Photo by Erin Kelly

For D.C. residents, the National Cherry Blossom Festival is an annual nightmare of hundreds of thousands of tourists flooding the city, stopping us to ask directions to streets that are usually a block away. (One example from last year: “How do I get to G Street?” The question was asked on F Street.)

If there’s a silver lining in all this, it’s that every year, Metro suspends its weekend track work for the festival, which begins this chilly weekend, even though most of the blossoms are still yet to appear. (Earlier this week, National Park Service officials pushed the expected peak bloom back to April 3.) Between now and April 14, Metro will only schedule track repairs for Sunday evenings after 10 p.m., the transit agency said today.

The transit agency is still working through a long list of upgrades recommended by the National Transportation Safety Board that, when finished, will represent the greatest amount of work on the system since its opening in 1976.

Metro General Manger Richard Sarles says in a news release about the track work suspension that the break is an opportunity for the transit system to show off. “The spring break will give people an opportunity to experience the type of system we are working toward,” he says. Which is swell, until the cherry blossom tourists run into another innately D.C. experience: Metro malfunctions and unscheduled track work.