jsnydcsa

Attention folks traveling to Washington, DC and the surrounding Maryland and Virginia Areas for just about any personal, work or tourist purposes that includes riding the Washington Metro Subway Transit System WMATA Metro. Since people often use Metro to travel to/from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) or Dulles International Airport (IAD) as well as for work and major events.

On Friday, 6 May 2016, Metro announced a nearly one year long "massive subway rebuilding effort that will inconvenience virtually everyone who uses the system, with portions of most rail lines shut down for up to a month at a time and reductions in train service through the year-long project[.]" https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...mepage%2Fstory

The official WMATA announcement is posted here:
http://www.wmata.com/about_metro/new...ReleaseID=6103

Note that there will a moratorium on early openings and late closings. And a change in the time of closure of the Metrorail system to midnight seven days a week beginning Friday, June 3.

The full list of lines and stations is posted on WaPo here at
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graph...etro-closures/

As part of the official announcement, there's a detailed document (PDF Format) outlining what's to be done and detailed information about each segment of the work available at
http://www.wmata.com/Images/Mrel/MF_...CK-PUBLIC.pdf?

Joy.


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2016-05-12 UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE
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It seems the abovementioned announced closures, single tracking, etc. are not FINAL (whatever in life ever is, esp. with WMATA).

As background, the United States Federal Transit Administration ("FTA") is basically overseeing just about everything Metro does viz its trains and rail operations.

The FTA is now saying (or perhaps was saying but is now saying more loudly), in substance, "Hey Metro, we [the FTA] have some critical projects that, while included in your SafeTrack program, are not timely enough for us [the FTA] and we want our priority projects moved to the front of the line" While the article below gets into the weeds on a number of different issues, viewpoints, etc. The bottom line is that Metro has come out and said, we're still putting the SafeTrack schedule in final. So, "watch this space" for further updates and changes.
Federal safety officials demand immediate fixes on Red, Orange, Silver, Blue lines from The Washington Post
http://wpo.st/U8aZ1

It is likely that Metro's own web site will publish the revised schedule sometime in May (according to the article).

IMHO, this is no way to run a railroad.

CMK10

Yuck, what a mess. I really appreciate all the links though ^

mhnadel

I suggest reading the official document carefully, as the WaPo graphic makes it easy to miss things like the plan for shuttles that take Blue Line passengers only as far as Arlington Cemetery, adding a good 30-40 minutes to the trip from DCA to the western parts of the District (e.g. Foggy Bottom), since one would have to go via L'Enfant Plaza. And some segments that might seem like they wouldn't have much impact on airport transit will, e.g. when part of Blue/Orange/Silver s closed, the rest of those lines will operate on 10-18 minute headways.

If you can avoid traveling here, do. It's going to be bad enough for us regular commuters, without adding clueless tourists to what I already expect to be Tokyo-level crowding.

IADCAflyer

Train wreck.

Train. Wreck.

Metro was fubar this morning with disable trains in two different spots.

Its only going to get worse. Much worse.

zhangg

Let's not overlook that the National Airport stop is closed starting July 5th, ensuring that the tourists visiting for the 4th can't get home.

mhnadel

There will be shuttle bus service from Pentagon City for that particular closure period.

mhnadel

One disabled train. The other problem was a switch malfunction on the Red Line.

The track work will presumably address the latter, though not the former.

jsnydcsa

Really? Is the station closed?

Are you sure? Is this a replacement of trains?

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Here's what I don't understand and has not been made clear. And, I'll use the July 5 10PM - July 12 (7 days) and July 12 - 19 (7 days) slides as examples:

Here's the full text from the July 5 10PM - July 12 (7 days) slide:
Line segment shutdown between National Airport & Braddock Road
REDUCED SERVICE AT ALL TIMES AT MANY STATIONS, PRIMARILY YELLOW/BLUE IN VIRGINIA
• Major impact to 50,000 weekday trips
• 50% reduction in rail service south of Pentagon (trains every 12 minutes/line)
• Blue/Yellow customers encouraged to consider alternate travel options during this time
• Shuttle buses operate via Metroway between Braddock Road, Crystal City and Pentagon City
• Service between DC and National Airport available via train

Here's the full text from the July 12 - 19 (7 days) slide:
Line segment shutdown between
National Airport & Pentagon City REDUCED SERVICE AT ALL TIMES AT MANY STATIONS, PRIMARILY YL/BL IN VIRGINIA
• Major impact to 86,000 weekday trips
• 50% reduction in rail service south of Pentagon
• Shuttle buses operate via Metroway between Braddock Road, Crystal City and Pentagon City
• Reagan National Airport served via shuttle bus to/ from Pentagon City & Braddock Road
• Blue/Yellow customers encouraged to consider alternate travel options during this time
• Blue Line every 12 minutes
• Yellow Line every 12 minutes
• No Rush+ Yellow

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These are titled Line shutdowns but not station shutdowns. There's nothing in the slides that talk about station shutdowns. They write about line shut downs and reduction in service (but not elimination of service). So, which is it? Station closures or not?

As for July 5th, it sure sounds like there's going to be service but it'll be reduced ("Service between DC and National Airport available via train").

As for buses to DCA, that seems to be for July 12-19 ("Reagan National Airport served via shuttle bus to/ from Pentagon City & Braddock Road") and not the 5th (see previous paragraph).

Metro has NEVER been good at disseminating clear information.

mhnadel

The DCA stop will be open for the July 5-12 period, but not service south of there. So tourists staying in Alexandria will need to rely on bus shuttles. But bear in mind that both Blue and Yellow will be operating at reduced frequency. (They are claiming 12 minutes. Which is what the Blue Line is supposed to be on now, though the headways are more like 15-20.)

The closure from DCA north is July 12-19. And there is a later closure (in December) between Rosslyn and Pentagon, where they only plan to run shuttle bus service between Pentagon and Arlington Cemetery. While the Yellow Line will be running, it will take a lot longer to get to anywhere in civilization (i.e. the western parts of the city or along the Orange Line in Arlington).

jsnydcsa

I've posted an important update in my original post at the top of the thread.

Without turning this thread toward humor (nothing is humorous about Metro or this whole situation), I'll take it as a compliment that those riding the southern portion of the Yellow and Blue Lines are not in "civilization."

travelpye

Thank you so much for posting this, OP.
I am taking my great niece,11, to DC Memorial weekend. We will be staying within walking distance of National Mall for 2 nights, so thinking we will be fine for those dates even if closures and disruption start early.

But we will be at Hyatt Tyson's corner May 28 so she can go to American Girl doll store.
Service on the silver line on weekends was not very frequent, or at least that was case the last time we were there. Do you think that might be worse now and/or that they might start the shutdown early?

If so, I think I better cancel and move us in to hotel near National Mall.
It would be a long haul back and forth to Tyson's via cab, and not sure if I can really count on uber or lyft availability for that route.

Finally, my sympathies to all of you for whom Metro is your regular commute

zhangg

Closures for SafeTrack shouldn't start early, but regularly scheduled weekend work on all lines is still very likely. Expect 15-20 minute headways, and Silver terminating at Ballston (you'll transfer to Orange to get in/out of the city). In reality, if you're just making the trip twice, that's not too bad.

Frankly, I think staying the night in Tysons is smarter than Metro'ing in and out in one day... but that's my opinion.

scubadiver

When we moved to DC there were four bus lines, no Metro. The main ones were the Grey Line serving MD, and the Red Line serving VA.

Grey Line had sh**ty labor relations, sh**ty service and sh**ty management. Red Line had good labor relations, good service and good management.

Metro absorbed all bus lines. Guess from which line the new Metro took its executives? Now them chickens are coming home to roost!

amanuensis

So where is the final plan that the slide deck promised? It was supposed to be released yesterday.

jsnydcsa

Seems that, as of the promised Monday, 16 May 2016 release date, it will not be released on time.
http://www.fox5dc.com/news/141903664-story

One of the reasons is that the FTA has told them that FTA-required work must be moved up in the queue. I suspect that there is also fine tuning of the plan due to recent developments (such as another smoke incident over the weekend of 14-15 May in the area of the L'Enfant Station) which require attention. And, of course, this being Metro, I bet that, over time new problems will crop up that delay/lengthen each phase of the project timeline.