Photo by Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie.

Anytime we can try to even out bad news regarding Metro with something good, we’ll take it. The bad news first: the Washington Post reports this morning that Metro will be shutting down a large portion of the Orange and Blue Lines over a weekend in early November — and the Foggy Bottom station over the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend in January — in order to perform more labor-intensive track maintenance.

The report also notes that 2011 could be a real rough year for weekend Metrorail commuting:

The next scheduled shutdown will occur on a two-day weekend, Nov. 5 through Nov. 7, according to Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel. Metro will close the Orange Line between Stadium-Armory and New Carrollton stations and the Blue Line between Stadium-Armory and Benning Road stations to make structural repairs to the bridge at Cheverly and to replace track circuits outside Stadium-Armory, he said. More details on those closures will be available next week, he added.

Taubenkibel said Metro is running out of opportunities to do major track work this year. The agency doesn’t want to do work during the holiday season because of the number of people traveling and shopping. The next holiday weekend closing will occur in January during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, when the agency replaces track switches at Foggy Bottom, he said.

“We anticipate there will be numerous closures of the rail system in 2011,” Taubenkibel said. “We will take advantage of every single holiday weekend. It has to be done.”

On the bright side, at least we’ll get a bit of a respite over the busy holiday travel season this year.