Justin C says: (3/11/08 11:14 AM)
Has anyone looked at the improved west end of the Navy Yard station platform? I walked to that end of the station last week after entering the east entrance. While there are still walls around it while construction is finalized, you can get a really clear view of it. There are 2 escalators and one set of stairs. The only improvement appears to be the addition of the new set of stairs. There may be dozens of fare gates above, but it doesn't strike me as having that much of an improved capacity from the platform level. I believe RFK had only one entrance with two escalators at the end, but not nearly the number of metro users that are predicted for the new stadium. The east entrance is definitely a bottle neck in morning rush hour, and I imagine that will probably hold true during the games.

Justin C says: (3/11/08 11:17 AM)
I see now that in addition to the new stairs, there are new elevators as well.

JD says: (3/11/08 11:19 AM)
The fare gates and farecard machines and whatnot will all now be at street level at the west entrance, so you can't see those yet from where you were looking.

This is the description of what they have been doing to the station: "Upgrades include increasing the number of fare gates and vending machines, adding two elevators, and relocating the station kiosk, fare gates and fare vendors from the mezzanine to the street entrance."

And there are actually two entrances at Stadium-Armory, and it also handles 15,000 users an hour. Don't forget, it used to handle 55,000 football fans when the Skins were still there.

BBC says: (3/11/08 3:08 PM)
I am guessing that most people going to the ballpark are going to come from the blue/orange line ...from VA and MD. The MD people who are smart will just get off at Eastern Market and walk a few blocks to the park. The VA people who are smart will just get off at South Capitol and walk a few blocks. Only the extremely lazy people will actually switch to the green line and try to get off at Navy Yard. Thus, I am not sure why everyone is concentrating so much on this stop. I suspect that the major newspapers only don't talk about using the these other stops because they want the system to fail. They would have more negative things to say about this area if it does.

A hat tip to JD, the only person I have heard that mentions the South Capital stop as an alternative.

Dave Carroll says: (3/11/08 5:54 PM)
The only thing that I can say about Capitol South is that for people that don't know the area, walking under 395 along New Jersey Ave at night is likely to scare the bejeezus out of them. Especially with young kids. Now if the DC police have cops with Segways and bicycles patrolling up and down that area all the better.

JD says: (3/11/08 7:14 PM)
I doubt that families will really be using the Capitol South option, since what's a 12-15 minute walk for one person walking alone will lengthen considerably when there's kiddies involved.

As for "scary" New Jersey Avenue, I guess those of us who knew what it looked like as recently as a year ago think it's now a paradise:

link
(scroll to bottom)

I know Tommy Wells is pretty big on wanting people to use Capitol South--he mentioned at a hearing recently whether vendors could be setting up shop on NJ to act as more "eyes on the streets." I think it'll be primarily a route for young folks, but it's not like people will be walking alone.

Lawrence Frigg says: (3/12/08 2:10 AM)
The three hour timeframe for having the west entrance exot-only is ridiculous for weekday games with their 7:05 start times. It forces the scores of nearby workers departing the area to all funnel into the overwhelmed east entrance with its escalator and single staircase. That's already untenable and will be even more so when the next offices and residential buildings come online.

Besides, the stadium isn't open 3 hours a head of time; isn't it only open an hour and a half before gametime? Metro ought to adjust accordingly and let those workers who will be leaving early on gamenights to beat the rush get the heck out of Dodge without handicapping those efforts by needlessly shutting down the full function of the station an hour earlier than needed. But I doubt this will be reconsidered no matter what headaches come from the decision.

G-man says: (3/12/08 5:13 PM)
Lawrence,

Currently 95% of the jobs in near southeast are located east of the eastern entrance. I doubt very few people would walk past the eastern entrance to go to one two blocks furhter away.

And yes, at least for the first few games, the park is open 3 hours before game time.

BC says: (3/12/08 10:18 PM)
Since the west entrance is currently closed for renovation, aren't all the workers already using only the east entrance? It seems to be working just fine.