in March 1973 in 1973 in 1989 During the 1950s, plans were laid for a massive freeway system in
Washington, D.C. Harland Bartholomew, who chaired the
National Capital Planning Commission, thought that a rail transit system would never be self-sufficient because of low-density land uses and general transit ridership decline. The freeway plan subsequently met
fierce opposition, and was altered to include a
Capital Beltway system plus rail line radials. The Beltway received full funding along with additional funding from the Inner Loop Freeway system project that was partially reallocated toward construction of the Metro system. In 1960, the
federal government created the
National Capital Transportation Agency to develop a rapid rail system. In 1966, a bill creating WMATA was passed by the federal government, the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Maryland, An early proposal map from 1967 was more extensive than what was ultimately approved, with the
Red Line's western terminus being in
Germantown instead of
Shady Grove. WMATA approved plans for a regional system on March 1, 1968. The plan consisted of a core regional system, which included the original five Metro lines, as well as several future extensions, many of which were not constructed. The first experimental Metro station was built above ground in May 1968 for a cost of $69,000. It was and meant to test construction techniques, lighting, and acoustics before full-scale construction efforts. Construction began after a groundbreaking ceremony on December 9, 1969, when WMATA Chairman
Frederick Babson, District Mayor
Walter Washington, U.S. Secretary of Transportation
John A. Volpe, and Maryland Governor
Marvin Mandel tossed the first spades of dirt at Judiciary Square. The first portion of the system opened on March 27, 1976, with available on the Red Line with five stations from to , all in Washington, D.C. All rides were free that day, with the first train departing the Rhode Island Avenue stop with Metro officials and special guests, and the second with members of the general public.
Arlington County, Virginia was linked to the system on July 1, 1977;
Montgomery County, Maryland, on February 6, 1978;
Prince George's County, Maryland, on November 17, 1978; and
Fairfax County, Virginia, and
Alexandria, Virginia, on December 17, 1983. Metro reached
Loudoun County with the opening of the
Silver Line expansion on November 15, 2022. Underground stations were built with cathedral-like arches of concrete, highlighted by soft, indirect lighting. The name Metro was suggested by
Massimo Vignelli, who designed the signage for the system as well as for the
New York City Subway. The , 83-station system was completed with the opening of the Green Line segment to on January 13, 2001. However, this did not mean the end of the system's growth. A extension of the Blue Line to and
Largo opened on December 18, 2004. The first
infill station, New York Ave–Florida Ave–Gallaudet University (now ) on the Red Line between and , opened on November 20, 2004. Construction began in March 2009 for an extension to
Dulles Airport to be built in two phases. The first phase, five stations connecting East Falls Church to Tysons Corner and Wiehle Avenue in Reston, opened on July 26, 2014. The second phase to Ashburn opened on November 15, 2022, after many delays. The second infill station, on the Blue and Yellow Lines between and , opened on May 19, 2023. Metro construction required billions of federal dollars, originally provided by Congress under the authority of the National Capital Transportation Act of 1969. The cost was paid with 67% federal money and 33% local money. This act was amended on January 3, 1980, by the National Capital Transportation Amendment of 1979 (also known as the Stark-Harris Act), which authorized additional funding of $1.7 billion to permit the completion of of the system as provided under the terms of a full funding grant agreement executed with WMATA in July 1986, which required 20% to be paid from local funds. On November 15, 1990, the National Capital Transportation Amendments of 1990 authorized an additional $1.3 billion in federal funds for construction of the remaining of the system, completed via the execution of full funding grant agreements, with a 63% federal/37% local matching ratio. In February 2006, Metro officials chose Randi Miller, a car dealership employee from
Woodbridge, Virginia, to record new "doors opening", "doors closing", and "please stand clear of the doors, thank you" announcements after winning an open contest to replace the messages recorded by Sandy Carroll in 1996. The "Doors Closing" contest attracted 1,259 contestants from across the country. Over the years, a lack of investment in Metro caused it to break down, and there have been several fatal
incidents on the Washington Metro due to mismanagement and broken-down infrastructure. By 2016, according to
The Washington Post, on-time rates had dropped to 84%, and Metro service was frequently disrupted during rush hours because of a combination of equipment, rolling stock, track, and signal malfunctions. WMATA did not receive dedicated funding from the three jurisdictions it served, Maryland, Virginia, and D.C., until 2018. Seeking to address negative perceptions of its performance, in 2016, WMATA announced an initiative called "Back2Good," focusing on addressing a wide array of rider concerns, from improving safety to adding Internet access to stations and train tunnels. In May 2018, Metro announced an extensive renovation of platforms at 20 stations across the system, spanning all lines except the Silver Line. The Blue and Yellow Lines south of were closed from May 25 to September 9, 2019, in what would be the longest line closure in Metro's history. Additional stations would be repaired between 2020 and 2022, but the corresponding lines would not be closed completely. The project would cost $300 to $400 million and would be Metro's first major project since its construction. In March 2022, Metro announced that beginning on September 10, 2022, it would suspend all service on the Yellow Line for seven to eight months to complete repairs and rebuilding work on its bridge over the
Potomac River and its tunnel leading into the station at . Metro stated that this was the first significant work that the tunnel and bridge had undergone since they were first constructed over forty years prior. The
Potomac Yard station, an infill station on the Blue and Yellow lines, opened on May 19, 2023.
Opening dates The following is a list of opening dates for track segments and infill stations on the Washington Metro. The entries in the "from" and "to" columns correspond to the boundaries of the extension or station that opened on the specified date, not to the lines' terminals. The entries in the "stations" column exclude new platforms creating interchanges with existing stations on other lines.
Rush+ and late-night service patterns in February 2023 during rush hour in August 2005. On December 31, 2006, an 18-month pilot program began to extend service on the Yellow Line to Fort Totten over existing Green Line trackage. This extension was later made permanent. Starting June 18, 2012, the Yellow Line was extended again along existing track as part of the Rush+ program, with an extension to Greenbelt on the northern end and with several trains diverted to Franconia–Springfield on the southern end. These Rush+ extensions were discontinued on June 25, 2017. In addition to expanding the system, Metro expanded the operating hours over the first 40 years. Though it originally opened with weekday-only service from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m, financial paperwork assumed prior to opening that it would eventually operate from 5 a.m. to 1 a.m. seven days a week. It never operated exactly on that schedule but the hours did expand, sometimes beyond that. On September 25, 1978, Metro extended its weekday closing time from 8 p.m. to midnight and 5 days later it started Saturday service from 8 a.m. to Midnight. Metrorail kicked off Sunday service from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on September 2, 1979, and on June 29, 1986, the Sunday closing time was pushed back to midnight. Metro started opening at 5:30 a.m., a half an hour earlier, on weekdays starting on July 1, 1988. On November 5, 1999, weekend service was extended to 1:00 a.m., and on June 30, 2000, it was expanded to 2:00 a.m. On July 5, 2003, weekend hours were extended again with the system opening an hour earlier, at 7:00 a.m. and closing an hour later at 3:00 a.m. On September 27, 2004, Metro again pushed weekday opening time half an hour earlier, this time to 5 a.m. In 2016, Metro began temporarily scaling back service hours to allow for more maintenance. On June 3, 2016, they ended late-night weekend service with Metrorail closing at midnight. Hours were adjusted again the following year starting on June 25, 2017, with weeknight service ending a half-hour earlier at 11:30 p.m.; Sunday service trimmed to start an hour later – at 8 a.m. – and end an hour early at 11 p.m.; and late-night service partially restored to 1 a.m. The service schedule was approved until June 2019. On January 29, 2020, Metro announced that it would be activating its pandemic response plans in preparation for the looming
COVID-19 pandemic, which would be declared a pandemic by the
World Health Organization on March 11. At that time, Metro announced that it would reduce its service hours from 5:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on weekdays and 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on weekends beginning on March 16 to accommodate for train cleaning and additional track work. As of 2022, pre-COVID service hours have been restored with pre-2016 Sunday service hours.
Busiest days The highest ridership for a single day was on the day of the
first inauguration of Barack Obama, January 20, 2009, with 1.12 million riders. It broke the previous record, set the day before, of 866,681 riders. June 2008 set several ridership records: the single-month ridership record of 19,729,641 total riders, the record for highest average weekday ridership with 1,044,400 weekday trips, had five of the ten highest ridership days, and had 12 weekdays in which ridership exceed 800,000 trips. On January 21, 2017, the
2017 Women's March, set an all-time record in Saturday ridership with 1,001,616 trips. The previous record was set on October 30, 2010, with 825,437 trips during the
Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. Prior to 2010, the record had been set on June 8, 1991, at 786,358 trips during the Desert Storm rally. == Architecture ==