- 47 minutes ago
People have voiced concerns about the Metro situation at the Commanders' new stadium opening in 2030. Metro CEO Randy Clarke joins the show to detail their plans.
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00:00Also, it's a Scotty's Vodka Red Bull Friday, brought to you by Scotty's Vodka.
00:05And joining us now in studio.
00:07Now, this is water in here.
00:09Joining us in studio.
00:10He's ready to go on Scotty's Vodka Red Bull Friday.
00:13You know, occasionally we have the Fridays where we will have some Scotty's.
00:17Yeah.
00:18Yeah, you know.
00:18Yeah, maybe after this segment.
00:20We've got the GM and CEO of Metro, Randy Clark, joining us in studio.
00:25It's a pleasure to have you with us, Randy.
00:27Hey, guys, thanks for having me.
00:28Thanks for having me.
00:28And sitting next to B. Mitch, that's a Friday, right?
00:31We were talking about drinks with B. Mitch on Friday.
00:32I like it.
00:33Adam Tuss is a jealous guy right now.
00:35Yeah, it's true.
00:35You know, I almost went to Saskatchewan to play football.
00:38Rough Riders.
00:39Yep.
00:39Yeah, yeah.
00:40CFL, three downs and a bigger ball.
00:42It was 50 degrees in August, and I decided being from Louisiana, that would not be a good move.
00:46Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:47And by the way, you had a Hall of Fame career.
00:49You should be.
00:50And so you did pretty well for yourself.
00:51Appreciate you.
00:52Appreciate you.
00:52We were talking a little hockey beforehand.
00:54What did you think of the cap season this year?
00:56And you think we get another year of Ovi?
00:58I'd love to see another year of Ovi, because the Ovi-Crosby thing, I think we got a little
01:01more gas in that tank.
01:02I went to Ovi's big party when he got the goal.
01:05You know, Ted and the team invited me over and talked to some of the guys.
01:10And I grew up, you know, I grew up dreaming, playing professional hockey as a little kid
01:14started skating when I was like probably two years old.
01:16Now I run trains and buses, so you've got to have multiple skills in this life.
01:21But yeah, I mean, the Caps are an awesome experience here.
01:25You know, this is a great sports town.
01:26It's a super fun town, and I hope we get another year of Ovi.
01:30That'd be cool.
01:30You speak of working with trains and buses.
01:33I grew up playing with trains.
01:34Oh, there you go.
01:35There you go.
01:35There we should swap.
01:37I don't think I do nearly as good a job as you do.
01:39Oh, well, appreciate that.
01:40The team does a great job.
01:41We have 13,000 teammates and really proud to work with them every day.
01:45It's a great organization.
01:46So the reason we have you in studio, obviously, Adam Tuss had a report the other day talking
01:51about maybe not having a new station at the RFK site.
01:54Before we get into that, was this something, when you saw the Harris Ownership Group took
01:58over with the commanders, was this something that you're thinking, all right, they're probably
02:02going to get back to the RFK site?
02:03And so you were working on that before we officially knew that they were going to that site?
02:06Yeah.
02:07For us, listen, very complex for us, just for listeners, right?
02:11So we are not part of the district, Metro.
02:13So some people think that.
02:14Our actual governance structure is, I have board members from D.C., Maryland, and Virginia
02:19in the federal government.
02:20So, and every year I got to get money from D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and the federal government.
02:24So nobody ever are in line.
02:27Well, so we're innately, there's a lot of politics in our region to get in line.
02:31And remember at the time, you know, Maryland and Virginia are both chasing the commanders
02:34as well.
02:35So we kind of had a hunch that RFK, because, you know, it is the ancestral home, if you
02:40will, I think, as Josh Harris says.
02:43And we also have a station there.
02:44So when people talk no new station, we already have a station there, and it's called Stadium
02:48Armory.
02:48It's literally named Stadium.
02:50And, but the problem we have is that station really can't handle what this new amazing
02:56experience is going to be.
02:57Not just the stadium, but the neighborhood that's going to get built kind of to supplement
03:01the Kingman Park neighborhood.
03:02So, you know, we're down here in Half Street, like the experience when you come out of Metro
03:06on Half Street to go to a Nats game is amazing, because it's very transit-oriented.
03:12People in jerseys, they're chanting, have a few drinks before, after, do their whole
03:16thing.
03:16We want to create that.
03:17So we've been working hand-in-glove with the commanders, Mark Clouse and his team,
03:20great people.
03:21Obviously, the district, the mayor, her leadership has been awesome, and it's going to be her
03:25legacy of what she accomplished here, the council.
03:27This is a team effort, and we have got to figure out a way to get 70,000 people to
03:32rock
03:33RFK.
03:33So when you, the article comes out, and I think when people don't hear a new site, a new
03:40Metro station won't be built, what's, like, if you were to upgrade the old one, can that
03:47kind of fit it, and with the fast buses?
03:49Yeah.
03:49So what we need to do is we've got to fix the current station we have, right?
03:53So what's good, just so people, and probably a lot of your listeners are probably actually
03:57sucking cars.
03:58See, traffic, get on Metro.
03:59We'll get a little more pitch here.
04:00Well, if they have biked the work day, they should be on the bicycle.
04:02Yeah, there you go, biking.
04:03Yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:04So just watch those Red Bulls too early.
04:07So we've got a ton of capacity underground.
04:10So if you go to the subway and the Metro, we're good.
04:11We have three subway lines that go through there, like blue, orange, and silver.
04:15We're going to push so many trains to there.
04:16So we're going to have tons of capacity.
04:18The issue is we've got to get people from the surface down, and that's where a big problem.
04:22So if you ever did July 4th in National Mall, we handle that very well.
04:25But we take about an hour and a half to clear the National Mall, right?
04:29If we don't change the way Stadium Armory is set up, we're going to have probably two-hour
04:33waits for people.
04:34No one's going to want to spend $500 to go see the Commanders or a Beyonce concert and
04:38wait two hours.
04:38Yeah.
04:39Let alone if it's cold, if it's raining, and all the other kind of stuff, right?
04:42And then the people that are going to live there and the hotels and all the other kind
04:44of stuff.
04:44So what we need to do is modify that station.
04:47We have no elevators actually on the side of the station where the stadium is.
04:52So clearly that's a problem.
04:54We've got to put some elevators in.
04:55We've got to fix the elevator on the other side.
04:57And we want to kind of change the escalators and what we call mezzanine.
05:00So at Metro, you kind of go down the first escalator.
05:03You're into a mezzanine to go down to the platform.
05:05What we want to do is create a bigger mezzanine.
05:08If you've ever been to, say, a foggy bottom or some of our bigger stations, the mezzanine
05:11goes halfway across the platform.
05:13And what that allows us to do is distribute the crowds.
05:16Our platforms are 600 feet long, and we have eight-car train sets.
05:19And when we do that, then everyone can quickly get on eight cars, we seal them up, train
05:24out.
05:24Next one can come in, on and on and on, and we can really move tens of thousands of people
05:29pretty well.
05:30The problem we have now, it's one funnel from the street.
05:34And so that's why we have to modify that station.
05:36The second, so then the station's going to work great.
05:39The second thing we have to do, and you mentioned B, Mitch, is this rapid bus.
05:42Bus rapid transit, which we don't really do well locally, but it's done very well around
05:47the world and other parts of the U.S., dedicated lanes where the buses can have, you know, get
05:53away from traffic.
05:54We can move thousands of people between Union Station and the RFK site with limited X amount
06:00of stations.
06:00So it'll almost feel like the streetcar, what it could have, should have been.
06:04But we'll do that with buses, cheaper, more flexible, but really high quality.
06:08And we'll have a transit center on the campus, and we're working with the commanders of the
06:12city on that.
06:12And so we spread, again, the crowd from the campus and at the stations themselves.
06:17Everyone can kind of move faster, have a great experience.
06:19We distribute them through the site.
06:21People can enjoy restaurants and the bars and the activities.
06:24And it makes Bedding Road better for the people who live there all the time, not just
06:28for the games.
06:29It makes 8th Street way better.
06:31People have been promised a lot of stuff at 8th Street for a lot of time, and we should
06:34fulfill that and have really high quality transit for the people that live there.
06:38I mean, it's one of our busiest corridors today, and it's everyone stuck in traffic and
06:42not moving.
06:42So this is just transformational in so many ways, and we're just excited to be part of
06:47it.
06:47Where does the funds come from that?
06:49All those four different places you named?
06:51No.
06:51Well, so the way we do it, again, the governance is kind of unique.
06:54So when we do additions that are not kind of a regional project, so we were building,
06:59like upgrading our maintenance stuff.
07:01That's a regional kind of fund.
07:02But these would be district-based funding.
07:05And I say that because right now we're building a new second entrance at Bethesda for the
07:10Purple Line interface.
07:12Maryland's paying for that.
07:13We're building a second entrance at Crystal City, where Amazon headquarters, and that
07:16interface, they're paying for that.
07:18We're doing a second one at Ballston just to start.
07:20Northern Virginia's paying for that one as well.
07:22So that's kind of been the history of how this comes together.
07:24I'm not saying that's the greatest, or good or bad.
07:27It's just what it is.
07:28So we've been working really closely.
07:30I give a lot of credit.
07:31Obviously, the mayor's been an awesome lead on this, and I've worked really closely with
07:34her.
07:35But Chair Mendelsohn, Council Member Allen, Transportation Chair, they put a fund together
07:41as when they did the, remember the big deal and they got all the votes?
07:43One of those items was hundreds of millions of dollars for a transit metro improvement
07:48fund.
07:48But we had to figure out what that meant.
07:50So it was kind of a placeholder, and we knew we would have to do some of this.
07:53So we spent $2 million to do a study, and we have rapid fire here to say, hey, is
07:58this going to work?
07:59Is this not going to work?
08:00And give us kind of really a sense.
08:02Now we came out yesterday with our board to talk about what we think we really got to
08:06get done.
08:06I'll tell you, our issue is four years, most people think it's a long time, four years
08:12to go build all this stuff means we got to start yesterday.
08:15So what we're trying to do is work with the district to get an agreement done by towards
08:19the end of July.
08:20That'll give certainty around funding and roles, responsibilities, get design wrapped up
08:25over the, you know, by the winter, a lot of community engagement, especially probably
08:29the H Street corridor, and then rock and roll into procurement, design, you know, construction,
08:33and then testing and all the other kind of stuff.
08:35So it's going to take a team effort, Metro, the city, commanders, everyone together to
08:41make sure that summer 2030, we are awesome and ready to go, and people are going to have
08:45a world-class experience.
08:46We're joined in studio by the GM and CEO of Metro, Randy Clark.
08:50So we had Charles Allen on our station, our afternoon show, Grant and Danny, a little bit
08:54earlier this week, and he was talking about the billion-dollar number that was thrown out
08:57about building a new station.
08:58He said he was a little skeptical on whether it truly would be a billion.
09:01So the question I would have is, how did you come up with the billion-dollar figure to
09:05build a new station?
09:05And also, how did you come to the idea that, you know, going to the stadium armory and upgrading
09:10that is feasible to be able to function and carry everybody necessary to get to RFK?
09:15Yeah, great question.
09:17So I appreciate the council member's comment, and it's obviously very supportive of our goal
09:20line, and we've been working closely with tons of stuff.
09:22So the real thing here is, it's not a billion dollars for a station.
09:26It's really, we've got to fundamentally change the entire track structure to allow us to have
09:29a station.
09:30So if you go look at the fields today, you'll see what we call a portal, and the trains come
09:35out of the portal.
09:35They go up this huge grade.
09:37Like, it's really steep what the trains go up.
09:39So just as it gets flat, it goes around a big curve to go across the river.
09:43So Metro, we need to build a station.
09:45Remember, 600 feet long station, and then there's got to be past that as well for kind
09:49of support stuff.
09:50We need that to be on flat track and straight track.
09:53That doesn't exist there.
09:54So for, and we put a billion, it could be more.
09:57We're just trying to kind of come up with an estimate.
09:58We'd have to kind of blow out from the tunnel, from that portal, create a new, what we would
10:02call a flyover or overpass.
10:04So you know how the elevated structure's there?
10:06We'd have to build a second one to create a flat enough area to build a station to then
10:11merge past the river.
10:13So the engineering, we don't want to say it's impossible because for enough money, anything's
10:17possible, but that's throwing a lot of money at something that doesn't provide.
10:20And what it really doesn't do, it doesn't have any capacity at all because it's still
10:23blue, orange, and silver trains.
10:24So let's say a train hits this hypothetical new station in the sky.
10:29The train is a hundred percent full.
10:31Then it gets the state of memory station.
10:33Then we can't put anyone on the train.
10:34So for us, it's about circulation of people, not another station.
10:38The other station would not help in any way.
10:40And I think people forget how close this station is into the campus.
10:45It's about the same walk.
10:46I walk every day to my metro station or where we're sitting here to Nats Park.
10:50So it's not that it's far, but the gold line is also part of that.
10:54So it's much bigger than the station.
10:57We kind of use language to try to make it easier for people to understand, but this is
11:00like fundamentally blowing up the whole alignment that exists there.
11:04And if you wanted to build all the new stuff and say, you said it wouldn't be realistic
11:07to get it done by 2030.
11:08With the improvements to the stadium armory, that could be done by 2030?
11:12Again, we're going to push really hard here and the city's been great, but we need an
11:18agreement, we think, by July because we got to do a public, like everything we do is
11:24public, right?
11:24So public design process, community process, wrap up environmental, then public procurement,
11:31open procurement law, and then actually do the construction.
11:34And another big thing about construction for us, so the commanders, listen, building
11:37the stadium is a big thing, but it's an open field now.
11:40And so it's going to be a big thing, but they got that fenced off and it's their zone.
11:43We got to figure out how to upgrade stadium armory station and we run a train every three
11:48minutes in each direction at peak hour.
11:50So that means weekend shutdowns, overnight work, all that kind of stuff.
11:54So it's kind of running a marathon while having a heart attack for us.
11:58Cause there's no, you can't just go out, we will run the trains in that area for four
12:02months and build a station because it connects to new Carrollton, Largo and all these other
12:07places.
12:07Like, so that's not an option for us.
12:09So it's, we have a lot of construction sequencing plus we have all these other things all over
12:13the region that we work on as well.
12:15So we're all in, we want to make this successful.
12:18We want the district to be successful.
12:19We want our region to be successful.
12:20We want the commanders to be successful.
12:21And I think, I think it's going to be really awesome.
12:23If you get the improvements to the station that's there, will you be able to confidently
12:28say that, you know what?
12:29Superbowl come, we should be able to handle this.
12:31Oh, it's not going to overtake anything.
12:33You know who I can't wait for, uh, Roger Goodell, Josh Harris to say, talk to them.
12:39They like, they like to put money into stuff to say, to say, NFL has no money.
12:45Come on.
12:45I'm joking.
12:46When there's a new stadium being built, they like to throw a little, I think it, I think
12:50we all know the dream here is Atlanta Superbowl.
12:52But the other thing is how about women's world cup?
12:55There's been talk about that.
12:56That would be amazing.
12:57Um, you know, maybe someday we can host the Olympics that, that started a kick, you know, 15
13:01years ago or 10 years ago, maybe that stadium allows us to have those conversations again.
13:06The Taylor Swift, the Beyonce shows, uh, feet, like some of the, this FIFA match this summer,
13:10clearly we'd be hosting if we had this brand new stadium, right?
13:13Maybe the final, quite frankly.
13:14Uh, the upside here is so big and that sports center that the mayor is putting together for
13:20the kids, that's going to be incredible.
13:23Um, you know, look at Navy Yard today, 20 years ago, this was like a bunch of parking lots
13:27and you know what started all Metro Metro.
13:30Metro, this station created everything around here.
13:33Noma station, that infill station in, uh, 2005, I guess it was about that opened.
13:38We now move over 30,000 people a day at that station.
13:41So where Metro goes, everything just happens.
13:44And, uh, and it's so fun when you go to an awesome city that has a transit oriented kind
13:49of sporting environment, kind of like the, even like the monumental has for the capital
13:52one, there's just a feel there.
13:54The bars are full.
13:55People are excited.
13:55You go to a spirit or DC United game.
13:58Uh, we want to bring that energy here.
14:00And then, you know, with 70,000, 70,000 people chanting, that's going to be pretty cool.
14:04That'd be a lot of people.
14:05You mentioned the gold line and adding buses.
14:08How is that going to affect traffic?
14:10And you've mentioned that maybe DC hasn't been the best at that in the past.
14:12How confident are you to implement that pretty well?
14:15Like you've seen another city.
14:16Well, we're going to need, uh, like it's not our street, right?
14:18So it's going to be a team effort.
14:19Everything's a team effort.
14:20We're going to have to lock in.
14:21And, and I would basically say, are we going to do stuff for a lot of people or stuff for
14:24a few people?
14:25And that might mean, you know, some parking is going to have to move on H street, which
14:29has been these, the political stuff of parking.
14:31But, and I say this hypothetically, but if we were going to lose 25 parking spaces and
14:35that allowed thousands of people to have better transit that live there, the businesses are
14:39there year round, the residents there plus for all these game and big events and make
14:43H street kind of almost an extension of the campus for economic development.
14:46Wouldn't that be a great community outcome that we're after?
14:48So those are the hard trade-offs that we have to have as a conversation.
14:53And the streetcar showed, like the streetcar, a guy could go in for a delivery at Uber
14:58Eats and double park and the train doesn't move with a hundred people on it.
15:01I mean, that's not, what's the sense of building all this stuff if you're not going to have
15:05people move it, right?
15:06Our job is to move a lot of people efficiently.
15:08And if you do that, everyone in cars, like, like if you're out there driving and you're
15:11listening to this right now and you're like, I hate Metro and this guy's full of whatever.
15:15The number one thing you should want is everyone else on Metro, right?
15:18Metro is not just for people to take it.
15:20Metro is to make it better for everyone else.
15:23So if you have a van and you do construction or electrician or catering business, you can't
15:28be on Metro.
15:29You want everyone else to ride Metro.
15:31And so the better we perform, the more traffic goes down and the more people can live a better
15:35life here.
15:36Yeah.
15:37I mean, when you look at what this stadium is going to have about 8,000 parking spots
15:40compared to what they've got now at Northwest, it's so, so much fewer.
15:44What do you estimate is going to be the amount of traffic that Metro is going to handle going
15:48into games?
15:48Yeah.
15:48Right now we're thinking it could be a good 30,000 people on Metro going between these
15:53two lines.
15:53Like, think of how awesome that is.
15:55But for like, and one thing we do really well, we're awesome at moving big crowds.
15:59We know how to do this if the infrastructure is set up.
16:01So like Smithsonian, we move major crowds all the time there, but it's cherry, look at
16:07Cherry Blossom.
16:07Like there'll be a Saturday at Cherry Blossom.
16:09We knock off like, just for you got like the listeners, like yesterday we moved better part
16:12of a million people.
16:13Wow.
16:14To give you the idea of Metro between rail and bus, right?
16:16So we know how to move people.
16:18If we have the transit supportive infrastructure, we know how to get this done.
16:22We have a big police department.
16:23We work, public safety is a big thing for us.
16:25By the way, lowest crime we've ever had in the history of Metro, right?
16:29Last year and this year.
16:30So the place is safe.
16:31We're running the fastest trains we've run in 20 years.
16:35Highest reliability April we've had in a long, long time.
16:38So we'll have some issues from time to time, but the system's humming really well.
16:41Gas prices are expensive.
16:43This area is a very expensive place to live.
16:45We want to be that affordable way that people can kind of get around.
16:48So we're really excited.
16:49You know, this is a lot of human beings are going to work really hard to make this happen.
16:56And I think we, you know, MetLife Stadium tried this.
16:59Do you remember the kind of big disaster that happened at MetLife Stadium, right?
17:02When they hosted Super Bowl, and it was a four-hour wait.
17:05We know we don't want that.
17:07And therefore, we're going to be very prepared with the city and with the district and with the team to
17:13make sure this is, you know, a world-class experience.
17:15Not just a world-class stadium, but the experience has to be world-class.
17:18We may need a Metro just for the apple, I mean, cherry blossoms, because you got to let people understand.
17:24They can't park on the street and take pictures for cherry blossoms.
17:27Yeah, it's kind of weird, isn't it?
17:27You're on Independence every morning?
17:29Yeah, yeah, yeah.
17:29That is the worst time in the world.
17:30Yeah, and it's also, it's so beautiful, and we are so busy.
17:35Like, we just, like, we'll have a Saturday where, like, 500,000, 600,000 people take rail down to, like,
17:40and we're just packed, you know?
17:41But here's what we'll do.
17:42Like, on a day like that, we might have cherry blossom crowds, we'll have a Nats game, could be a
17:47DC United or Spirit game, and if the Caps or the Wizards, they get the end of the season.
17:51So, in the same day, on one or two subway lines, we're going to be managing all those people.
17:56That's just what we do all the time.
17:58We just need the infrastructure to be ready to, you know, one elevator at the wrong end isn't going to
18:02work, right?
18:03I think some of the stuff is pretty obvious when you see it.
18:05A lot of people haven't actually stood outside the metro at Stadium Armory and thought about it.
18:10They think from their kid days, or they saw it on a map.
18:13If you go out there, you quickly go, oh, I can see what's going to happen here.
18:17And it's, like, the walk...
18:18Yeah, Jeff rides it.
18:19Yeah, but the walk today is obviously bad.
18:22The walk when this thing's over is going to be amazing because it's going to be part of the experience.
18:26Yeah.
18:26You know, the commanders and that whole kind of entryway into the stadium, like the fan zone, it's just going
18:32to be awesome.
18:33What's your confidence level that this stuff is going to happen?
18:36Uh, we are prepared.
18:38If the city is ready to activate the MOU, we are going to go all in.
18:43And if we're going to do something, we're going to get it done on time.
18:47Last thing, you mentioned...
18:49Well, I won't be allowed to go to the opening game, that's for sure.
18:52You mentioned...
18:52I get booed enough.
18:53You know, guys, see what a guy tweeted at me last night?
18:55Yeah, I did.
18:56That was awesome.
18:57What a punchable face.
18:57I was like, that is...
18:58I was like, what a crowd I'm going into here.
19:01Yeah, yeah, yeah.
19:02You mentioned if nothing gets done, you're thinking two plus hours.
19:05What is your ideal timeline to get fans out and some of the procedures if you get the upgrades and
19:09everything necessary?
19:10So, and remember, every experience is going to be a little different.
19:13So, a game...
19:14Like a one o'clock Sunday game is going to be a totally different experience than a Sunday night game.
19:18One o'clock game, and I think I'm sure the commanders want this.
19:20And no issues like a Sunday night game.
19:22No issues of people having to leave games early.
19:24No, but Sunday night...
19:24No, no, we took care of that.
19:26With the commanders, actually.
19:27And new ownership here.
19:29And new leadership in Metro.
19:30We changed our whole policy.
19:31We worked with them.
19:32We're good.
19:33They do advertising with us.
19:34We stayed open late twice last year for them.
19:37We'll do it again.
19:37I think...
19:38Awesome.
19:38What we got this year?
19:39Monday night, two Monday nights.
19:40Monday night, Thursday night, Sunday night.
19:41And a Sunday night.
19:42So, yeah.
19:42Because schedules came.
19:43I'm sure you guys talked about that.
19:44So, we'll be there to support that.
19:46Make sure people get from Morgan Boulevard and make that happen.
19:49So, you know...
19:51Toby, the difference is a Sunday night experience, everyone's going to leave at the same time.
19:54Yeah.
19:54That's going to take longer.
19:56A Saturday or Sunday afternoon experience, people are going to drag around, go to have a couple...
19:59Do their thing.
20:00That's going to be different.
20:01So, you know, part of this is how much we can make the goal line work well, distribute people.
20:06Because part of the idea is, if you're on the red line, so Montgomery County or anywhere in the district
20:10in the red line, we want you to get to Union Station or, say, VRE or Mark Trains.
20:14We want you to then go from Union Station on the goal line over versus going to Metro Center and
20:19getting blue, orange, and silver.
20:20So, then we can distribute everybody.
20:22If we can get that done right, we're going to really reduce that time and allow people to get on
20:26trains and get out of there pretty fast.
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