Ranking The 6 DC Metro Lines
Image Courtesy of WMATA
By Tanner Brady
This is an independently submitted op-ed and does not reflect the views of The Tower.
Most CUA students by now have probably spent some time on the Metro. For many students, it is a very efficient and cost-effective way to travel around the city. The DC Metro system has six lines, which serve 98 stations. Each line has its unique qualities and serves different sites around different parts of the city. I will be ranking them on how efficient they are based on various factors like the places the line serves, the wait time for trains and overall operations, and how relevant each line is, not just to students at CUA (although that is certainly a factor), but to the larger community as a whole.
At number six, we have the Blue Line. The Blue Line starts in Prince George’s County, Maryland, at Downtown Largo. It runs concurrently with the Silver Line as it travels west into DC, where the Orange Line joins. These three lines run through Downtown, travelling west. The Blue Line separates from the Orange and Silver Lines in Virginia at Rosslyn, where it runs by itself very briefly before joining the Yellow Line. It then runs south, serving the Pentagon City and Crystal City neighborhoods of Arlington, as well as Alexandria. After passing Old Town Alexandria, the line splits off again and heads southwest to its southern terminus at Franconia-Springfield in Fairfax County, Virginia.
The Blue Line ranks last mainly because a majority of the stations it stops at are already served by other lines. It takes a rather circuitous route to serve these places, too. Especially for CUA students, those who are trying to access points in Virginia, such as Alexandria or Reagan National Airport, are better off using the Yellow Line, which takes a more direct route. The only point of interest that is only served by the Blue Line is Arlington National Cemetery, which many people don’t visit on a regular basis. Another point to mention is that it has one of the highest wait times for trains out of all of the lines. Passengers can expect to wait up to 12 minutes for a train. That’s double the average wait time for a train on the Red Line. The reason for this is that the Metro runs three lines in one tunnel through Downtown DC, which requires spacing for the trains to run efficiently and to minimize delays. This is great for travellers downtown, who only have to wait a few minutes for one of the three lines to take them across town. But riders who are outside of that area will have to wait longer since the spacing of the three lines causes each line to have a longer wait time.
At number five is the Orange Line. Starting at New Carrollton in Prince George’s County, Maryland, the Orange Line travels west through Downtown DC, following the Silver and Blue Lines. The Blue Line splits off at Rosslyn, as mentioned before, and the Silver and Orange Lines run together through western Arlington neighborhoods such as Ballston. At East Falls Church, the Orange and Silver lines split, and the Orange Line runs three additional stops by itself before terminating at Vienna-Fairfax-GMU.
Similar to the Blue Line, the Orange Line follows the Silver Line almost the entire way–there are only three stations that are exclusively served by the Orange Line. However, most passengers don’t need to wait as long for a train since the Silver Line runs along a majority of the line. It doesn’t have a ton of relevance for CUA students as a standalone line, besides serving the downtown core along with the Silver and Blue Lines, but it does help with providing frequency in that area to serve places like the National Mall, Smithsonian museums, the Kennedy Center, Eastern Market, and even Georgetown.
At number four, we have the Silver Line. DC’s newest Metro line is interesting because it has two endpoints on its east side. Starting in Ashburn in Loudon County, Virginia, it serves Dulles Airport before heading into Reston and Tysons. It joins the Orange Line in Falls Church and the Blue Line at Rosslyn, following those two lines through Downtown DC, in the same way as described previously. The only difference is that when it comes time for the lines to split, the Silver Line goes both ways. Half the trains follow the Blue Line to Downtown Largo, and the other half follow the Orange Line to New Carrollton. This service pattern, which was only implemented very recently–in June 2025, helps provide a more level frequency for those traveling in that direction, since before, twice the number of trains were serving Largo than New Carrollton. The line has similar strengths and weaknesses as the Orange Line, although it serves more stations by itself, including some busy ones in Tysons. One advantage for CUA students is that it serves Dulles Airport, and while it isn’t as popular as Reagan, many students do use it, and this provides a cheap and easy connection.
At number three, we have the Green Line. Starting in Greenbelt in Prince George’s County, the line travels through College Park and Hyattsville, Maryland, before entering DC. It serves bustling neighborhoods such as Columbia Heights, Shaw, and Mount Vernon Square, where it joins the Yellow Line. Only a few stops later, the Yellow Line splits off and the Green Line travels through Southeast DC before heading back in Maryland, where it terminates at Branch Avenue in Prince George’s County.
The Green Line is great because it serves many areas CUA students frequent, such as Columbia Heights, the Waterfront, and Nationals Park. One downside is that some of the neighborhoods it serves have a sketchy reputation among many Washingtonians, so especially at night, it may not be the safest. But it does serve impoverished neighborhoods that would otherwise be very underrepresented.
At number two is the Yellow Line. Metro’s shortest line starts in Downtown DC at Mount Vernon Square, where it follows the Green Line to L’Enfant Plaza. It then splits off, crosses the Potomac River into Virginia, where it joins the Blue Line to serve Crystal City, Reagan National Airport, and Alexandria before splitting off and serving two additional stations on its own to Huntington, just outside the Capital Beltway, where it terminates.
The Yellow Line is great because, although it serves a lot of stations already covered by the Blue Line, it does so in a much more direct path, making it a lot more useful to a lot of people, especially CUA students traveling to the airport or Alexandria. One downside is that it starts in Downtown and doesn’t continue north to help increase frequencies on the Green Line, although Metro is fixing that. Starting in December, every other Yellow Line train will continue north to Greenbelt, helping increase frequencies to places like Shaw and Columbia Heights.
And at number one is the Red Line. Starting at Glenmont in Montgomery County, Maryland, the line serves Silver Spring before entering DC, where it serves the bustling Brookland and NoMa neighborhoods. The line then forms a U shape as it runs through downtown and up past the zoo and neighborhoods such as Woodley Park, Adams Morgan, and Tenleytown. It then enters Maryland again, where it serves Rockville before terminating at Shady Grove in Montgomery County.
The Red Line is by far the most useful line for CUA students, and for the general community, it has many advantages. Starting with the obvious, the Red Line serves CUA! So every student travelling on the Metro will spend at least part of their journey on this line. Another advantage is that the Red Line runs by itself the entire way. This means that trains can operate at a much higher frequency. During rush hour, trains operate every 4-5 minutes! One downside is that the line doesn’t serve much of downtown. Passengers travelling to many of the popular sites downtown will have to transfer to another line to get closer. But its high frequency and popularity among many residents and students of the many universities it serves make it a very good line.
Each Metro Line has its unique strengths and weaknesses, and a low ranking doesn’t make a line useless. It all comes down to how it serves the community, especially us CUA students, who rely on the system to get us where we need to go.
