Evening star., 1944-10-23
Three Subway
Lines Proposed
ForWashington
Traffic Report Asks
S56, ,400, 900 Postwar
PIon for City
pictures on Page BIZ

Construction of three street
car subway systems costing about
S56, 100000 was proposed today
by consulting engineers of the
District Government as the ma.
Jor element of a broad postwar
traffic relief to speed travel in the
city's central area. Such pro-
gram, they contended, was nee
essary to prevent congestion
from reaching disastrous pro-
portions" and to halt a decen-
tralization trend which threat
ems to explode the city"
The three sunways would be:
Fourteenth street, from south Of
Thomas Circle to the underground
car terminal near Maine avenue;
Connecticut avenue-G street, run
ming from Connecticut avenue and
r street to Union Station, and a
Pennsylvania avenue line, from
Eighteenth street NV. to Second
street Sc.
A wide variety of other projects is
outlined in master plan" charted
by j. e. Greiner Co. and De Leuw,
Gather & Co., which the Commits
sioners released today without rec
concentrations but with a request
for studied reactions from public
and private groups.
IL Miles of Subways,
In addition to urging the building
OF IL miles Of subways to free CEN
trail area highways of streetcars, the
survey proposals range all the way
from modernization of traffic signal
controls and channelizing of the
wider traffic arteries to provision of
municipality owned suburban bus
terminal and redevelopment, pref
erably by private enterprise, Of
whole downtown squares with mo-
tor age" buildings combining facili-
ties for Offices, stores and auto park
ing.
The engineering report suggests
that dispersal areas be designated
for parking of cars for Federal
workers and recommends that park
ing facilities be provided by the
District or neighboring county gov
ernments at the ends of transit
lines for the use of suburbanites
making the in-town portion of their
trips by mass transportation.
The total cost of tho mammoth
program suggested is not calculated
but would run well above the $685.
400 900 estimate for the subways-
which alone would average nearly
$1,000 900 a mile. The consultants
held the expense would be too great
for private enterprise alone and
proposed that the costs be distrib-
uted equitably among "all interests
benefited. 1t lists the Federal Gov
ernment as having the greatest in
terest in the subway project Mer-
chants. motorists, pedestrians and
the city as whole, as well as the
Capital Transit Co., also were men,
toned, but there was no more
specific attempt to assign the obli-
cations.
Report on Parking.
The report casts cold water on
the earlier proposals for develop
ment OF off-street parking facil-
tiles on the fringe of the central
area but proposes that the District
Motor Vehicle Parking Agency be
! given broadened authority to plan,
build, maintain and operate park
ing facilities for Federal employees
and others not provided for by pri-
vate enterprise.
The consultants voiced deep con-
Germ over the necessity of preserv-
ing the high values of downtown real
estate to keep business and Gus
toners from being driven to outlying
areas and thereby causing the city
government huge loss in tax reve-
nues. Congested traffic was labeled
as the principal cause of the de-
Capitalization trend. The day Of
reckoning" the engineers declared
cannot long be postponed"
They predicted the population Of
the Metropolitan Area 36 years
hence would be 100000, or 10 per
cent above the 1910 level.
The survey treats streetcar serv-
ice as the backbone" of the Dis
trict's future mass transportation
and makes this the motif of the
whole corrective program. Transit
Continued on Page B-1, Column 2)