List of Washington Metro Stations

List Of Washington Metro Stations

The Washington Metro (commonly called Metro, and unofficially Metrorail) is the rapid transit system of Washington, D.C., and neighboring communities in Maryland and Virginia, both inside and outside the Capital Beltway. It is the second busiest in the United States, behind the New York City Subway.

The Washington Metro system was conceived as an alternative to the construction of a large freeway system throughout the Washington, D.C. area, and was partially financed with funds originally dedicated to highway construction. Construction began in 1969, and in 1976 the first section of the Metro system opened along the Red Line between the Rhode Island Avenue and Farragut North stations in Washington, D.C. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, more stations were opened in the city and the suburban communities of Arlington County, the City of Alexandria, and Fairfax County in Virginia as well as Montgomery and Prince George's Counties in Maryland. Eventually, five rail lines were opened: the Red, Blue, Green, Orange, and Yellow Lines. The system as originally planned was completed in 2001 with the extension of the Green Line to Branch Avenue. Since then, three stations have been opened, all in 2004: the extension of the Blue Line to the Largo Town Center and Morgan Boulevard stations and the first in-fill station, New York Ave–Florida Ave–Gallaudet University Metro station (to be renamed NoMa – Gallaudet University with the June 2012 edition of the official Metro map).

As of 2011, there are 86 stations on the five lines in the Metro system. Eleven more are proposed as part of the planned Silver Line, which is projected to open its first section in late 2013, and an infill station, Potomac Yard, is planned to open in 2016 on the Yellow and Blue lines.

Nine Metrorail stations are officially designated transfer stations, although some intermediate stations also allow passengers to transfer between lines. Six stations have separate upper and lower levels to accommodate transfers between perpendicular lines. Ten stations are termini, stations at the end of lines.

As of June 2011, Union Station was the busiest station in the system, with an average of 33,697 passenger boardings per weekday. Eight of the top ten busiest stations are in the District of Columbia. Metro Center, a transfer point for the Blue, Orange, and Red Lines, is the busiest transfer station with 28,983 boardings. Shady Grove in suburban Montgomery County, Maryland was the busiest terminus with 13,856 passenger boardings per weekday.