For some jobs, you can be a few minutes late and get by. But for many jobs, you cannot. And that’s what has airport contract worker Meseret Woldeyohanes so nervous about the upcoming six-week Blue and Yellow line Metro shut down in Virginia.

Metro will close six stations – Franconia-Springfield, Huntington, Van Dorn St., Eisenhower Ave. King Street-Old Town, and Braddock Road – from September 10 through October 22.

The stations, south of  Reagan National Airport, will close to allow Metro to connect the new Potomac Yard station into the system. Work will go on 24 hours a day to integrate the track, power, communications, and signal systems.

Shuttle buses will replace trains.

The train from Franconia-Springfield usually takes 25 minutes to get Woldeyohanes to the airport. The shuttle bus is more unpredictable. She worries it could take 45 minutes to an hour, stopping at every station and navigating through busy traffic.

“(I can go to this job) because of Metro,” she says. “I need the Metro. I depend on Metro to work.”

She can clock in seven minutes before work or seven minutes late, but “The computer gives you a warning if you’re late the first time and automatically terminates you for the second time.”

There’s Uber or Lyft, but that’s $40 dollars or more a day, and takes more of her wages than she can afford in order to support her five kids. She’s planning on catching the shuttle — and that means getting up earlier, just in case.

Alternatives include shuttle, express buses, free VRE trains

Metro will run a series of free shuttle buses to help fill the gap in service.

Express shuttles will run from the end of the Blue and Yellow lines to the Pentagon. Local shuttles will run from the end of the lines and stop at each station. Another set of shuttles will run weekday rush hours only and take riders into various locations in D.C. including L’Enfant Plaza, near the White House, and more.

The City of Alexandria also has a list of alternatives including free VRE trains, Metrobus, DASH (Alexandria’s bus system) and Fairfax Connector bus routes, water taxis, biking and walking tips, and carpool and vanpool services.

The Blue Line will still be available starting at National Airport and heading north.

Ridership much lower than last shutdown in area

Woldeyeohanes’ story highlights some of the effects the shutdown will have on workers, but it likely will have less impact than it would pre-pandemic thanks to the current virtual/work-from-home trend.

The six stations Metro plans to temporarily close served an average of 27,560 entries on weekdays in 2018. That number is down about two-thirds to 9,040 entries per average weekday this year, according to Metro ridership data.

A platform reconstruction project closed the same six stations in 2019 leading to lower ridership. That shutdown did not go smoothly to start. Shuttle buses were meant to go from Huntington station to the Pentagon, but some ended up in Anacostia or other destinations. Riders were unhappy.

Those stations were the first of 20 outdoor stations rehabilitated over 3 years. Four Orange Line stations are set to reopen after Labor Day, the last set to be completed.

The recent shutdowns have had fewer vocal complaints. That could be the result of fewer passengers because of the pandemic and the fact that Metro has gotten plenty of practice for running shuttle operations in past shutdowns.

Nate Rathjen lives about three blocks from where the new Potomac Yard station will be. He said he feels like he’s about to be marooned on a desert island, but it’s not so bad.

“Fortunately, I work from home, so I don’t have a commute for this to disrupt, but I’ll have some scheming to do if I need to get to D.C.,” he said. “(If this happened pre-pandemic) I can only imagine unholy traffic chaos and furious protest from Alexandria.”

“Or we’d see something ridiculous as a workaround like weekend-only closures of the bridge for two years.”

If he does have to go to D.C. he’ll drive and park near Rosslyn to take the Blue Line in town.

The Potomac Yard Station has been in the works for nearly two decades. It’s just the second infill station (a new station built between existing stations) after NoMa-Gallaudet U on the Red Line.

The new station is opening during a time of massive change in the area with Amazon coming in just north, a new Virginia Tech campus, and more mixed-use development around the station.

It was supposed to open earlier this year before track circuitry work delayed the project. An opening date is still not yet set, but Metro says it will be “this fall.”

Rathjen says that’s “a light at the end of the tunnel…a really, really long tunnel.”

Pain Not Over For Virginia

On top of that six-week shutdown, Metro is also shutting down the Yellow Line bridge for about eight months from October 22, 2022, to May 2023. That means the entire Yellow Line will disappear, replaced by Blue Line and Green Line trains.

The Yellow Line tunnel and bridge rehabilitation work will require the entire stretch between L’Enfant Plaza Station and Pentagon to close. Metro’s chief engineer says it is the agency’s top structural priority to fix.

Crews will reline a 40-year-old tunnel to prevent water from getting into the tunnel. It will also fix the aging bridge, replace expansion joints and upgrade the fire suppression system.

Riders can still take the Blue Line from both Franconia-Springfield and Huntington in Virginia into D.C. but it will take up to 15 minutes longer than the Yellow Line as it goes north to Rosslyn and then into the District. VRE from Franconia-Springfield to L’Enfant Plaza is also an option.

Metro will also offer free shuttle services from Crystal City to L’Enfant, from Pentagon to Archives, and the 11Y route which takes riders from Mt. Vernon to the District.