Massive Metro Repairs: Shutdown for Parts of Lines, Major Single-Tracking Delays

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Bad news, Metro riders: Your commute is going to get a lot uglier as part of a SafeTrack repair program.

Metro has announced a huge rehab effort expected to last a year and result in long-duration shutdowns of entire sections of a track at a time. The work will apply to the entire Metro rail network, except for new portions of the Silver Line.

Metro general manager Paul Wiedefeld called SafeTrack a massive undertaking in a press conference Friday morning. "We need to do something different," he said. "Dramatically different."

In total, the work will complete a 3-year repair program within one year, according to documents released with the SafeTrack announcement.

The work includes 15 "safety surges," causing long-duration track outages that will require single tracking or line-segment shutdowns, including impacts during rush hour commutes.

See the list of the 15 surge projects.

"We will have impact on rush-hour services," he said of other work that can't be reasonably completed during off hours. "The goal was not to eliminate any service … If we have to shutdown a station, we will have busses so people have transit."

Metrorail riders will be encouraged to consider using alternate travel options while safety surge work is in effect on their line, according to Metro.

Wiedefeld says there will be a systemwide shutdown at midnight seven days a week, with a moratorium on extended hours, beginning in June.

Workers would make a number of improvements during the closures, including replacing electrical cables, rail ties, fasteners and switches, or making priority safety improvements identified by federal officials.

Earlier this year, Metro shut down the entire rail system for a full day to make emergency fixes on cables that were believed to be at risk to cause dangerous fires -- one of which officials believe killed a woman at L'Enfant Plaza last year.

Despite the day-long shutdown, the Metro system has continued to experience problems with cables in the system and speculation has grown that a major effort would be needed to correct problems system-wide.

Image via Wikimedia