The longest stretch of Metro’s SafeTrack maintenance plan—42 straight days on the western end of the Orange Line—officially ends today. But SafeTrack is returning for the Red Line, and it isn’t going to be pretty.
Beginning Saturday, there will be a complete shutdown between Fort Totten and NoMa Gallaudet stations, Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld said at a press conference today. That means Brookland and Rhode Island Avenue stations will shutter completely for more than three weeks—from October 29 to November 22.
“Surge 10 has one of the largest rider impacts of all of the surges that we have done and will do,” Wiedefeld said, explaining that it will affect about *200,000 peak trips every day.
Maintenance work will include replacing dozens of switches, hundreds of fasteners, and thousands of cross ties, among other things, Wiedefeld continued.
On weekday mornings and afternoons, Red Line trains will run every 10 minutes between Glenmont and Fort Totten and every six minutes between Shady Grove and NoMa-Gallaudet U. “That’s about a 50 percent reduction in our normal service so you can expect extreme crowding and potential delays,” Wiedefeld said. And after 9 p.m., all Red Line trains will run every 15 minutes.
Metro will have more train cars on the Red and Green Lines “to deal with as much traffic as we can, but it’s important to know that cannot handle all the traffic that we anticipate that would be on the line normally,” Wiedefeld continued.
Metro is also offering free shuttle buses between NoMa and Fort Totten, stopping at the Brookland and Rhode Island Avenue stations. But officials are encouraging passengers to consider taking alternate travel options and avoid the Metrorail system during rush hour altogether, if possible. If Metrorail is a primary option, passengers can take the Green Line between Fort Totten and Gallery Place. “And please look at bus options as well,” Wiedefeld said.
*This post has been updated to say that the changes impact 200,000 peak trips every day, not 20,000 as previously stated.
