Metro offered riders the closest thing to normal service that the region had seen in days for about six hours on Tuesday.
But just as quickly, the agency had to suspend it, as buses became stuck on snow-slicked streets and trains started to lose power on their ice-covered third rails.
The agency has now had no above-ground train service for four of the past five days. Thursday may bring the total even higher as the agency is already expecting that Metrobus and MetroAccess service will remain suspended, Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said. Above-ground train service also looks unlikely for at least the morning.
Tuesday was the one respite. But Metro notified the media five minutes before it said it planned to shut down its above-ground trains Tuesday night. It was unclear how many riders were caught by surprise.
“We had said throughout the day there was a chance we’d be closing early,” Taubenkibel said. “We kept it open as long as we could.”
The agency had resumed above-ground service at all but five stations for morning commuters on Tuesday, then opened the final stations by 2:30 p.m. It was the first time many riders could use the subway system since Friday. The agency provided 261,522 trips on its rail system, though, far below its typical weekday ridership of more than 700,000.
Metro also ramped up bus service during the day as road conditions improved, with 500 buses running by midday.
It ran 340 roundtrips on MetroAccess for life-saving medical treatment for limited hours, the first time the disability access service ran since Friday. The last MetroAccess rider was returned home after 7 p.m., Taubenkibel said.
It ran 340 roundtrips on MetroAccess for life-saving medical treatment for limited hours, the first time the disability access service ran since Friday. The last MetroAccess rider was returned home after 7 p.m., Taubenkibel said.
However, road conditions remained dicey. Two MetroAccess vehicles had bump-ups and five Metrobuses were involved in accidents, none with serious injuries, he said.
Then in the evening, conditions deteriorated as temperatures dropped and the next storm rolled into the region.
On the roads,15 Metrobuses carrying passengers became stuck and had to be dug out, forcing the agency to suspend all bus service around 8 p.m. Metro supervisors picked up some passengers who were waiting at bus shelters and drove them home, Taubenkibel said.
Then train operators began reporting their trains were losing power as the third rail became covered with snow and ice. The agency halted above-ground service at 8:45 p.m. Taubenkibel said he had heard no reports of riders being stranded by the last-minute closures.
