Just four years after extending service on the northern end of the Yellow Line to Greenbelt, Metro is set to end the Yellow Line downtown at Mt. Vernon Square starting in May.

Metro’s board haggled over potential changes to the budget at Thursday’s meeting, but after a passionate and lengthy discussion, the Yellow Line turnback at Mt. Vernon Square remained. This isn’t the first time Metro has used a turnback at Mt. Vernon Square.

The board also called for a $4 cap for MetroAccess paratransit rides, a win long fought for by people in the disability community, and a $6 cap on Metrorail fares instead of the previously-discussed $6.50. A final vote on the budget is expected next month.

Turnbacks, which turn trains around at certain stations instead of running them the length of the line, allow Metro to put more trains in the core of the system where demand is highest.

The turnback decision was made for a number of reasons but has disappointed riders and neighborhoods along the line like Shaw, Columbia Heights, U Street, College Park, and more. It also loses one-seat ride access to National Airport for many. Metro’s decision drew near-universal derision on social media.

Metro General Manager Randy Clarke said Metro’s goal is to serve the highest number of people with the equipment they have in the most cost-efficient, equitable way.

“Historically, (the southern end of the Green Line) is an underrepresented, underserved community,” Clarke said, noting that many people are more transit-dependent there. “(Demographically it has more) individuals of color, more service workers, and lower-income – all factors that when people talk about equity.

“How do we serve those people better?”

Board member Tracy Hadden Loh says she used to live in West Hyattsville and remembers the days of turnbacks.

“When the Yellow Line was extended further north… it was like water in the desert to know that there were more trains that could come to get me,” she said. “With this proposal, we’re advancing now, with six-minute all-day headways on all of the Green Line, that water in the desert is now shared with our south county neighbors at the southern end of the Green Line.

“A turnback is a normal and totally okay part of that.”

But board member Michael Goldman, a long-time opponent of turnbacks, called them “terrible.”

“They are not good things,” he said. “They require people to get off… and wait for the next train, which may be 5 minutes, it may be 10 minutes… people don’t like that. They don’t like waiting around for those things.

“So if we have the rail cars and (and the tracks from Maryland to Virginia) and we’re providing a regional system… we should take advantage of that and provide people with a one-seat ride service to the extent possible.”

Officials also noted turnbacks would mean more 6-minute service for bustling neighborhoods like Navy Yard and Waterfront on the Green Line and places like Potomac Yard, Crystal City, and King Street-Old Town on the Yellow Line, which previously only had trains every 10-12 minutes.

Overall, 3 out of 4 Green and Yellow line customers will have more frequent service, reducing wait times by a third or half, Metro says.

According to budget surveys, 83% were in favor of more Green Line service. Those same surveys showed 55% were in favor of the Yellow Line turnback, 19% were against and 26% were unsure.

Only 5% of riders were using the Yellow Line from the northern end in Greenbelt all the way into Virginia, Metro said. Clarke said those riders will still be served by the Green Line, but they will have to exit at Mt. Vernon and wait 3-6 minutes to transfer to Yellow Line trains there.

Hadden Loh asked if WMATA was ready to execute turnbacks efficiently as she remembered “messy” experiences in the past that took trains too long to turn around, thus missing scheduled runs and delaying passengers. Metro said it was able to do so.

Several factors played into Metro’s decision to reinstate turnbacks at Mt. Vernon:

Metro can only turn trains around efficiently in a pocket track, which it only has at Mt. Vernon Square. Clarke said ideally Metro would turn around at Fort Totten and still serve Shaw, Columbia Heights, U Street, and Georgia Avenue, but they don’t have a pocket track there. That improvement is in a long-range plan.

Metro also wouldn’t have enough trains to run six-minute service along the entire Green and Yellow lines without turnbacks.

Maryland board members Don Drummer and Goldman attempted to install a provision that called for sunsetting the turnback by June 2024. That measure was shot down since board members said they re-evaluate the entire budget every year anyway.

Communities like College Park are also upset with the turnback. In a letter to Metro’s board, the council wrote that it has “become a leader in transit-oriented development, with more than 3,000 housing units planned or under construction within a mile of its Metro station.” The council also said the decision could harm Maryland’s chances of securing the FBI headquarters at Greenbelt. The agency is in the final stages of choosing between Maryland and Virginia.

Metro officials say service changes would be made to increase service if the FBI moved to Maryland.

Long-awaited fare cap coming to MetroAccess

For nearly a decade, people in the disability community have called for cheaper fares on MetroAccess paratransit services. Thursday, their wish came true after board member Sarah Kline recommended a $4 cap for MetroAccess fares. The board agreed.

“I almost had a heart attack,” Denise Rush of the Accessibility Advisory Committee. “Thank you for hearing and listening… I’m doing a happy dance.”

Rush lost her vision at 48 and MetroAccess got her to work for 22 years. It also got her to entertainment like Chris Rock and Tina Turner.

“Paratransit system has been my lifeline,” she said. “It made me want to go forward instead of lay down and die… It is very important to a lot of people who have disabilities.”

MetroAccess fares are currently set at “twice the fastest comparable fixed-route fare with a maximum of $6.50 per trip. Fare calculations consider the time of day, trip distance, and the fastest mode of available transportation.”

The move will cost WMATA $500,000 but will be offset by moving some people to the cheaper Abilities Ride service that partners with cab companies and car services.

Metro instituted flat fares for Metrorail after 9 p.m. and on weekends, and the disability community asked for the same but didn’t get it.

Patrick Sheehan of the Accessibility Advisory Committee said the disability community often doesn’t have a loud voice.

“But we spoke, and you said you would listen and you did.”