Metrorail’s Yellow Line will gain four additional stations during off-peak hours starting Sunday.
Four stations on the Green Line will be added to the Yellow Line after the Mount Vernon Square stop to provide additional service to a growing area of the District. The extra stations that will be part of the Yellow Line will be Shaw-Howard University, U Street/African-American Civil War Memorial/Cardozo, Columbia Heights and Georgia Avenue.
“This will give us off-peak service we are in immediate need of,” said D.C. Council Member Jim Graham, who also serves on Metro’s board of directors. The extension willcost $3 million, which the D.C. government is providing.
“It is an improvement that does not cost very much and will be of great benefit to residents,” said Mayor-elect Adrian Fenty. “It will expand transportation as we know it in the District of Columbia.”
The trains will travel the longer route only during nonpeak hours — 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. to closing weekdays, and weekends — when trains run less frequently. Rush-hour passengers on the Yellow Line can still get to those stations by transferring to the Green Line, as they do now.
The additional trains mean passengers will have the option of taking either line between those stations and will have to wait a shorter amount of time for trains. During weekday off-peak hours, when trains on each line run every 15 to 20 minutes, the stations will see a train every seven to 10 minutes.
Scott Pomeroy, who lives near the Columbia Heights station, said that not only should the nonpeak extension be made permanent, but Yellow Line rush-hour service should be added to the four stations.
Eventually, he said, he would like to see the Yellow Line extended to Greenbelt, the Green Line’s final stop.
