With the news that there are finally serious proposals to redevelop the old Potomac River Generating Station power plant site, potentially adding 1000+ units of housing and 2+ million sqft of commercial space, I think there's an incredible opportunity for an additional Metro infill station nearby. However, this proposal will never happen and will not get built, and this whole post is just wistfully longing for a world that's fundamentally different than our own.
Just a 10 minute walk from the Generating Station site is a portion of the Blue/Yellow line corridor that theoretically could accommodate another station. The gap between the Potomac Yard and Braddock Road stations is one of the larger distances between Yellow Line stations, and while most of it runs at grade, the portion at Slaters Lane goes under a defunct rail spur that used to run coal trains to the power plant. The tunnel is very shallow, meaning either a cut-and-cover or even just an open cut station there would be totally feasible, and the land directly over the site is currently either open space, roadway, or a small parking lot. This is roughly the spot I'm talking about
Not only would this ensure that the Generating Station redevelopment is served by transit, but the Northeast Alexandria neighborhood is already pretty densely populated with pretty much the entire area being townhouses or condos/apartments. The area right outside the station would be commercial businesses, and there's also some pretty decent commercial redevelopment opportunities along Slaters Lane itself that would also be much better served.
The 34 Bus already runs right to the station, and it'd be a very short walk to the Metroway buses along Route 1, so there'd be lots of transit connections nearby.
Now like I've said, this won't happen. Firstly, Potomac Yard was just built and (despite it being the station I use most frequently) doesn't have much ridership yet. Hopefully that changes as more stuff gets built in all the empty lots nearby, but given that nothing's broken ground yet it'll be a while.
Secondly, because even with the relatively small amount of digging required, a Slaters Lane station in would probably run about half a billion given the construction difficulties and explosion in costs, not to mention the fact that we'd probably need to add a pedestrian bridge or tunnel to cross the Amtrak/VRE/freight rail lines which would also be expensive.
Third, this would involve a bunch of people constantly needing to walk across the George Washington Parkway at Slaters Lane. There's already a light and a crosswalk, but it's not super pleasant right now. Might involve adding additional time for the crosswalk, which would delay the cars using the Parkway, which obviously I'm fine with but might prompt some pushback. Honestly, the Generating Station redevelopment might prompt these issues on its own, so maybe this is an issue regardless.
Anyone live closer to this area and have thoughts?