- 1 day ago
Charles Allen believes the Metro itself will be functional and have renovations done that are necessary. He also says the "gold line" bus system can be very effective.
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00:00find dc city council member charles allen i want to talk to charles about the news that
00:06work is going to be needed need to be done over at the stadium armory metro station we knew that
00:11already just how much work and how much it could cost is kind of the question this is at the
00:17rfk
00:172.0 site where there will be a new stadium there's only going to be 8 000 parking spots
00:22they're saying about half of fans or more could be taking public transportation so you're talking
00:26about 30 000 people coming and going from that stadium and the question is how's it going to
00:32work nbc had a report yesterday that it could take two hours for people to get out of the stadium
00:38based on how things are currently set up so we've got charles allen with us now charles thank you for
00:42a few minutes we really appreciate it how are you absolutely great to be with you again it's our
00:47pleasure so why don't we just start with the update i mean this was something you talked a lot about
00:52when we had you on many times leading up to the stadium i was team and still am we'll figure
00:58it
00:58out when we got to figure it out and guess what now it's time to figure it out so how
01:02do we do that
01:03yeah i mean none of this really comes as a big surprise right i mean i i was kind of
01:07outlining
01:08during the whole debate that the stadium armory station itself it's too old it's too small it wasn't
01:13going to cut it so we knew that we had to do something different um and i'm glad to see
01:17this is this
01:18is what we funded this is what we asked for was to do that kind of deep dive let's figure
01:22this thing
01:22out and then let's put the money behind it so we're going to get a brand new stadium armory station
01:28uh complete rehab i guess we can't call it new because it's there but it's a full rehab that'll
01:32really dramatically expand how many people can get in there which is great the other part that i'm
01:38really excited about is this east west gold line it's going to connect union station which is our red
01:43line stadium armory which of course is blue orange and silver so really it's going to be great for
01:49riders i mean folks you know for folks coming to a game or a concert it's going to be a
01:53great way to
01:54get there and connect but frankly it's going to be good for dc because it's going to help really
01:57connect our city east and west in a way that hadn't happened yet so it it sounds like it there's
02:04there is a plan in place to either improve renovate i don't know what the right word is i don't
02:08want to
02:08get anybody in trouble but sort of change the capacity of that current metro station so there is
02:12something in place now or no yeah i mean the the report that wamada is putting forward lays out
02:18the map lays out how we do it's got to be a full-scale renovation now you know you remember
02:23from our conversations i've been advocating that we need a new station as well at the intersection
02:28of oklahoma and benning and they don't recommend that because they can't get it done before opening
02:33day 2030 i'm disappointed in that because i i think that really if we're thinking big we're thinking big
02:38vision i think a new station would be phenomenal quick quick interruption sir sorry would that be on the
02:42east side of the river no that's on the north side of the campus that's still north okay got it
02:47yes that's right where benning road and oklahoma come together um and to me that would be a great
02:52way to to also spur more development think about the noma station for example 25 years ago when that
02:58thing was built people had a hard time seeing the vision but now you got tens of thousands of people
03:02that live around it businesses jobs parks it's great to me it's a missed opportunity but that that
03:08shouldn't we shouldn't be looking at like an either or proposition i think we can still get
03:12to that eventually but the the map that the roadmap that walmart is laying out it's a good plan i'm
03:18excited about it it's the floor though too it's not the ceiling so we can still keep building on and
03:23doing a lot more charles allen dc city council so what metro came out and said was we're not going
03:30to do
03:30the entirely new station but we need to dramatically upgrade this one so then who foots the bill on
03:37this well so that's where the funding comes in and we put in dollars into the deal remember that was
03:44one of the things we negotiated for was to make sure that we were having revenues going to be coming
03:48back into metro to help support this type of expansion and obviously the district is going to
03:52be putting up some of this some of what we do with wmata though we're always regional investments as
03:57well obviously you're going to have fans from virginia and maryland coming to events there so
04:02we'll figure out the funding there we've got dedicated streams coming in from the stadium
04:06development itself and so all of this is good news uh because we know what's going to cost we've got
04:12a
04:12vision and a plan everybody can get behind and now we're going to execute so this isn't this isn't
04:17kind of like a i mean you you were calling this to your credit this could be your i told
04:19you so moment
04:20but this doesn't come kind of as a blind side right it shouldn't be a blind side to anybody who's
04:25been
04:25paying attention i'll say that um we've known from day one stadium armory couldn't handle this
04:31so i understand you know the headlines of saying a two-hour wait just to get home um i could
04:39have
04:39called that months ago like we knew that so i think that wmata's study really just helps highlight for
04:45everybody how real this is but it does lay out very specific and concrete plans of how to address it
04:52and and that's something that we all need to get behind to make sure this happens i mean you guys
04:55remember when the ballpark was built we had to expand that station too just to be able to handle
05:00the capacity um on that one i think we we weren't using as much foresight uh in terms of building
05:05that
05:06out we kind of had to back our way into it here we got the benefit of a couple of
05:09years we can get
05:10this done and do it right so i know you were talking about getting a new station basically there
05:15essentially metro says it would cost a billion is that number accurate and then also they say they
05:22couldn't get it done or you guys couldn't get it done in time for the stadium to open is that
05:26fair
05:27too i think that part's fair i do think they would have a hard time getting that done by 2030
05:32which i
05:32think is the real driver behind their decision um listen i've been around for a while um i see people
05:38flash up a lot of numbers anytime something ends in a lot of zeros um i don't trust a number
05:43inherently when it just conveniently lands at one billion so i don't think that's actually what it
05:48would cost um so i'd push back on that but i do think it's realistic they'd have a hard time
05:53getting
05:53it done by 2030 to build a brand new station so let's put our energy on what we can get
05:58done let's
05:59get the stadium armory station completely reimagined and modernized and expanded let's get the transit
06:05center built that's been talked about let's get the gold line built and that that's going to be
06:09significant and it's going to help get folks there so that nobody's waiting two hours and frankly
06:14it connects better to our local businesses on h and binning um it's really just a better experience
06:19for riders so i want to double click on that with charles allen dc city council so this is where
06:24i'm
06:24going to show my virginia i guess okay if your virginia is showing yes my great your virginia is
06:31showing put it away uh when you start talking about buses i get so much less interested
06:39the gold line is buses right and then supposedly i'm just going to be riding on a bus in a
06:44lane
06:44where no one's going to be a jerk and and cut me off and i'm just going to get aren't
06:48you you should
06:49be excited we're calling it the gold line i mean you could call it the burgundy and gold line i
06:52guess
06:52but it's a gold line right burgundy and gold line is awesome i love that so but what is that
06:57it's
06:57buses it's not a train it's bus rapid transit so it is center run bus that runs very fast very
07:04frequent
07:04very reliable so you could you come in on metro and you get off at union station you're going to
07:09have a quick walk right up to the place where you're going to hop on you're going to get an
07:13express ride all the way out to rfk but here's the deal how long would that be roughly i don't
07:19even
07:19know uh i mean a bus rapid transit you're there in probably less than 10 minutes i would have said
07:2410 minutes okay so that so i'm metroing in from wherever i'm metroing in from the metro stop i get
07:30off at is union then i walk across a parking lot essentially hop on a bus and that takes me
07:34right to the stadium yeah yeah i mean think about how horrible that walk is right now from metro to
07:39to the stadium this is a fundamentally different experience but what's good about this for dc
07:44you know listen as my virginia friend coming in for an event that's great for you but this isn't
07:49going to run just on sundays eight times a year this is going to run every day and so for
07:53dc
07:54residents the ability to speed up bus travel so for everybody who needs to get to work get to school
07:59get to the grocery store get that doctor's appointment this speeds up transit so this is
08:04a win-win and i think it's really important so and charles allen with us here on grant nanny kind
08:09of has to give us some insight so that union station metro stop are you then going like way all
08:14the way
08:14through the station then up the stairs to like where i used to get the bolt bus to go to
08:17new york
08:17like is it is it up that way where it picks up because there's no way you could do it
08:20out front of
08:21union station right correct it's on the h street side so you're going to walk the same walk you'd walk
08:26up
08:26right now um i'm sure we can clean it up and make a little prettier for you but we can
08:30make it it's
08:31going to be a great i was going to ask respectfully yes but it's it's easy and convenient and a
08:36lot of
08:36people do that already that's right so it's a really quick way but if you know you've got a ride
08:41you can be at the stadium in less than 10 minutes you know you can count on that bus coming
08:45very
08:46quickly and reliably that becomes much more attractive than you having to transfer trains multiple times
08:52find your way over this is about making it convenient easy reliable and affordable and we
08:57can do that this plan lays that plan out so and that's park as you know sometimes you know on
09:03it's
09:04happened famous during playoff games where there's an announcement or it goes up on the big jumbo board
09:08hey the last metro train's leaving the station you guys have you know maybe 10 minutes to walk over
09:13there and it's kind of one of those cringeworthy things where people have to leave really meaningful
09:17games etc i can only envision that sunday night game right for for the football team or the monday
09:23night game etc where you might have some a similar issue or the last train to go this way that
09:28way
09:28etc talk about that if you wouldn't mind what's going to be the fix there the solution how's it
09:33all going to work well you know metro already has expanded hours so we don't really see that issue
09:38coming up anymore right because metro expanded their hours both for earlier service and for late night
09:42service we've got metro that runs 24 hours a day now too we've got multiple bus lines that run
09:4724 hours so i don't think you're going to see that experience just because of the way that that
09:52metros continue to expand and improve its service and its hours even at midnight on a sunday for
09:58sunday night football you can absolutely catch metro uh at midnight yeah it's running um this is also
10:04though where if we've got a special event for example let's say it's use your example monday night
10:07football it's going to run late um we have ways that we partner with different groups to to ensure
10:12extended hours but i don't think you're running to a problem there charles allen
10:17dc city council on grant and danny so we're in a place timeline and money wise where if we're
10:24forecasting a week one opener in 2030 whatever it costs you would know better than i with the
10:30escalators and all of the changes that are going to be done i heard there's only one elevator over
10:34there you think all that gets done in time that it's not a two and a half hour wait it's
10:38fairly
10:38seamless for that first game i think we can get it done i do i think that everybody's got to
10:45move with
10:45urgency and i think that's why i've been pushing so hard to get ddot our department of transportation
10:50and wmata to get their plan together the next step is now let's get these agreements in place
10:55the deal we made puts the funding in already so we know that we can fund this and get it
11:00done
11:01so now it's time to execute and i think we all need to have just a constant sense of urgency
11:06to get
11:07it done but it starts with a really solid plan and that's what we got in front of us now
11:10all right this is another question where i don't know what i'm talking about but you probably do
11:15because you're with enough authority and everybody will believe it that's true but you you're not just
11:20on the city council correct me if i'm wrong but you're involved in the transportation side of it
11:23right like you're on that yes i i chair the transportation committee got it so the streetcar
11:29debacle whatever that thing was i i just say the word streetcar to people from dc and they just like
11:34turn into water it's like they just like oh no why was that so bad and why will the bus
11:40thing be
11:40better or are they not related in any way no it's a that's a great question so the streetcar failed
11:46because it never was part of a network all it did was just run a short link part of what
11:51is got to be
11:52and what is in part of this plan is that a gold line at a but center run center lane
11:57run bus rapid
11:58transit it's not just a novelty that runs from union station to the rfk campus the plan lays it out
12:04all
12:05the way east through ward 7 connecting other metro rail stations and neighborhoods and it runs all the
12:10way west all the way into virginia so when this gets built out it's part of a network in a
12:15system
12:16not just a novelty and that's going to be the big difference uh and why you're going to see it
12:20work
12:20because it's got to be part of a bigger system not just a little novelty ride up and down h
12:24street
12:25uh council member help me with this if you don't mind again i'm not a professional council member
12:29either so i i speak out of ignorance on this one what's the team's role in this because again
12:33obviously you guys probably talked about every permutation and dotted every i crossed every t
12:37they probably were part of some of these conversations as well where do they stand
12:42i think they're going to be excited about this as well because they see for you know they've said
12:47they're committed this is going to be a transit first stadium you know yeah i heard when you when
12:52you opened up this this segment you said you know there's only 8 000 parking spots my gosh 8 000
12:57is a
12:58lot so say only 8 000 we know for this to be successful we have to get people there by
13:02transit
13:03this is not a suburban stadium it's in a city it makes no sense to build oceans of asphalt parking
13:08we've talked about that you know all last year so to make this work it's got to be transit that
13:13investment in our metro rail and our metro bus to help get people there and i think the team's
13:18going to be excited about this because it helps fulfill that vision and they have every incentive
13:23for us and to help push us as partners to make sure that we're delivering on this and executing
13:28because they need it for 2030 we need it for 2030 so i think we're all going to be good
13:32partners on
13:33this i'm glad that you brought up the the parking situation because the nbc4 story yesterday they
13:40said that either their research or whoever they've talked to has suggested that about half of people
13:44will take public transportation which is 30 000 but if there's only 8 000 parking spots where's the
13:49rest i mean i'm thinking it's going to be like 45 or 50 000 public transport like where are people
13:54where are the other people parking well remember i don't know how many football games you go to where
14:00you just drive by yourself a lot of people most people don't just do solo trips in a car to
14:05to
14:05that we know that we'll have people drive we also expect much like we see at audi field or at
14:10the
14:10ballpark there's a good chunk of folks who take ride share so they'll be taking ubers and lifts
14:14a good number of people walk or take bikes i mean they're building a bike valet in this the same
14:19way
14:19look go down to nats ballpark at a baseball game and you're going to see that bike valet completely packed
14:23out so the idea is to get people here in a lot of different ways there will be people who
14:28drive
14:28there will be thousands of people who drive but we've got to make sure the other ways work so that
14:32you're here by metro if you want to be able to take your bike if you want to walk if
14:36you're catching an
14:36uber whatever it is that's the mix is what we're really working on and i think we'll get 30 35
14:42000
14:42people taking transit but i've said this from the beginning if we build 20 000 parking spaces then 20 000
14:49people have an expectation that they're driving so we've got to do it the right way make sure that
14:54it's a good healthy balance and mix and i think that's where we're headed what kind of what's our
14:58timeline here i know obviously 2030 park opens but um just in terms of next steps for you guys and
15:04approvals and all that other sort of stuff what's our timeline i don't think we're the data waste i
15:09mean i think we've got to stay aggressive on our timeline so the wmata board so that's the board of
15:13directors for our metro system they have to approve this and that's coming before them i believe
15:17tomorrow actually uh to for them to approve and get this going and then it's the the hard work
15:22working with our department of transportation a lot of that that groundwork has already been laid
15:25they're very excited about this project um so i i think that you're going to see us try not to
15:31to waste a single day on our event horizon we got to make sure we're moving forward moving forward
15:35quickly charles allen dc city council with us on grant and danny providing excellent and important
15:42insight as we get closer and closer to breaking ground on a new stadium at rfk 2.0 charles thank
15:48you we really appreciate it as always anytime anything important's going on uh we'd love to
15:53chat with you about it you got it guys reach out anytime uh good to talk to you thank you
15:57sir
15:57always love talking to charles
15:59you
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