Metro riders on the Orange Line can expect weeks of track repairs and delays as maintenance crews work to get the transit system, literally, back up to speed.
Maintenance work will force trains onto a single track between the West Falls Church and East Falls Church stations on the Orange Line beginning Monday. The maintenance project is scheduled for every weekday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., through Oct. 8.
Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said riders should not experience delays because trains run every 12 minutes during non-peak hours on the affected section of track.
“We’re going to make sure our track maintenance crews get out there at the appropriate time, because we only have that four-hour window between peak times to work,” Taubenkibel said.
Crews are scheduled to replace cross ties and lay new track during the planned two weeks of repairs. A Metro statement said the work was needed to allow trains to run at normal operating speeds.
Orange Line trains have since early August lumbered at reduced speeds because of concerns about aging tracks and cross ties. Metro crews last weekend performed similar work at the tail end of the Orange Line, between the Vienna/Fairfax-GMU and West Falls Church stations.
Those repairs are just the start of a rough two-month stretch for Orange Line commuters.
Metro officials recently issued a schedule of planned October and November maintenance projects, which are expected to shut down stations and cause major delays for Orange and Blue Line riders at McPherson Square, Farragut West and Metro Center, and between Stadium-Armory and the New Carrollton and Largo Town Center stations.
The planned track work is part of a systemwide maintenance overhaul, spurred by last year’s deadly Red Line crash. Transportation safety officials identified a faulty track circuit as one of the accident’s primary culprits.
Metro General Manager Richard Sarles told members of Congress that service reliability was among the three greatest challenges facing the Metro system, along with safety and financial stability.
“The [Metro] board established a $5 billion, six-year capital plan, the largest capital budget since the completion of the rail system, to ensure that we can make needed equipment and infrastructure safety and state of good repair improvements,” Sarles said.
Metro planning director Jim Hughes said recently that frequent track improvement work would be common on all Metro rail lines through at least the end of 2011.
