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WMATA released its October weekend track maintenance schedule on Monday, which details the Columbus Day Weekend closures of the Waterfront-SEU, Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter and L’Enfant Plaza stations on the Yellow and Green lines they had previously warned us about, in addition to myriad other work that will affect the Red and Orange Lines during three other weekends throughout the month. It'll be a busy month for weekend track work, but considering the average month, par for the course.
But wait! Today, Metro additionally announced a new and even more exciting feature into our lives: evening track maintenance during the week. Yes. On every single line. From 9:30 p.m. until closing, Sundays through Thursdays throughout the month, with some exceptions and variations, depending on the line.
The schedule is complicated and most of the weeknight work will involve single-tracking trains while crews replace rail fasteners, but Metro is being pretty blunt about warning customers to just be prepared for the possibility of 30 minute delays on every single line after 9:30 p.m., starting this Sunday clear through until November. Check the details of what's in store for your Metro line here.
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Green and Yellow have been single-tracking on weeknights for two weeks now.
Yep, seriously annoying to ride late at night. There goes my social life for October if it takes me an extra hr (two lines) to get home after 9:30 or on weekends. And not all of us have Columbus Day off! That's going to be a rough commute, though it may be a good excuse to convince my boss I should work from home that day...
I've taken to biking to the bus on 8th St SE rather than walk the one block from my house to the Navy Yard metro for trips to U St.
the 90s are pretty reliable buses—you can usually get one every 8-9 minutes or so except for late night. pretty good way to get from the hill/trinidad to bloomingdale/u street/adams morgan
Looks like we have paid our dues already. According to the link Green/yellow will have the Columbus holiday work and the only other time its affected is: Trains will share one track between these locations from 9:30 p.m., through closing (midnight) from Sunday, Oct. 4, through Thursday, Oct. 8.
sigh. if only congress would pony up some more cash for the system that gets most of the federal government's workers to the office every day.
will. never. happen.
americans don't respect their national capitol. they are taught from an early age to despise it.
Oof. Just in time for the start of hockey and basketball season!
It took me and my wife an hour and half to get home from a lightly attended preseason hockey game last week, and we live near Pentagon City, which is only 4 stops away (normally a 10-15 min ride, not including station wait times). I can only imagine how bad things will be when Verizon Center is packed for the regular season.
It looks like we may need to start budgeting for taxi fares until Metro gets this stuff taken care of.
I may have brought this up before, but I don't recall I've ever found an answer: WHAT THE HELL happens during the 33 hours a week that the entire system is shutdown? Am I simply ignorant to think that's enough time to get anything done? Or does Metro really not employ anyone during those times?
NYC has its troubles (in the system and financially) but it's a significantly bigger system that runs 24/7 and doesn't even get taxes from a HUGE portion of its user base currently, yet I don't recall having the kind of constant delay for routine track work that Metro throws at everyone here.
Well, part of it is the fundamental difference that the New York subway has a lot of local and express trackage. So, at off-peak hours, repairs can be conducted on one section and trains can be switched over to any of three other tracks, and delays are avoided.
But, yeah, more generally, I get the feeling that much more work for Metro could be done during the night. In Boston, which has a much older system requiring much more maintenance, a lot of work is conducted at night and something like weekend single-tracking is pretty rare. Metro could probably shift more of its work to night, but I'm pretty sure it would cost them more.
NYC has plenty of trackwork delays, and the detours/rerouting can often be difficult to understand. Here's the trackwork for this weekend:
http://tripplanner.mta.info/NewTP/serviceAdvisories/routeStatusResult.aspx?tag=ALL&date=10/03/2009&time=
It's annoying that they're closing the metro stations on Columbus Day. I have to work that day and so do a lot of other people. Now I have to walk to work from a farther metro station because mine will be closed. Argh!