For Immediate Release: Monday, July 30, 2001
With 10,600 riders per day, the Glenmont Metro station’s popularity has soared, and daily ridership has increased more than 60 percent since its opening on July 25, 1998. The station is so popular that the 1700-space parking garage is full most weekdays before 8 a.m.
“I am very pleased with the success of our newest Metro station at Glenmont, the result of collaborative planning efforts with the community in the mid-1990’s that ensured smooth access by car, bus, walking or bicycle,” said County Executive Douglas M. Duncan. “The station is so popular that I have asked the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority – and they have agreed – to study how we can provide even more parking at this station.”
The study was recently approved in the transit agency’s Fiscal Year 2002 budget and is expected to begin this fall. It will develop estimates for future parking demand at Glenmont and evaluate alternate locations for more parking at the station.
Alternative free parking is available at the Norbeck Park and Ride Lot, located at Georgia Avenue and Norbeck Road, where Ride On bus service connects the lot with the Glenmont Metro station. Commuters can find more parking at the Wheaton Metro station parking garage at Wheaton Westfields Plaza and in the County garage on Amherst Avenue across the street from Wheaton station.
Since Glenmont is at one end of Metro’s Red Line, the station draws riders from throughout the Upper Georgia Avenue and New Hampshire Avenue corridors, both of which are experiencing rapid population growth. Combined ridership at the Glenmont and Wheaton stations is currently 20,000 riders a day, up from 11,600 riders a day at the Wheaton station in June 1998 before the line was extended to Glenmont. Further increases in Glenmont ridership are expected when redevelopment of downtown Silver Spring is completed and Discovery Communications, Inc. relocates to Silver Spring from its current location in Bethesda.
There are 17 Ride On and Metrobus routes that serve the Glenmont station. Information on bus service to Glenmont is available from the County's Transit Information Center (240-777- RIDE (7433), or by checking either the County’s website at www.RideOnBus.com or Metro's Ride Guide at www.wmata.com.
Release ID: 01-002
Media Contact: Esther Bowring 240-777-6530, Ed Daniel 240-777-7170