Missing obvious opportunities to strengthen rail-based transit systems: Philadelphia Navy Yard and improvements to the transit "network"/platform

I have a piece about why the Manhattan Institute is wrong in saying that light rail systems shouldn't prioritize connections to airports ("Manhattan Institute misses the point about the value of light rail transit connections to airports | Utility and the network effect: the transit network as a platform"), making the point that the more key nodes within a metropolitan area are served by transit, the more useful is the system.

Similarly, the success of the NoMA Metrorail infill station on the Red Line in DC, which has triggered billions of dollars in new investment, and a sixfold rise in residential property values in one of the four districts served by the station (NoMA business district; Union Market; Eckington neighborhood; neighborhood north of H Street and south of Florida Avenue) demonstrates that strengthening the transit network in ways that open up latent value by improving mobility access is one of the best public investments you can make in urban revitalization.

-- "Transportation infrastructure as a key element of civic architecture/economic revitalization #1: the NoMA Metrorail Station ," 2016

In fact, witnessing the impact of that station is what led me to so significantly focus on transit in my writings and thinking about these issues.

Union Station railyard with MARC commuter train in the foreground.  The NoMA subway station is in the right top of the photo, and a section of the office district is shown to the west of the railyard.

So I am just floored that only now is the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation and SEPTA, the regional transit agency, looking at the provision of better transit connections--more bus services--to the Philadelphia Navy Yard, which is a major and growing employment center in the city ("SEPTA may add bus service to Navy Yard to ease traffic jams," Philadelphia Inquirer).

The reason it's surprising is that the redevelopment of the Yard has been underway since 1996 ("New Life for Philadelphia Shipyard," Washington Post), when the federal government announced its closure and then Mayor Ed Rendell began a process of revivification (screwed up by the state's Republican Governor, but eventually the process was positively redirected).

Proposed routes as of 2019

While the current transit planning efforts are focused on new bus services, long before now, SEPTA should have been moving forward on extending the Broad Street subway line by 1.5 miles from its current terminus. 

There's been discussion for many years, but no substantive movement. And as one of the early citizen directors of BART, the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, used to say about planning for transit expansion--don't put it off, because construction costs only go up.  Apparently, studies have been underway since 2008.

-- "PIDC charts a course for BSL extension to Navy Yard," WHYY/NPR, 2015
-- "Price tag on Navy Yard subway extension could double original estimate," WHYY/NPR, 2018
-- "Here’s what a Broad Street Line extension to the Navy Yard could look like," PI, 2019 
-- Broad Street Line Extension to the Philadelphia Navy Yard – Phase 2 Feasibility Study, Penn DOT

By contrast the NoMA infill station process was about 7 years from conceptualization to the opening of the station--one of the fastest projects ever! 

It's been 14 years for the Broad Street Extension to the Navy Yard, with no real date for construction or opening reasonably predicted.

From a PI blog entry in 2015:

The Navy Yard development is home to GlaxoSmithKline, Urban Outfitters, a Marriott and about 140 other companies. About 13,000 people work there. Another two million square feet is slated to be developed and the previous feasibility study estimated about 8,000 people would use rail service by 2045.

Extending the line 1.5 miles past the sports complex would relieve traffic, improve commutes and encourage more development at the site.

Current plans expect to double the number of employees working there, although with the post-covid rise in work from home, those estimates will have to be recalculated.

 

HafenCity University Station, Hamburg.  Another example of a similar line extension was for the HafenCity redevelopment in Hamburg, Germany.  

HafenCity--port city--involves the redevelopment of about 2/3 of a square mile of land along the Elbe River, which was no longer needed for maritime industrial use.

As part of the redevelopment plan, the U4 line was extended by about 4/10 miles with the addition of the HafenCity University station (the line has since been further extended).  The project took six years to complete, and the station opened in 2012, with full service in 2013.

Conclusion.  Why wasn't extension of the subway one of the first agenda items for redevelopment planning for the Philadelphia Navy Yard?  It's been 26 years.  As much as I complain about the Purple Line and how long it's taking ("Sometimes you have to wonder if transit/transit projects are being deliberately screwed up to make transit expansion almost impossible"), at least that's 16 miles and 21 stations, not one mile and two stations.

Second, extending the Broad Street Line to the Philadelphia Navy Yard would be an example of my "Transformational Projects Action Planning" process and the idea that expansion and extensions to the transit network should be utilized to drive complementary improvements across the network to make the new infrastructure more successful and to increase overall ridership across the system.

I first laid this idea out in speculating what could be done in association with the development of the Purple Line light rail line in Montgomery and Prince George's Counties, Maryland, which will be integrated with the Metrorail system.

-- "Codifying the complementary transit network improvements and planning initiatives recommended in the Purple Line writings,"

The bus improvements SEPTA and PIDC are considering now should have been part of the planning process long ago, but also complementary to the subway extension, instead of a standalone process.

Third, fwiw, the Metrorail system and Prince George's County have failed similarly in terms of planning for high frequency transit service to the National Harbor development ("Backwardness of transportation and land use planning: National Harbor, Prince George's County, Maryland | Why isn't high capacity transit access required from the outset?").  That's been a process about as long as the one for the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

Or for redevelopment along the Blue Line ("Change is frustratingly slow, rarely visionary: Prince George's County, Maryland," "Prince George's County's newly announced transit oriented development program for the Blue Line").