Metro plans to offer express bus services to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on the weekend before Thanksgiving, after having decided earlier this year to shut down the Metrorail station at the airport before the busy travel-heavy holiday.
The transit agency has been planning since July on shutting down the Metrorail station at the airport, plus the Crystal City and Braddock Road stops for track work.
On Tuesday, it said that it plans to run free express buses from Metro Center’s 12th & G streets entrance to the airport. It will also run other buses from King Street, Pentagon City and Crystal City to the airport, plus have the usual shuttle buses linking the closed stations.
In July, when The Washington Examiner asked about shutting down the Reagan National station the weekend before Thanksgiving, the agency had said it was aware the shutdown was close to the holiday, when many people travel to see family. But Metro has said that historically that weekend is not an especially busy one at the airport Metro stop.
The shutdown begins at 10 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18, and will last through Sunday, Nov. 20.
Metro has said it will suspend all other scheduled track work systemwide for the rest of the holiday week at that station. No shutdowns are scheduled systemwide over the holiday weekend, but some trains will share a single track during the week, according to the agency. (Editor’s note: The last paragraph of this post was updated on Nov. 2 to reflect that Metro plans to do some track work on Thanksgiving week, though not at Reagan National Airport stop.)
