We set the record for visiting all 98 Metro stations. Here’s what we learned.

Local rail systems form the backbones of great cities across the US and the world. Washington, DC, is no exception. The DC Metro system is an integral part of Washington’s culture, shaping the region for the past 50 years. Here in DC, just like in other cities, residents use the Metro to commute, shop, or visit a new part of town.

Most people, however, never dream about visiting every single Metro station. It’s a tall order to get to all 98 of them. But we decided to give it a try.

On July 17, we three University of Chicago students decided to visit every Metrorail stop. Only one of us (Hugh) is from the Washington area, and through this crazy experience, we were able to gain a whole new perspective on Metro and the region that it serves. (We have done the same challenge in Chicago, and we were able to get out of the UChicago bubble and learn a great deal about the city where we go to school).

A few people have done this before us: Scott Bennet set the record for the 91 station system in 2019 with a time of 7 hours and 59 minutes and Claire Aguayo set the record for the 97 station system (including Silver Line Phase 2 but not Potomac Yard) earlier this year with a time of 8 hours and 36 minutes. We believed that with careful route planning and some good luck, we could set a record for the new 98-station system.

Our route planning

The first element of a Metro challenge is planning out a good route, beginning with the right start and end locations. We chose Ashburn and Shady Grove. The rest of the route involves filling in the puzzle and seeing whether alternatives such as riding a bus or running will help you connect the dots more quickly. In Washington, backtracking by train is generally your best bet, but in a place like Chicago, with its gridded streets and slow trains, buses will frequently come in handy.

One final word of advice on route planning: you can avoid long waits for infrequent trains by knocking them out early in the run. We also recommend starting your run early in the day to minimize the delays that will inevitably pile up over a day on a big city transit system. This will also help you avoid infrequent late-night service.

Why DC’s Metro is special

Lucky for us, our careful planning paid off: we didn’t encounter a single delay throughout our trip, so our final time of 8:04:12 was just a minute off of our projected time. (This has not been our experience doing our speed runs in Chicago!) We also saw high frequencies throughout the trip–a reflection of the all-day service improvements that have been implemented this past year.

Metrorail goes through many dense areas, allowing a wide variety of people to use the system to get where they want to go. We saw places such as Silver Spring and Alexandria that simply would not be the same without Metro providing quick and reliable train service to and from downtown. Furthermore, stations in all sorts of areas had transit-oriented development (TOD) under construction, ranging from 30-story office buildings in McLean to five-story apartment buildings in Largo.

TOD built near Metro stations has helped make DC and its suburbs more dense, environmentally friendly, and affordable. However, there are some underdeveloped station-adjacent areas such as Tenleytown, College Park, and Takoma, with large surface parking lots and many single family homes (though Takoma is slated for new development).

Unlike in other American cities where trains are often infrequent, slow, and unreliable, DC’s Metro felt like a breath of fresh air that would entice people to take trains over driving. At most stations, we saw large numbers of people riding to and from work, to shopping centers, or even just to the park.

How it can still improve

While the DC Metro is one of the best transit systems in America, it still has a lot of ways it can improve. Here are a few things that stood out to us during the speedrun:

• The doors take a really long time to open. This is the result of door-opening procedures that Metro implemented after a number of operators opened the doors on the wrong side of the train in 2016. These procedures usually take 15-20 seconds per station. While it may not seem like a lot, it adds up. A trip from Silver Spring to Metro Center took 18 minutes in 2008 compared with 22 minutes today.
• While high ridership is always great to see, some rush hour trains felt quite crowded, especially given the fact that ridership is still far less than it was before COVID-19. Because ridership is still rising, WMATA is right to start planning for more capacity under the Potomac now.
• We would love to see a contactless payment option implemented for both subway trains and for buses. Especially on busy routes, this could decrease bus trip times.

To understand what it’ll take to make transit better, it helps to be a frequent rider. You get to see what works and what doesn’t. While Metro’s GM Randy Clarke is a frequent rider, perhaps this is a lesson more local leaders should take to heart as WMATA battles budget deficits, seeks to safely restore high-tech features of the system taken out of commission, and tries to win back riders in a region where many have the option of working from home. Follow our lead, get out there, and ride Metro!