.  I think they'd be fine with replacements for some of the smaller garages like Western, Southern Ave Annex (and maybe even Northern) that can handle more buses.

[79MetroExtraMD]

The depot letters will probably still be the same. Cinder Bed Road might still carry the R designation to keep things simple (such as West Ox keeping the A from Arlington). To be honest, the letter designation is just a stand in for the two different garage number designations and for the blocks. As it stands now with 9 garages, the five digit block numbers work but with more than 10, it poses a problem.

Maybe.  Looking in from the outside, it seems to me that WMATA doesn't really need to have more garages.  I think they'd be fine with replacements for some of the smaller garages like Western, Southern Ave Annex (and maybe even Northern) that can handle more buses.

That's true but sometime in the future, there might be a need for fleet expansion (if need be).

[WMATAGMOAGH]

I'd like to think that a new garage, such as the one in SW or the proposed one for Walter Reed, would be built with excess capacity built in.  I think that some current garages aren't even at capacity (though I realize others are over capacity).

[WayneNYC]

Agreed.  While WMATA may expand, my question is would they expand so much that they'd need to add another garage.  It would be great if they could replace the old (and small) garages with new facilities that has room for expansion.   

If they had issues like in NYC where many depots had to park 20% of their buses on the street overnight (not exaggerating) then I'd guess that another depot may be needed.  For the record they have pretty much fixed this problem.  Newer depots can house all buses on-property (if not all indoors) and they were able to acquire land near other depots to build additional parking for the overflow of buses.     

[Flxible]

I like the new name.  Has a nice ring to it.