Green Line (WMATA) - Service

Service

Service on the Green Line tracks began on May 11, 1991 on three stations between U Street/African-American Civil War Memorial/Cardozo and Gallery Place–Chinatown. Initially, all trains through this section were run as Yellow Line trains terminating at Huntington. The Green Line formally began on December 28, 1991, with three stations south of L'Enfant Plaza to Anacostia. At this time, Yellow Line service north of Mount Vernon Square was discontinued and those stations were served only by the new Green Line. The four-station branch north of Fort Totten to Greenbelt opened on December 11, 1993. The two segments were connected on September 18, 1999, with two stations opening, and the last five stations south to Branch Avenue opened on January 13, 2001, completing the original 101-mile (163 km) Metrorail system.

After the branch north of Fort Totten opened, the Green Line Commuter Shortcut began as a six-month experiment on January 27, 1997, allowing passengers to get on a train on the Green Line segment during rush hours and travel as far as Farragut North on the Red Line without having to switch trains at Fort Totten; a transfer was needed during off-peak hours. This was accomplished by utilizing a single-track spur (B & E connection) between the Green and Red Lines near (and bypassing) Fort Totten station. This shortcut was so well-received that it was continued until September 17, 1999, when the mid-city portion of the Green Line was completed.

In 2006, WMATA board member Jim Graham and D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams proposed re-extending Yellow Line service to Fort Totten or even to Greenbelt, which was the originally planned northern terminus for the line. Their proposal did not involve construction of any new track, because either extension would run along the same route as the existing Green Line and would thus relieve crowding on that line. Suburban members of the board initially resisted the proposal. Through a compromise that also increased service on the Red Line, on April 20, 2006 the WMATA board approved a Yellow Line extension to the Fort Totten station during off-peak hours. An 18-month pilot program began on December 31, 2006, at a cost of $5.75 million to the District of Columbia. As of 2011, the off-peak service continues.

Internally, the Green Line is known as the Greenbelt Route (E) and the Branch Avenue Route (F), which meet at the center of the lower level platform of Gallery Place-Chinatown station (whose Remote Terminal Unit (RTU) code is F01, the first station on the Branch Avenue Route).