Washington DC’s Newest Station: Potomac Yard
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- Опубликовано: 6 июл 2024
- In May 0f 2023, it finally opened: Potomac Yard station, on the Washington DC Metro. Built on the site of an old railyard in Alexandria, VA, Potomac Yard is the second infill station in the history of the metro. Join Thom as he travels there and checks out all the new facilities, including the platforms, mezzanine, elevators, and bicycle racks. It truly is a great station. And we might even see a special Amtrak train...
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Chapters:
0:00 Potomac Yard Explaine
1:24 Taking the Blue Line
2:12 First Impressions
3:36 Railfanning (with bunnies)
5:19 The Platforms
8:06 The Elevators
9:03 The Mezzanine
9:45 A Special Edition Potomac Yard SmarTrip Card!
10:30 Potomac Greens
11:06 The Looooong Pedestrian Bridge
11:38 The North Pavilion
12:00 Amtrak Heritage Unit
12:12 Bike & Ride
13:00 The South Pavilion 
Авто/Мото
I really hope they do more infill stations with tons of Transit Oriented Development. I know in general thats the idea but so much of this gets caught up in useless NIMBY debates.
WMATA really only has two spots planned for future possible infill in their system plans. One is on the Blue Line between Van Dorn and King St, just west of the Alexandria Yard. The other is for Wolf Trap on the Silver Line.
The Blue Line station is hard to justify due to the proximity of the rail yard and nearby CSX tracks heavily restricting TOD options.
The Wolf Trap location would be great for when there are shows at the venue, but leave the station vastly underused outside that, so Metro would potentially only have it open during events, but this also makes it hard to justify the upfront capital cost to build it.
WMATA is much more interested in building new lines and extending existing ones. They want to build a line to National Harbor, make a new blue line that stops in Georgetown and has its own station in Roslyn, and they just finished extending the Silver line late last year. Most areas aren't the best for infill on the system as the above ground parts tend to be built in areas already developed, or are in the interstate median. This and NOMA are very different, these were areas that were completely redeveloped and added residential. The vast majority of the DC region that has Metro lines that already are built up along the route, plus DC, Arlington, Montgomery, and Fairfax Counties already have laws and rules about building transit development, and have for years. So a huge part of the system already has that type of development.
Love this stations TrainsAreAwesome
Come for the station review, stay for the playful bunnies and Money Train! Definitely a great place to railfan! As they say, if you build it, they will come, and this station will be another example of promoting urbanized transit-oriented development! A pretty famous infill station is 191st Street on the NYC Subway. It's famous because it's both the deepest station in NYC at 173 ft/53 m below street level, but it also has a pretty special pedestrian tunnel! The station opened in 1911, but it didn't get a pedestrian tunnel until 1913, as they realized that the area's hilly topography made it hard for residents to access the station. In 1919, several lots owned by the Bennet family were sold at an auction, and thus many middle-class families moved in and used it.
But how it was built isn't why the tunnel is famous, but rather because of all the graffiti it tends to have. The city tried to beautify the tunnel by painting murals in the late 2000s but was vandalized, then painted over, five murals were added, the murals were heavily graffitied, then was painted over with white paint by the NYCDOT in January 2023, then graffiti, and new murals. It's a pattern! So yeah, the resulting mesh of murals and graffiti makes you feel like you're entering into another dimension when you enter that tunnel. And it used to be pretty dark in there too before they installed brighter lights in 2000 and then LED lighting in 2014. The tunnel was actually used as a location in the In the Heights movie!
Hey Thom, congratulations on 20K subs, it's very well deserved! It's also fantastic to see places in the US opening new stations that are closely connected to society at large, not exiled to the desert of a massive car park, well done both the DC Metro and Arlington. All the best, Chris
A truly modern station! It’s so nice I feel like I could just hang out there for awhile and enjoy the leafy trees. Great job, WMATA!!!
Sounds like something we should do…
Hey Thom. Welcome to the DC area! I’m in Arlington and thought I was a train geek until I discovered your channel a while ago. Thanks for the PY tour. They did a great job with the design and I hadn’t noticed the roof was inspired by the underground stations….fun fact the newly opened IAD station doesn’t have covers along the whole length of the station! It’s absolutely crazy to me they would build it brand new that way (when DCA was built back in the day, that station also didn’t have full covers. You can easily see where they added sections to keep the whole platform out of the elements.)
I hope you’ll produce some videos in the future about the new Long Bridge project; the efforts of the commonwealth of Virginia to buy rights of way to expand service significantly from DC to Richmond. I saw an article recently that said it might be run by Amtrak, but I wish they’d use rolling stock like TEXRail uses in Dallas/Ft. Worth (Stadler FLIRT DMU’s); the new to be built Crystal City VRE station and pedestrian walkway to DCA; Maryland MARC trains might pass through DC and terminate at CC (but they have to solve platform height differences); the new Purple line; the Western MD scenic RR and bike trail to name a few suggestions.
Oh, also if you go just south of Alexandria the CSX and Amtrak trains are at full speed by the time they get there. It’s amazing to see and feel the power of them running fast because we usually only see them in the urban areas going very slow. You can take MARC to BWI station and see Acela trains pass through at full speed…though some do stop at BWI, but some don’t. My most memorable experience was in Japan standing at a station and watching a Shinkansen pass through without stopping. What a rush! I rode the Harmony high speed train from Beijing to Shanghai and later the maglev from Shanghai to the airport. Though very dated inside, the immediate speed and how smooth it was was incredible. Have fun! Jeff
Thanks for the suggestions! I’ve begun working on some research about Virginia. Where would you recommend seeing the fast trains south of VA?
And yes, the Shinkansen is very impressive!
@@Thom-TRA So I’ve done business with a company called “GLB Tile and Marble Company” on Gravel Road, in Alexandria. The tracks run directly behind their building (industrial park) and trains are at full speed there. So I’m guessing (but I’ve never been) that the Franconia-Springfield Metro station and it’s pedestrian over walkways would be a good place to see them.
Update: looking through some other YT videos just now, the VRE platform there looks like a great spot. You’ll frequently see (and smell) Waste Management “Trash Trains” heading back and forth from NYC to wherever they go south to unload. They pass through the DC region daily. I’m sure you know they’re the green containers. Sometimes entire trains are dedicated to the containers, sometimes they’re mixed with other freight.
wow!!! what an awesome station. Thanks for a great tour. I like your brief nod to the "waffle iron" architecture of the underground stations--- one thing about the DC metro not to my liking, but that's just me. Good job again Thom.
Just did my orientation at umd and you could see purple line construction in full swing going straight through campus
That’s awesome! Hopefully it will be done before you graduate
The station is absolutely beautiful, and I love the idea of the locking bicycle storage area.
I was there opening day. Very unique station indeed🔵🟡
we were a contractor at that station during construction, this is my first time seeing it open tho. ahh memories.. hated my time there
Sorry to hear that
nah wmata just makes every project a pain for us
Thank you for sharing.
Build the BLOOP!
Still rooting for the Separated Blue Line here.
@@JBravoEcho09 Whatever they build, they'd better add another river tunnel and more in-town stations!
Great video! I did my own trek through the Potomac Yard station entrances right around the time that everything opened.
Having lived in the area for a long, long while, I remember when Potomac Yard was... well, Potomac Yard. The tracks went all the way from where Richmond Highway (US 1) is now all the way down to where the Metro sits. You can still see some of the leftover bridges over Four Mile Run -- one of which is now used by Potomac Avenue on the east side. The bridge over the tracks on Richmond Highway a bit further south used to be a perpendicular one due to the number of tracks still passing underneath! (Main Line Blvd has taken some of that space as well.) You may be interested in checking out some of the GIS historical aerial shots of Arlington and Alexandria to see what it looked like before...
I’m hoping to make a video about the history of Potomac Yard this spring!
Fantastic video, and great to see how the design is a nod to the original system language. Living in DC for a long while, I have my favorite stations and can't wait to see if you discover them too. Great channel!
The chapel that inspired the design is in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, but the name is the Thorncrown Chapel! The chapel was designed by E. Fay Jones and was constructed in 1980. E. Fay Jones was an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright, and the chapel is of the Prairie School style that Wright popularized! Only 20 years after it was built, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, which usually isn't even given to buildings less than fifty years old unless said building is very significant! The chapel itself was inspired by the Gothic Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, and is meant to be a non-denominational place for meditation in a forested landscape that can seat up to 100 people.
I'm so glad somebody pointed this out!! As a native Arkansan I had to check the comments section the moment he said "Eureka Chapel".
As you can see the walkway crosses over the CSX tracks the VRE, CSX and Amtrak run on. VRE plans to build a new Crystal City station with double platforms just 100 feet south of the current station. It will make it easier to access Amazon HQ
Loved the D.C. metro when I stayed there a couple of days few weeks ago. Was travelling between Rosslyn (due to train replacement buses heading out to Dulles IAP), Van-Ness, Waterfront and Federal Center SW. In that part basically every station looked the same, with only minor differences in layout, but I loved how easy it was to navigate and how clean the stations were. They all have a nice wide and open layout, doesn't feel like any station in NYC. Also every station had elevators and escalators - way easier for tourists to get from the airport to the hotel in the city with their heavy suitcases.
In these aspects D.C. metro is way ahead of NYC subway in my opinion
I like the fact that as one lift goes up, one goes down
Me too, it’s the little things that count
@@Thom-TRA I bet that is one of the reasons it got LEED Gold. The cars counterbalance each other and reduce energy usage.
Enjoy seeing Amtrak's Cardinal near the 12 minute of this video
Hi Australian fan here. Really enjoyed this program. In future programs could u provide information about fares?
Not really possible here, since the DC Metro fares depend on what station you’re traveling from and what time of day it is. That and they just changed everything.
I've only been to DC just a few times, but this looks like a great place to railfan with all of the diversity of trains that you'll see (Metro, VRE, Amtrak, and CSX for freight -- I would definitely be there for more of the passenger train activity though) especially after 5P as well. Thank you for the great share of this station! (Also, great catch of the Cardinal with the HU)
You know what would be sick? I high speed train between DC and Richmond, or between DC and Baltimore. That would really fix a lot of the issues we have on the East Coast with getting through i95. I mean it would essentially change the entire economy, quick access to both of those would mean significant more visits from suburbs to those cities.
If you come by at night, you can see a spectacular spark-show at the switches on the south end of the station!
I’ll have to do that!
Or take the water taxi from National Harbor to The Wharf...you can see it from there also
This is nice! I have been to D.C. twice, the Metro system makes getting around so much easier!
FYI ALL metal is grounded at the same point all at stations to prevent stray earth currents and touch potentials from harming people. Type of voltage doesn't matter (AC or DC).
Cool science fact.
I don’t think anyone said the type of voltage matters though.
Great video. I rode through Potomac Yards on my way to Union Station. With the full Yellow Line being recently restored, you get 3-4 minute frequencies so by the time the train leaves and clear the signal and crossover, the next one is approaching. Got off, took in the station for a moment, and was on the next one.
Thom, I am a relatively recent subsciber to your channel. Planning to do a cross-country rail trip next year from Rochester, NY to the west coast. Man, there are a lot of poorly done videos out there that I could not even bear to view for more than 30 sec. You have a very empathetic way dealing with the many hiccups of rail travel! Happy travels!
Thank you so much!
I try to be real, but always give things a positive twist.
It's simple: if you continue to give us more footage containing hexagon floor tiles, I will have no choice but to continue liking the videos. "Hexagons are the bestagons" after all 🐝
This channel will look like the bee movie before long!
Great video. Cool stuff. 👌
Thank you!
In order to the realign the tracks, Metro had to close the blue & yellow stations south of National Airport for 4 months last fall
Another random US public transport video I never knew I needed to know, nice one mate 🙂
I consider it a public service
@@Thom-TRA we make similar category videos, but so different eh 😅
Great video, looks like a great location for filming!
I love D.C.'s Metro. Congratulations!
In D.C. on the 8th & 9th.
It looks really cool, when I do visit DC, I have to check out this station. Also, congrats on the 20K!
Thanks for the video Thom! I really enjoyed it and Potomac Yard looks brilliant! Good job WMATA! I hope to visit it one day myself 🙂
It’s worth a visit! That is, if you have time after all the other cool stuff DC has to offer
Nice looking station. Congratulations on 20k subscribers.
Really beautiful station Great Job
Thank you for this great video ! The new station is really excellent, and also very close to Crystal City station used by VRE ! You were also lucky to see my favourite Amtrak service, the Cardinal, passing by !
Lol maybe WMATA had excess budget so they were like why not buy 5x the speakers we need?😂
One thing that my old hometown of NYC and its sister city have are lines with express tracks in the middle. The Metro in Washington D.C. could have express trains stopping at transfer stations only during rush hours, but that is the only improvement I could think of.
Nice job! Enjoyable and informative.
Thanks!
Looks like a great place for railfanning in the DC area. Very spacious layout and I love the overall roof structure with lots of light coming through, but also providing great weather protection. There's one or two stations downunder in Adelaide that have similar arched roofing. The overtrack pedestrian path is a nice feature and I note that the fencing grid is sufficiently open to allow for photography. Just loved the local bunnies hopping about while the trains were passing. Cheers from Michael.🙂🙂🙂
I think the bunny shot is one of my favorite shots I’ve ever made!
@@Thom-TRA I'm just waiting to see if local RUclipsrs post views of possums and wombats running away from Puffing Billy's Train of Lights which is running at night through our Dandenong Ranges during our school holidays. Oh, by the way, have a great Independence Day next Tuesday!😉
Potomac Yard station reminds of the stations found in the LIRR, Metro North Railroad & Staten Island Railway. The layout of the station to be precise. I agree that we need more infill station/s for Subway or Railroad.
That train is the older 6000 series train. Originally the money train was a 1000 series train
I enjoyed the video👍👍
Greetings from Union Station... after 3 canceled flights, and no help from United to get home (they told us to rent a car and drive the 4 hours), we're on the dependable Northeast Regional instead. Thom, now that you're living in DC, you already look even more diplomatic than ever. Cheers!
Oof, sorry to hear your trip was so bad!
Nice, but the GW Parkway rocks!
Very useful to know those trash cans are bomb proof I’ll be alerting the masses :)
Didn't know Metra has a Virginia branch! 🤣
Lol and California too
technically gallery place in an infeild station as well
Yeah, sort of. It was already built though.
I've lived in the region for over 15 years, and used Metro daily (at different times of day) for 6 of those years, and I just saw the Metro money train for the first time a couple months ago.
I just rolled through this station for the first time a couple days ago. I didn't get out, but it looks nice. I like that it's got shelter the whole way, instead of just half the platform like a lot of the older stations. I have to stay in a hotel in Crystal City every year and I think this is going to replace the Crystal City stop for me. I think it's technically slightly further from the hotel, but seems like it'll be a much more pleasant walk.
Wonderful video!!! So much nicer than Chicago’s El… Miss you being in Chicago but glad you’re getting all settled and exploring your new home!!!
Missing Chicago but very happy here as well!
I suppose it was too close to Crystal City to put in a VRE/AMTRAK station connection. Pity. They had more space for a nicer one there that at CC. Nice report.
Crystal city has a lot more offices, businesses, and it’s closer to the airport. They’re redoing that station now.
I don't understand why the old alignment tracks were removed, it forces single-tracking whenever there's a medical emergency or police incident at a station platform itself
Those benches might be very cold on a winter morning, probably only downside
Hope to see the new station eventually, especially because of the advantage point for plane watching. But for me, coming to the area on Amtrak, I really like King St/Old Town Metro & Alexandria Amtrak Stations as they’re side by side and a great place for foamers. Congrats on 20k but now that you are in the DC area I hope this time next year we are celebrating 200k or more!!‼️
Thank you!
Plane watching is best done at Gravely Point…you’ll stand directly under planes landing or taking off. It’s the best when planes are landing south on the “River Visual” approach. Not Metro accessible, though you could walk, bike or scooter there from DC itself, or the DCA station. For a mix of trains, planes and helicopters in and out of the Pentagon (and even occasionally Marine One in and out of Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling) go to Long Bridge park and Boeing Fields. Easy walk from there to the Crystal City VRE station where you’re much closer to the trains, but can’t see any planes from that station.
@@jeffh5903 I was there just yesterday!
Wow what a beautiful station! I just googled it and I read that this had been planned by the Commonwealth since 1991? I visited ALX this Spring and I boarded at the Braddock Street and took a bus to my hotel in Old Town. NoVa has all the best infrastructure!
It takes so long because they overbuild them
Pittsburgh is giving DC Metro a run for their clean station money.
Long Bridge park is also a good place to railfan.
No way this station could handle caps wizards games in the future.
It would need major expansion for sure.
I didn't realise how quickly those trains can accelerate. It's almost dizzying.
Very nice. What inspired your move to the DC area?
Personal business
yo i saw you making this video!
You did?
@@Thom-TRA i’m always here taking the metro the nationals or wizards games
Lovely stuff! Was the rerouting merely for ease of construction or does it effectively shave some seconds from the time penalty of the extra stop? \m/
Ease of construction. It’s easier if possible to build it all up first, then connect tracks to it. Less track closures. It’s a fairly common method for infills.
@@Thom-TRA makes sense if the space is there, thank you \m/
It'd be yards if there was more than one of them but I have seen some where say the north end is used by one company and the other end by another although I don't know who owns what.Some freight companies allow other operators both passenger and freight to use their yards too which I think that they might have to due to monopoly laws?
Great video. You should buy a heap of those special smartcards and sell them to your dutiful subscribers :p
How much are you offering?
Awesome video, will swap you a potomac yard smart trip card for a merseyrail smart card?
Haha sure!
@@Thom-TRA what's ya email address?
Did you see the 8000 series exhibit?
I have not yet
Are the apartments still being built? There were hardly any passengers in the station or walkways. Seems promising, however. For all of its problems over the years, the DC Metro is still a very good system.
Back in the day, the Pennsylvania RR catenary ran into Potomac Yard, so freight trains used electric locomotives.
Thanks!
I was wondering why there were still catenary portals over by L’Enfant station!
Actually, quite a few people were at this station, I just don’t like to film them.
At 7:14, regarding your comment about the emergency alert system pylon’s camera being so low down to your belly-button level.
I’m not wheelchair bound, but I can see it being that low for wheelchair bound Metro riders to be able to be camera level with the dispatcher.
It was a joke
@@Thom-TRAlol no worries then. I do enjoy the train videos you have up. Washington DC used to be my city. Mt Vernon Sq was my stop. The other infill station that you mentioned (NoMa-Gallaudet) is my alma mater’s stop.
So the trip between King Street and downtown is now slower because of one additional station 🙂
Is any of the public space in the station "complex" climate controlled, or all open air ambiant with outside byt protected from wind? Did you spot any radiant heaters above platform or elsewhere to lkeep people warmer?
(I know this time of year, one doesn't think about heating but as a Canadian, it's someting one things about all the time :-)
Outdoor stations are fairly common on the DC metro outside of downtown DC and the subterranean stations. Silver Spring, Greenbelt, College Park, Rhode Island Ave, National Airport, there are tons of stations that have concrete canopies but are open sided. You just bundle up and hope for the best.
@@sebastianjoseph2828 Yeah I know there are plenry of outdoor stations, but Potomac Yard seemed to have portions that seemed almost "indoors". Note that DCA /Reagan has "indoor" area below platforms where fare payment and connecting corridor to main terminal is located even if upstairs is totally outdoors.
NOT FIRST!!1
Shame
I see they're following the recent tradition of other stations and having little to no places to sit.
There are benches all along the wall. And where do you want to sit when there’s no more than 4 minutes between trains?
So if those garbage cans weren't grounded and you tried touching them, you're telling me you actually come in contact with the 750 Volts third rail???
No, it’s for safety, just in case
@@Thom-TRAOh ok, I got it, in case if it rolls on to the track bed and actually strikes it then all hell will break loose, I thought there was a connection between the two!!
Colab with classy whale or miles in transit
I’ll collab with Caleb next time he’s in DC
FIRST!!!
You are indeed first 🎉
Too bad VA,DC,MD is starving $750 million from the system to run it properly.
It’s mostly VA’s fault from what I’ve heard
FIRST!!!!!
Nope you were three minutes too late still second though