Photo by Adam Gerard.

In a couple weeks, Pope Francis will be gracing D.C. with his presence for two days, highlighted by a midday prayer at Catholic University. More than 25,000 people have tickets to attend the Mass, which means that Metro will, undoubtedly, be a mess.

WMATA knows this and says they’re doing the best they can to accommodate the inevitable flood of people headed to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. WMATA says that they’re going to provide additional train service during non-peak hours on Wednesday, September 23rd and Thursday, September 24th, but says that “riders may need to wait extended periods of time—possibly hours—before re-entering the Metrorail system at certain stations.”

The busiest station will be Brookland, which is closest to Catholic University. WMATA says that station has “the ability to accommodate fewer than 5,000 boardings per hour under normal conditions.” To relieve that pressure, Metro and DDOT are going to implement shuttle bus service from the Fort Totten and Rhode Island Avenue stations, while making the Brookland station “exit only” prior to the event and “entry only” after.

TL;DR: avoid using Metro during the Pope’s visit. Especially the Red Line near the Brookland station.