metro
Photo by PoPville flickr user brunofish

From WMATA:

“Reconstruction of the Metrorail system will continue over the weekend of June 11-12 with service adjustments on all six lines. Trains will operate as follows:

Red Line trains will operate every 12-20 minutes.
Orange, Silver, Blue, and Green Line trains will operate every 18 minutes.
Yellow Line trains will operate every 18 minutes between Huntington and Mt. Vernon Sq only.
All lines operate every 20 minutes after 10:00 p.m.

REMINDER: Metrorail’s new closing time is midnight as of Friday, June 3 (more…)


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Thanks to a reader for sending:

“I have *never* seen this custom, Madmax inspired Thunderdome rail car in the wild”

Now that SafeTrack is in full effect – how was your commute in today? Have you noticed a lot of people working from home in your office? Are you working from home? Are your bosses sympathetic if you come in late? If anyone took Uber – was there a surge this morning?

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metro
Photo by PoPville flickr user nevermindtheend

From WMATA:

Beginning Friday, June 3, the Metrorail system will close at midnight every night to allow for the implementation of SafeTrack, an expanded track work plan to improve Metrorail safety and restore service reliability.”

For those who are affected by the first SafeTrack – how will you alter your commute? For those staying out late night – what mode will you use to get home now?

From the Mayor’s Office:

“Today, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the District’s strategy to mitigate the impact of ‘SafeTrack’, WMATA’s year-long emergency repair program. The Bowser administration’s plan includes expanded rush hour parking restrictions, retiming traffic signals, deployment of additional traffic control officers and discounted fares on Capital Bikeshare.

SafeTrack begins on the Orange and Silver lines in Virginia on June 4. The first major repairs within the District will occur from June 18 to July 3, when Metro will experience full closures on the Orange, Blue and Silver Lines between Eastern Market and Minnesota Avenue/Benning Road stations. Metro stations in the District will also be impacted in August and again in October.

“At some point during the next year, it is likely that every commuter to and from Washington, DC—whether by rail, bus, or car—will, unfortunately, be affected by SafeTrack repairs. I am committed to making the yearlong repairs to MetroRail as painless as possible for all commuters and DC residents,” said Mayor Bowser. As such, my administration has developed a mitigation strategy and will soon implement a number of tactics designed to ease traffic flow and promote safe and affordable alternative modes of travel. As these tactics are deployed, and for the duration of SafeTrack, I urge District residents and commuters to learn more about how the repairs will affect their travel by visiting safetrack.godcgo.com.” (more…)


metro track work dc
Photo by PoPville flickr user Andrew Pasko-Reader

From WMATA:

“Reconstruction of the Metrorail system will continue over Memorial Day weekend, May 27-30 with service adjustments on all six lines. Trains will operate as follows:

Three stations will be closed this weekend: Vienna, Dunn Loring and West Falls Church.
There will be no Orange Line trains this weekend. Silver Line service will operate between Wiehle-Reston East and New Carrollton.
Riders traveling to/from Orange Line stations must board a Silver Line train to make their trip.
Riders traveling to/from Blue/Silver stations between Largo Town Center and Benning Road must use only Blue Line trains.
Red Line trains will operate every 8-16 minutes.
Yellow and Green line trains operate every 12-15 minutes.
Silver and Blue Line trains operate every 20 minutes.

Memorial Day service information
On Memorial Day, Monday, May 30, Metrorail will open at 7 a.m. and close at midnight. Trains will operate on a Sunday schedule. Off-peak fares will be in effect all day, and parking will be free at all Metrorail parking facilities.”


updates

Update from WARL:

“With the help of @wmata, our Animal Control Officers saved 6-week-old Totten of rail tracks #wmata”

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Photo by PoPville flickr user Matt Calvert

“Dear PoPville,

I’m writing in the hopes that someone knows the (hopefully happy?) end to this story.

I was at Fort Totten this morning to catch the yellow line to the airport when several of us heard plaintive mews of distress from a little, fuzzy kitten hiding behind the third rail. Several folks tried in the stretches between trains to coax the kitten within reach to no avail. Someone notified the station manager and was apparently told there was nothing he could do because it was rush hour. Another metro employee came by soon after and was more sympathetic (I wish I had gotten a name or number). He was on the radio quickly and the next trains crawled through at a snails pace to give the kitten time to get out of the way. After one train passed, I saw the top of another cat’s ears poke up between the grates directly behind the third rail. I couldn’t see well enough to know whether or was another kitten or a mother cat, but I assume it was a kitten because my guess is the mother would have responded to the other kitten’s cries.

I had to leave to catch my plane, but I’m hoping someone knows if they were able to rescue the kittens! The mewing was heartbreaking.”


pain sculpture

By now you’ve felt the pain. All I want to say is you are not alone. You have my blessing to start drinking early today.

As of 9:00am:

“Red Line continues to single track btwn Grosvenor & Friendship Hts. No longer single tracking at Woodley. Expect 45-mins delays 9:00a #wmata”


dupont metro
Photo by PoPville flickr user James Jackson

Now that monsoon season is nearly over our temps are expected to get back to normal, we should hit 80 tomorrow, 85 on Wed. and 87 on Thurs. according to the Weather Channel…and Anthony Adragna reports: “Dupont Circle may be air-conditioned again by JULY!”

dupont metro


metro
Photo by PoPville flickr user Beau Finley

From WMATA:

“Reconstruction of the Metrorail system will continue over the weekend of May 21-22 with service adjustments on four of six lines. Trains will operate as follows:

Yellow and Green Line trains will operate at regular weekend intervals.
Free shuttle buses replace Orange Line trains between Stadium-Armory & Minnesota Ave on Saturday and Stadium-Armory & New Carrollton on Sunday. See below for details.
Free shuttle buses replace Blue line trains between Stadium-Armory and Capitol Heights.
Red Line trains will operate every 24 minutes.
Silver Line trains will operate every 12 minutes between Wiehle-Reston East and East Falls Church only.

Red Line
Trains every 24 minutes | 8:00 p.m. Friday until closing Sunday (more…)


safetrack
Photo by PoPville flickr user Tim Brown

From WMATA:

“Metro General Manager/CEO Paul J. Wiedefeld today publicly released the final SafeTrack plan — a comprehensive maintenance effort that will accelerate three years worth of work into approximately one year. The plan significantly expands maintenance time on weekends, weeknights and midday hours and includes 15 “Safety Surges”–long-duration track outages for major projects in key parts of the system. The plan addresses Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) safety recommendations and deferred maintenance backlogs while restoring track infrastructure to good health.

surge_schedule

Following review and collaboration with FTA, as well as consideration of traffic mitigation and alternate travel options by the Department of Transportation (DOT) agencies in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia, regional law enforcement, Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and General Services Administration (GSA), the implementation of SafeTrack will commence immediately. (more…)


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