Metro’s Green and Yellow line riders should brace for heavy delays over the next four weekends as the transit agency completes a track repair designed to correct a problem that led to a train derailment last year.
The delays will coincide with two weekends of Washington Nationals home games.
Metro is advising riders to build an extra 30 to 45 minutes into their travel schedules as all trains will share one track between L’Enfant Plaza and Mount Vernon Square/ 7th Street-Convention Center.
Green and Yellow line trains each will run every 24 minutes, but riders traveling between the Greenbelt and Shaw-Howard stations will see a train every 12 minutes.
Metro will operate extra trains between the L’Enfant Plaza and Navy Yard stations before and after baseball games.
Red Line customers trying to reach Nationals Stadium can avoid delays by transferring to Blue or Orange line trains at Metro Center and transferring to the Green Line train at L’Enfant Plaza, officials said.
The transit agency is replacing the switch that allows trains to change tracks at the Mount Vernon Square station following the October recommendation of the National Transportation Safety Board.
In January 2007, the fifth car of a six-car train derailed and hit a wall as it changed tracks, injuring 23 people.
Metro in October ordered a new switch that includes rail guards to prevent the wheels from jumping, Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said.
The switches can take more than a year to manufacture, but the agency rushed to order it, he said.
“The equipment is in, and we’re moving forward with the recommendation from NTSB,” Taubenkibel said.
All of the new switches being ordered by Metro now include rail guards, he said.
