![]() ![]() The entire subdivision is signaled for bi-directional running. CSX organized its Metropolitan Subdivision as a combination of the original B&O Met Branch plus a section of the B&O original main line northwest of Point of Rocks, which had opened in 1834. Through mergers, the line became part of the CSX system in 1987. Current operation Freight train at Derwood interlocking heading east towards Washington, D.C. The Georgetown Branch Trail is to be rebuilt alongside the new tracks, which is projected for completion sometime in 2027. ![]() In 2017, construction began on the Purple Line, which will use the Bethesda-to-Silver Spring portion of the spur as part of a route that continues on to New Carrollton, Maryland. The Bethesda-to-Silver Spring portion of the spur was opened in 1997 as an interim rail-trail called the Georgetown Branch Trail, and the two trails were connected in 1998. The right-of-way from Bethesda to Georgetown was turned into a hike-and-bike trail that opened in late 1996 as the Capital Crescent Trail. CSX ran its last train on the Georgetown Branch in 1985, and launched the abandonment process the following year. : 27–29 Engineering features of the branch included the Rock Creek Trestle in Chevy Chase, the Dalecarlia Tunnel, and a through-truss bridge over the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. So the B&O used the Georgetown Branch as a spur to serve local industries in Silver Spring, Chevy Chase, and Bethesda in Maryland and Georgetown. It was originally intended to be a B&O extension that would cross the Potomac River near the Chain Bridge, but in 1904, the B&O reached an agreement with the Pennsylvania Railroad to use the Long Bridge over the Potomac, nearly six miles downstream. The Georgetown Branch ran from a junction north of the Silver Spring station in a broad 11-mile arc to the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C. Georgetown Branch Georgetown branch in Bethesda, Maryland, near where it crossed Bethesda Ave On February 16, 1996, the collision of two trains in Silver Spring killed three crew members and eight passengers and injured a total of 26 people. In 1906, a rear collision at Terra Cotta station killed 53 people. Original stations still stand in the Maryland communities of Rockville (moved away from the tracks in 1981), Kensington, Gaithersburg, Dickerson, and Point of Rocks. Several distinctive passenger stations, designed by architect Ephraim Francis Baldwin, were constructed along the line. : 7ĭouble-tracking was completed on the remainder of the branch in 1928. ![]() : 166 During the peak years of passenger operation, 1893 to the 1920s, the line saw 18 trains per day, with as many as 28 stops along the Met Branch. The Washington-to- Gaithersburg section was double-tracked by 1893. Increasing congestion led the B&O to start adding double track portions to the line in 1886. Some through freight trains were also rerouted to the new line. : 7 The new line became the B&O's main passenger route to Washington, with the Old Main Line, from Point of Rocks to Relay, reduced to secondary status. The line opened on April 30, 1873, as the B&O's Metropolitan Branch. Construction began in 1866 along a slightly different route, connecting with the main line at Point of Rocks, Maryland. Two years later, the expired charter was taken over by the B&O, which had not previously been interested in building a new route out of Washington. The company conducted some initial land surveys, but had difficulty raising funds and went bankrupt in 1863. The proposed line would run from Washington to the vicinity of Frederick, Maryland, where it would connect with the B&O main line, and continue to Hagerstown, Maryland. In 1853, they obtained a corporate charter from the Maryland General Assembly to form the Metropolitan Railroad. Interest in building a new rail line from Washington to points west was initially generated by businessmen in Washington and Montgomery County, Maryland. The Red Line of the Washington Metro shares right-of-way with the subdivision along two separate stretches in Maryland and D.C.: from the junction with the Capital Subdivision to north of Silver Spring, and from south of Twinbrook to the end of the Red Line at Shady Grove. MARC Train's Brunswick Line uses the entire subdivision, as does Amtrak's Capitol Limited. At its northwest end in Weverton, the line joins the Cumberland Subdivision. It meets the Old Main Line Subdivision at Point of Rocks, Maryland. Īt its southeast end, north of Union Station, the Metropolitan Subdivision meets the Capital Subdivision (formerly called the B&O Washington Branch) and Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. The 53-mile line runs from Washington, D.C., northwest to Weverton, Maryland, along the former Metropolitan Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The Metropolitan Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation in the District of Columbia and the U.S. ![]()
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