Photo by Amberture

This weekend sure is a busy one. What with the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade is on Saturday morning, the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10-Mile Run and 5K Run-Walk on Sunday morning, plus Wizards, DC United and Nationals games all happening on Saturday night, off-peak hours this weekend on Metro are likely to resemble rush hour. In order to keep up, Metro has no weekend track work scheduled, and they’ve instituted a number of service changes.

First up on Saturday, keep in mind that many Metrobus routes will be rerouted around the Cherry Blossom Parade. The parade itself runs from 10 a.m. to about noon, but the 5A, 13, 32, 34, 36, 52, 54, 64, 70, 80, P6, S2, S4 and V8 Metrobus lines be rerouted early and won’t resume to normal service until close to 2 p.m. Those of you heading down to the parade are encouraged to use Metro, and access Constitution Ave. via the Smithsonian or Federal Triangle stations on the Blue and Orange lines or the Archives Navy-Memorial-Penn Quarter station on the Green and Yellow lines.

Then Saturday night, Metro will be running additional service to handle all the sports fans. A combination of additional six-car and eight-car trains will be in use for patrons traveling from Gallery Place-Chinatown, Navy Yard and Stadium-Armory stations during the post-game crush.

And finally on Sunday morning, Metro will open two hours early, at 5 a.m., to accommodate runners and spectators trying to get to the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10-Mile Run and 5K Run-Walk. The race starts at 7:45 a.m., and will start and finish at West Potomac Park. The Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10-Mile Run is actually paying for all the costs associated with the early opening of the rail system.