Metro sees the opportunity to continue the Silver Line into DC (the former separated blue line proposal)

The Post/Express reports in "Metro mulls new downtown stops for fast Va. service," that the WMATA planners are considering leveraging the Silver Line extension to create another Potomac River crossing and additional stations in DC, including in Georgetown and Downtown ("What About a Faster Transit Route Between Dulles and the Core?"). The latter is what was referred to as "the separated blue line" in planning back in 2001-2003.

(Post graphic from 2001.)

FWIW, I suggested this in two blog entries in 2006, when I wrote that the problem of devolving responsibility for system expansion to the separate jurisdictions meant that planning as a system no longer occurred, and that the opportunity to use the Silver Line extension as a way to create the separated blue line was missed, because obviously it wasn't something important to the state of Virginia.

-- The "Downtown" Circulator and Rosslyn, Virginia (August 2006) -- note that this also suggested extending the Circulator bus into Rosslyn, which was done a year or two ago.

-- Blinking on urban design means you limit your chance for success (September 2006)

In 2008, David Alpert kindly did a visual, a map, for me in 2008 to accompany an entry on DC transportation planning, showing this idea.