As of today, Metro trains on the Green and Yellow lines are back to running at 15-minute intervals. Service had been cut back earlier this month when 72 train operators were taken off the job because their certifications had lapsed more than a year earlier.

The good news comes a week earlier than expected: on May 16, when Metro announced the recertifications, officials said reduced service, with 20-minute headways, would be in place through the end of the month.

During the week of limited service, train operators with lapsed certifications spent time brushing up in the classroom, as well as doing supervised testing in rail yards an on the tracks.

Now, stations served by both Green and Yellow lines (between Greenbelt and L’Enfant Plaza) should have trains arriving every seven or eight minutes, according to Metro. On the Red Line, trains are running every 10 minutes, while trains on the Blue, Orange, and Silver lines continue to arrive every 20 minutes (though, more frequently at stations with multiple lines).

Metro started looking into lapsed certifications after an audit by the independent Washington Metrorail Safety Commission found that the rail agency was not meeting its recertification requirements. Altogether, some 250 of Metro’s 500 train operators are behind on their recertifications, though only those with the longest lapses were taken off the job this month.

According to Metro, it will take two to three months to re-certify all lapsed operators. Separately, Metro is also reviewing the training of more than 2,500 bus operators.

The lapsed certifications and resulting service cutbacks are just the latest in a series of safety and reliability problems for the transit agency. For the past seven months, Metro’s 7000-series cars have been out of service following a derailment that revealed widespread problems with the wheel assemblies on the fleet’s newest railcars, as well as a lack of timely and thorough inspections.

There is good news on the 7000-series front too: last week the safety commission approved Metro’s plan to start putting the railcars back in service this summer. The plan includes daily inspections of the cars’ wheels, new training, and new digital measuring tools.