Those planning to celebrate inaugural events this weekend may need to plan on another way to get home besides a Metro train, especially on Sunday and Monday nights.
Metrorail will stop at midnight both days even though many events and celebrations will run into the early-morning hours.
Partygoers and even D.C. officials have asked Metro to extend the service. But agency officials say they won’t be able to push the trains any further.
“If we do not have any hours of maintenance Sunday and Monday, we could have a collapse of the system,” Metro General Manager John Catoe said last week.
Metro already is offering unprecedented extra train service — including 17 hours of consecutive rush-hour trains — on Inauguration Day as officials expect record crowds.
More than 1 million people are expected to descend on the city for the historic Jan. 20 swearing-in of Barack Obama as president. But the Jan. 19 Martin Luther King Day holiday the day before means a four-day weekend that expands the party.
In addition to scores of inaugural balls and other events, more than 200 D.C. bars and restaurants will remain open and serving alcohol until 4 a.m.
The Metro system will run until 3 a.m. for Friday- and Saturday-night partiers, as typical for weekends. But Metro says it can’t extend its hours later than midnight on Sunday and Monday, even though the city will have more than 75 events after midnight those nights, according to D.C. Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Neil Albert.
Metro, instead, is trying to focus on being ready for the big day: Tuesday. The system will need train operators for the extra service on Inauguration Day, and Metro says it can let train operators work only eight hours within a 24-hour period for safety reasons.
Furthermore, Catoe said Metro needs to fix and inspect rails and trains during the closed hours. Monday’s midnight closure is especially key as Metrorail will start running again at 4 a.m. on Tuesday, leaving four hours of maintenance time on the aging system.
“If we push it too many times, we can’t push it anymore,” Catoe has said.
That leaves buses, taxis and cars for those who want to stay out late. Those planning to drive should take note that roads around the inaugural festivities will close at 2 a.m. on Jan. 20. Drivers will be able to get to Virginia on all bridges except the Memorial Bridge, even though the bridges leading from Virginia into D.C. will close at 2 a.m., transportation officials say.
Furthermore, if revelers party long enough Monday into Tuesday morning, they will be able to catch Metro trains when they start special service at 4 a.m.
