Arlington Will Get 9 Straight Weeks of Metro Misery

ARLINGTON, VA — If you're a rider on the Yellow and Blue lines, you're already enjoying the first weekday of the latest "Surge" as part of Metro's SafeTrack plan to fix chronic safety problems throughout the system. But a massive Surge is quickly approaching that will last 42 days -- by far the longest yet.

The current Surge involves continuous single-tracking and weekend line segment shutdown between the Franconia-Springfield and Van Dorn Street stations on the Yellow and Blue lines. The Surge began Aug. 27 and will last until Sept. 11 for a total of 16 days.

Four days later, Surge No. 9 begins on the Orange Line between Vienna and West Falls Church, and will continue for 42 days -- from Sept. 15 until Oct. 26. During the weekdays, that will mean continuous single-tracking. On weekends, however, the entire segment will be shut down, meaning you'll have to take a shuttle to get between those stations.

Shuttles will operate every 24 minutes. Trains will also have long waits and extremely crowded conditions, so consider alternatives for the month and a half the Surge is active.

Metro will shut down three stations -- Vienna, Dunn Loring and West Falls Church -- on the last weekend in September and the first weekend in October. Just Vienna and Dunn Loring will be closed on the weekends after that through the remainder of the Surge.

Full details are available here.

Image via Wikimedia