I attempted to speedrun the DC Metro. It didn't go as planned.
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- Опубликовано: 24 июл 2024
- I attempted a DC Metro speedrun with my friends @Shortline819 and @colethomsen on May 7, 2024. We would have had a final time of 7 hours and 15 minutes if everything had gone perfectly. Unfortunately, things kept going wrong and we didn't break the record (which was 7 hrs, 40 mins at the time of recording). At the time of the run, all 98 Metrorail stations were open and operational and all lines were operating on normal schedules.
Many thanks to @colethomsen reaching out to Metro speedrun veterans to discuss planning and strategy, and thanks to both of my friends for joining me on this crazy and sleep-deprived transit expedition!
00:00 Intro
01:15 The Plan
04:28 The Speedrun
11:12 The The Bus
12:40 Back to the Metro
14:35 The Home Stretch
15:24 Finishing the Run
16:20 Going back to Ashburn
17:28 Trying again
18:00 Outro/Closing Thoughts
Music used: "Harlem Rag" (1897) by Tom Turpin
"This is 21X. The front signboard is broken!" [Starts running to catch bus] 😂
Ashburn 4:29
Loudon Gateway 5:21
Washington Dulles International Airport 5:23
Innovation Center 5:24
Herndon 5:25
Reston Town Center 5:26
Wiehle-Reston East 5:29
Spring Hill 5:30
Greensboro 5:32
Tysons 5:34
McLean 5:37
East Falls Church 5:53
(OR > Vienna)
West Falls Church 6:50
Dunn Loring 6:52
Vienna 6:55
(OR > New Carrolton)
Ballston - MU 7:00
Virginia Sq - GMU 7:02
Clarendon 7:04
Court House 7:06
Rosslyn 7:08
(BL > Franconia-Springfield)
Arlington Cemetery 7:26
Pentagon 7:29
Pentagon City 7:30
Crystal City 7:32
Reagan National Airport 7:34
Potomac Yard 7:38
Braddock Road 7:39
King St - Old Town 7:40
Van Dorn 7:41
Franconia-Springfield 7:43
King St - Old Town again 7:53
(YL > Huntington)
Eisenhower Ave 9:11
Huntingdon 9:14
(YL > Mt Vernon Sq)
Potomac Yard again 9:44
(BL > Largo)
Reagan National Airport again 10:02
Foggy Bottom - GWU 10:04 (go hippos btw. board of trustees can go pound salt)
Farragut West 10:05
McPherson Sq 10:09
Metro Center 10:12
Federal Triangle 10:13
Smithsonian 10:16
L'Enfant Plaza 10:16
Federal Center SW 10:21
Capitol South 10:23
Eastern Market 10:25
Potomac Ave 10:27
Stadium-Armory 10:29
(OR>New Carrollton)
Minnesota Ave 10:50
Deanwood 10:53
Cheverly 10:55
Landover 10:57
New Carrollton 10:59
(The Bus > Largo)
Downtown Largo 12:39
Morgan Blvd 12:58
Addison Rd 13:00
Capitol Heights 13:02
Benning Rd 13:03
L'Enfant again 13:16
(GR > Branch Ave)
Waterfront 13:41
Navy-Yard - Ballpark 13:46
Anacostia 13:47
Congress Heights 13:49
Southern Ave 13:51
Naylor Rd 13:52
Suitland 13:53
Branch Ave 15:58
(GR > Greenbelt)
Archives 13:59
Gallery Place - Chinatown 14:03
Mt Vernon Sq 14:04
Shaw-Howard U 14:07
U St 14:07
Columbia Heights 14:10
Georgia Ave 14:11
Fort Totten 14:12
West Hyattsville 14:14
Hyattsville Crossing 14:16
College Park-U of MD 14:26
Greenbelt 14:27
(GR > Branch Ave)
Fort Totten again 14:29
(RD > Glenmont)
Takoma 14:52
Silver Spring 14:53
Forest Glen 14:54
Wheaton 14:56
Glenmont 14:58
(RD > Shady Grove)
Brookland-CUA 14:59
Rhode Island Ave 15:00
NoMa-Gallaudet U 15:00
Union Station 15:01
Judiciary Sq 15:03
Gallery Place again 15:05
Metro Center again 15:06
Farragut North 15:06
Dupont Circle 15:07
Woodley Park 15:09
Cleveland Park 15:10
Van Ness-UDC 15:12
Tenleytown-AU 15:13
Friendshop Heights 15:16
Bethesda 15:17
Medical Center 15:18
Grosvenor-Srathmore 15:19
North Bethesda 15:20
Twinbrook 15:21
Rockville 15:22
Shady Grove 16:00
Strong work, guys! Thanks for the video. I've got a bad habit of idolizing DC's metro... that delay out of Ashburn reminds me what it was like actually living there.
Thank you so much for watching!!! (and thanks for typing all those time stamps out!)
That is the way I learned to explore the New York City rapid transit system, which is called the "New York City Subway," when I was 14 years old.
Awesome! Quite a bit more stations up in NYC!
@@29downtheline The New York City Subway lines were made by several private transportation companies that eventually formed them into one entity: New York City Transit Authority, that became New York City Transit on April 30, 1996. This rapid transit system is the largest rapid transit system in the United States like Tokyo and Japan. The New York City Subway has more than 240 miles of tracks and exactly 472 stations. I am still a subway buff. Thank you for typing to me.
I caught your first comment, but am not steadily on RUclips. Thank you for typing to me.💙
I attempted this run around this time last year, the last day before major track work was to start. I didn't get a chance to do a run this summer due to the long-term work being done on the Red Line all summer, and I'd rather do this during the summer so that I don't have to take a day off of teaching.
I used the Ride On (Route 10), The Bus (Route 21), and Metrobus (Route P12). These bus wait times killed me: I had to wait for 30 minutes for the 10 (30-minute intervals), 20 minutes for the P12 (12-minute intervals, so something must have gone seriously wrong there), and 23 minutes for the 21 (30 minute intervals). Had these been slightly better than average wait times rather than close to the worst possible wait times, I might have had a chance at the record (8:20 at the time), but alas, I had to settle for an 8:54.
I've developed a new route to try again next summer, and since the Metro is reducing the time they take to open the doors after stopping, I imagine that this may speed up the record some more. Thanks for documenting your journey! Was a good watch.
Thanks for watching!! Yeah, our wait time for The Bus 21X was a big problem. Delayed trains early on just prevented everything else from going right, so we could have had a much better time. It’s all up to delays and bus times. I think I looked at the other bus routes when planning, but it seems that backtracking on the Metro is faster in most cases (depending on frequency and delays, of course). In retrospect, using the Fairfax Connector 660 could have saved the run, but we would have had to turn around from McLean and get the express bus from Tysons to Vienna, so I’m not sure if it would have been possible with our delayed train (I believe the 660 CAN be faster to Vienna, depending on timing and traffic).
Sounds like your run had a solid plan. I hope it goes well if you try it again! What would you do differently?
The Blue and silver line to New Carrolton are meant to be for rush hour service for extra trains if you want to go straight there on either the blue or silver lines
Makes sense! I was also told that at least some of them are for repositioning trains going out of service to bring them to a different yard!
@@29downtheline How do they do that for example red to blue line for example? Because red is an independent line and can’t connect with other lines on different tracks
@lionfan11 I have yet to personally see any revenue service trains run on to or off of the Red Line from any other line (although there used to be Green Line rush hour trains that ran on a connector track on to the Red Line, bypassing Fort Totten, before the Green Line was completed). It’s possible to move trains onto the Red Line at Fort Totten (via that previously mentioned connecting track) and via a tunnel between McPherson Sq and Farragut North.
Great video
I’m curious about this blue and silver to new Carrollton is there a way to get the timetable?
It’s in the Transit App if you look far enough ahead and it’s also in Google Maps (you can find it by getting directions between New Carrollton-Ashburn, etc). For example, there’s a Silver Line train that leaves New Carrollton at 5:32a tomorrow. Not sure if there’s a BL to New Carrollton anymore, since scheduling might have changed. There is also a SV that will terminate at Dulles Airport leaving from Largo right now. I think just playing around with departure times and destinations is probably the best way to do it; I don’t think there’s any official schedule posted for them, unfortunately!
I think out lapses in reason really went into the gutter AFTER we knew we weren't going to make the speedrun, but we decided to keep going anyways...
Also THE BUS!
I’m not gonna disagree with you there… but hey, THE BUS was probably worth it. Thanks again for waking up at an odd hour of the morning to ride the Metro for 8 hours straight with me!