May 7, 2008
About Those Green and Yellow Line Delays...
Last week we told you about some major Green and Yellow line weekend delays in store thanks to switch replacement work planned for the Mount Vernon Square/7th St-Convention Center Metro station. That news was based on a report from the Washington Post's Get There blog, which unfortunately had the wrong dates listed for when the work would start: anyone who rode the Green or Yellow lines last weekend can attest that the trains were running on a regular schedule. Metro has since sent out the correct information for the affected weekends, and we apologize for repeating the Post's bad information without verifying it with Metro for ourselves.
That said, the switch work is very real, and it is definitely starting this weekend. Metro is predicting long delays during three weekends in May and the first weekend in June. The actual schedule for the switch work is below; during these times, a somewhat complicated method of single-tracking and keeping Green and Yellow line trains running only every 24 minutes (though riders traveling between the Greenbelt and Shaw-Howard stations should generally see a train every 12 minutes), will make weekend travel on these lines slow and annoying. Delays of around 30 to 45 minutes are predicted.
- Friday, May 9, 11 p.m., to Sunday, May 11, midnight.
- Friday, May 16, 9 p.m., to Sunday, May 18, midnight.
- Friday, May 30, 9 p.m., to Sunday, June 1, midnight.
- Friday, June 6, 11 p.m., to Sunday, June 8, midnight.
So more or less, all weekend every weekend until June 9, with the obvious exception of the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
Photo by Grundlepuck. Joshua Davis contributed to this post.
To help speed up the track work, Yellow and Green line trains will share one track between the L'Enfant Plaza and Mount Vernon Sq/7th St-Convention Center stations. When a Green line train towards Greenbelt leaves, a Yellow line train will follow two minutes later. Those two trains will then share the same track and travel to the L'Enfant Plaza and Mount Vernon Sq/7th St-Convention Center station. The Yellow Line train will then hold for two minutes at the Shaw-Howard Metro station.
In the other direction, when trains enter the single track area to the Branch Avenue and Huntington Metro stations, a Green line train will arrive at the Shaw-Howard Metro station, and hold for 10 minutes while the trains in the opposite direction clear, and to wait for the Yellow line train to be within two minutes of the waiting Green Line train. The two trains will then travel through the single track area.
Metro is also suggesting alternative bus routes, in case you don't have an extra 30 to 45 minutes to play with. The 70 Metrobus services the Georgia Ave-Petworth, Convention Center, Gallery Place-Chinatown, Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter, and L'Enfant Plaza Metrorail stations. The 52 and 54 Metrobus routes serve the L'Enfant Plaza to Takoma Metrorail stations, stopping at Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter, Smithsonian, McPherson Square and Columbia Heights stations.
As for Nationals Games, Metro's best advice is to add extra time. They also will run a shuttle bus before the game from L'Enfant Plaza to Navy Yard. Red line riders are advised to transfer at Metro Center instead of Gallery Place, and then take a Blue or Orange line train to L'Enfant in order to avoid the bottleneck. Beginning at the end of the 7th inning, Metro will run free shuttle buses on the N22 route. These will stop at Eastern Market and Union Station.
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I don't understand WHY DON'T THEY DO THIS AT NIGHT!?!? It's not like it is any brighter down there during the day. There is a reason why highway construction usually takes place at night...FEWER PEOPLE DRIVING! Is it a union thing or something that prevents them from doing this then?
and yes I realize it is already taking place at night, but why not just work on it for more nights throughout the week rather than the weekend.
Do you really think WMATA didn't consider doing it at night?
There are really only a few hours to do work at night. The system is closed for 5 hours, but it takes time to setup and breakdown, and all work must be completed and inspected prior to the system opening. There are some tasks that simply cannot be done with these restrictions, just as there are some highway construction tasks that require complete closure of the road for a weekend.
Dammit, I totally planned for it last weekend, and now it seems the work is actually going to be done on a weekend my parents are going to be visiting. D'oh! More time spent standing around and doing nothing with my parents!
There's something to be said for primary-source reporting, even for blogs... then again, same can be said for me getting my info from a blog and not an official source.
Metro is also suggesting alternative bus routes, in case you don't have an extra 30 to 45 minutes to play with.
Suggesting alternative bus routes is fine and dandy, but are they adding any buses? Non-rush hour bus service can be useless, with buses (theoretically) way infrequent and late. If they're going to do this trackwork in the middle of busy tourist season, why don't they add extra buses up and down the Green and Yellow lines?
Based on the experience from the Red Line work that was like this, the "24 minutes between trains" can sometimes be more than 35 or 40 minutes, and the station manager and staff probably won't know when the next train is coming.
As I understand it, there will be shuttle trains between L'Enfant Plaza and Navy Yard (both before and after games) and shuttle buses from Navy Yard to (1) Federal Center SW and (2) Eastern Market and Union Station (the N22 route).
Sounds like they may just extend the single tracking on the Green Line to Navy Yard and run a train up and back between L'Enfant Plaza and Navy Yard.
This shit is really annoying. I normally avoid the green and yellow line, but what with Madonnarama at Town this weekend and all, it looks like I'm going to be stuck dealing with this bullshit. I imagine there are going to be a LOT of pissed off queens at U Street/Cardozo on Saturday night. ;-)