Work to mean single tracking until spring
Metro’s aggressive track work program is creeping into the path of weekday commuters, promising to aggravate riders who go home soon after the evening rush.
Starting this week, it plans to make Red Line trains share a single track each weekday starting at 8 p.m. between Dupont Circle and Van Ness stops. The work will progress along the Red Line each week and will take until the spring.
For riders, it means delays at the end of the evening commute. But the transit agency says its “aggressive” schedule is necessary to make the system safer and restore the 35-year-old rail system.
| Work zone alert: Green, Red line shutdowns planned for this weekend |
| Metro is planning another round of massive track work this weekend, with shutdowns at six stations. But this time, closures on the Green Line are starting at 10 p.m. Thursday, leaving riders who have to work on Veterans Day with a longer commute. The track work will close the Waterfront, Navy Yard, Anacostia and Congress Heights stations Thursday night through Sunday. Free shuttle buses will connect riders from the closed stations to the L’Enfant Plaza and Southern Avenue stops. Two Red Line stations will close for a few hours Saturday night. Shady Grove and Rockville will close at 11 p.m. to allow for signal system repairs then reopen for the normal service start at 7 a.m. Sunday. Free shuttle buses will run between Shady Grove, Rockville and Twinbrook. |
The transit agency already had claimed nearly all holiday weekends for track work, then added station shutdowns to most regular weekends. It has even squeezed track work into the slow middle of the weekday.
The new Red Line work is part of a campaign to replace some 1,480 track circuits that were part of the automatic safety system that failed in the deadly 2009 Fort Totten crash. Circuits along the tracks did not show that a stopped train was sitting on the Red Line tracks before another train slammed into it.
The Red Line is the first of Metro’s five lines to be tackled. All circuits must be replaced and tested for Metro to be able to return to running trains automatically, instead of manually as it has done since the crash.
On the Red Line alone, 534 of the 640 track circuits on it need to be swapped out with Ansaldo brand models that don’t have the same problems, Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said. About 40 percent already have been replaced.
But each track circuit takes about four hours to replace, so it will take some time.
The agency typically has been starting track work no earlier than 10 p.m. and continuing into the overnight hours when the train system is closed. But by starting the work two hours earlier, it can get two circuits replaced and tested per night, Stessel said.
Even so, the work on the Red Line alone is expected to take until spring.
“This is delicate work and we want to make sure it’s done right,” Stessel said.
Metro doesn’t plan to single track trains every night through spring, Stessel cautioned, as the agency will be able to replace some during weekend station shutdowns. The agency also plans to operate additional eight-car trains during the evening hours to compensate for the delays.
