Will Metro be able to handle the future?

Like Washington DC I feel the metro system is becoming increasingly congested. The District is a smaller “major” city when compared to the likes of NYC and other cities.DC’s metro system is also a smaller system when compared with the behemoths of other cities.

Yet everyone is saying that there is going to be a major increase in the population of DC and its metro region. This presents major problems for city planners. I’d like to know what they have in mind for the DC of the future. I’d like to recommend a book by Jeb Brugmann titled Welcome to the Urban Revolution: How Cities are Changing the World as a jumping off point for anyone reading this post as well.

As the population increases our public transportation infrastructure will be overwhelmed almost rendering it useless if nothing is done (you could say that about other city infrastructure as well). So how is WMATA going to deal with this reality?

While people may consider it normal to stand in a metro car packed like sardines during peak time usage, I do not consider that normal at all. Why are trains only eight cars? Can trains have more than eight cars if it were allowed? Why are there six car trains in the system? Can more trains be put into use? Can more personnel be hired to drive those trains?

In the end I guess the issue comes down to a lot more funding for WMATA which John Catoe the General Manager has been making the case for to the US Congress. I almost resign myself to feeling that there needs to be a national public transportation czar as well. I say that because WMATA isn’t the only transit authority that is having problems.