Weekend station closures will become common on Metro

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Weekend station closures will become common on Metro

by Matt Johnson • July 14, 2011 1:42 pm

Metro released a complete calendar yesterday for all their major trackwork over the next 12 months. It relies much more heavily on closing stations and connecting them with shuttle buses, rather than single-tracking.

Photo by DCist on Flickr.

WMATA believes the closures and bus bridges will affect most passengers less than single-tracking and will allow them to get vital work done faster. Many of the closures allow installing new "track circuit modules" that prevent the electronic systems from losing indication of trains, as happened in the Fort Totten crash, or "guarded #8" switches which guard against trains derailing as they change tracks.

The first of this work, coming this weekend, is related to the Silver Line. The Orange Line will be closed between East Falls Church and West Falls Church stations to enable crews to work on the connection between the Silver and Orange Lines.

While closing stations and forcing passengers to use a bus may be disruptive for those passing through the work zone, they actually worked quite smoothly last time, Metro used them, on Memorial Day weekend. Many readers reported using them.

Metro also carried more passengers that weekend than the previous year, even with the shuttles. Metro spokesperson Dan Stessel said that over the Memorial Day weekend in 2010, Metro carried around 70,300 riders on the Blue and Orange Lines between Federal Center SW and Minnesota Avenue and Benning Road.

This year, the line was closed so that the interlocking at Eastern Market could be replaced. Passengers had to ride shuttle buses between Federal Center SW and Minnesota Avenue and Benning Road. Despite that, Metro carried 84,600 riders on the bus bridge.

It appears that the line closure and bus bridge did not deter riders from taking Metro. Hopefully, as closed segments and shuttle buses become a regular sight on Metro, they will continue to run as smoothly.

21 comments

Tags: Metro, service disruption, track work, WMATA

More weekend closures, less single-tracking for Metrorail (Jun 10, 2011)
Track work will disrupt Metro rides this weekend (Feb 18, 2011)
New calendar shows scheduled Metro track work and delays (May 4, 2010)
Metro work to close Orange, Blue lines this weekend (Nov 3, 2010)
Orange and Blue lines to close downtown next weekend (Oct 1, 2010)

Matt Johnson has lived in the Washington region since mid-2007. He has a Master's degree in Community Planning from the University of Maryland and a BS in Public Policy from Georgia Tech. He has worked in the planning field since 2006 and lives in Greenbelt, where he serves on the city's Advisory Planning Board.

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Presumably another benefit is the cost savings from not opening the station (no station manager, etc. needed). That's vs. the hassle of off-loading onto a bus.

by Gavin on Jul 14, 2011 2:03 pm • link • report

The bus bridge for the Eastern market was well organized and it seemed like metro had a bus running every 2 minutes, which is in some ways an improvement over normal weekend metro service except for very long trips. I can't imagine that hiring all of those drivers was very cheap. I wonder what the additional cost is to metro for using bus bridges versus single tracking or if the relative speed of the maintenance work makes up the difference.

by Nicoli on Jul 14, 2011 2:08 pm • link • report

Bad tasting medicine, but probably better than dragging it out. Hopefully the escalators in Dupont and Van Ness will be working on January 29th of next year.

Does this mean that trains won't be running on ATC until Fall of 2012?

by Neil Flanagan on Jul 14, 2011 2:12 pm • link • report

I'm all for the shuttles, but in some areas it makes sense to run shuttles from additional stations. For example, how many people are riding back and forth between Vienna and West Falls Church? Probably not too many. Those passengers are probably continuing on down the orange line. In situations like this, shuttles should run between Vienna, Dunn Loring, and West Falls Church and East Falls Church instead of getting people back onto a train to ride for one or two additional stops.

by Adam L on Jul 14, 2011 2:14 pm • link • report

Closing stations allows trains to turn around immediately, as opposed to either waiting for a single track to open up or slowing down the headways so much that you don't have to wait. The sections of the line that are still open have two fully operational tracks throughout the course of the work.

And I've found shuttles to be more frequent, if slower moving, than trains going through single-track sections.

by Tim on Jul 14, 2011 2:17 pm • link • report

The reason why there are so many weekends related to the Dulles extension junction (K and N Junction) is. Beside installing 2 #14 junction turnouts west of Great Falls Street they will also install a totally new double crossover east of Great Falls Street. The grade profile of the existing K route orange line track will be modified as part of the installation of the new interlocking. In addition to the installation of these 6 turnouts they will also have to install conduits in the ground at the new track work for the third rail. Also as part of the K and N Junction project the contractor doing the train control contract for Dulles Transit Partners will install all new track circuit hardware to control the movement of train through the new interlocking that will be controlled by a totally new train control room to housed in the existing Fisher Avenue traction power substation.

by Sand Box John on Jul 14, 2011 2:27 pm • link • report

I applaud this decision. At least Metro is showing a willingness to move faster than they have in the past. My experience with the shuttles over Memorial Day weekend was great. Hopefully now that they have ironed out the process with the shuttles, all these closures will go smoothly.

by MJ on Jul 14, 2011 2:34 pm • link • report

When the closures are in effect and you re-enter after taking the bus bridge, are you charged as a separate trip or is WMATA smart enough to count the entire trip as 1?

by AM on Jul 14, 2011 3:06 pm • link • report

@AM:
Let's take a hypothetical trip:

You're traveling from Metro Center to Vienna. The closure is between East Falls Church and West Falls Church.

When your train arrives at East Falls Church, it goes out of service. You exit and go down to the mezzanine. All of the faregates are standing open.

If you are going to the shuttle bus, you walk through WITHOUT TAPPING YOUR SMARTRIP or inserting your farecard.

If East Falls Church is your final destination, *DO* TAP YOUR SMARTRIP or insert your farecard. Otherwise, the next time you try to enter the system, it will not work correctly.

When you get off of the shuttle bus at West Falls Church to continue your rail trip, the faregates will be standing open. DO NOT tap your card. Go down to the platform and board your Vienna-bound train.

If West Falls Church is where you're entering the system for the first time, and you're headed toward Downtown, do not go through the mezzanine, just get on the shuttle bus. When you get to East Falls Church, the faregates will be standing open. DO tap your card as you go through, otherwise your card won't work when you get to the station you're actually exiting from.

by Matt Johnson on Jul 14, 2011 3:14 pm • link • report

At the suburban stations as well I can make the decision to park (if available) at the next station in and while I have to drive a little farther I make up for that in time. All it takes is for me to be aware of which stations are being closed.

by Canaan on Jul 14, 2011 3:28 pm • link • report

I don't know why we're still appending things to Metro if we can't keep the lines we've already got open full time.

by mark on Jul 14, 2011 3:45 pm • link • report

I don't know why we're still appending things to Metro if we can't keep the lines we've already got open full time.

Weekend closures are common on other two-track systems around the world during periods of intense rehabilitation and rebuilding.

by andrew on Jul 14, 2011 3:51 pm • link • report

Hm.

That's (a lot) more closures than I thought there would be. In the past, when Metro chose to those total closures, they did MASSIVE amounts of work. I don't necessarily see that here.

Here, I see them closing the same segments several weekends in a row, and silly things like running shuttle trains between Rockville and Shady Grove, and then closing that segment the next weekend.

Also, why are Metro not using concrete rail ties to avoid this mess 15-20 years from now when the wooden ties have all rotted again.

Oh, and what are these Guarded #8 switches, and why are they so important?

Still. Nice to know about this stuff a year in advance.

by andrew on Jul 14, 2011 3:56 pm • link • report

One thing that isn't clear is that if your final destination is West Falls Church (in Matt Johnson's example) you tap/swipe at EFC and then when you get off the shuttle you just go on your merry way.

One small problem during the Memorial Day closure is that Metro employees were telling people to not swipe on the way out of Federal Center SW when in fact if you were going to any of the closed stations, you had to swipe. If you were taking the shuttle to the end and reboarding the rail system, only then do you not swipe.

by MDE on Jul 14, 2011 4:21 pm • link • report

Also, can we start calling this "Work on the Line?"

by Neil Flanagan on Jul 14, 2011 4:42 pm • link • report

@andrew

Oh, and what are these Guarded #8 switches, and why are they so important?

Guarded #8 switches refer to guard rails at switches. (The #8 just represents the angle of the switch) Metro had quite a few low speed derailments while trains were passing over switches a while back (I think one series of car in particular was causing most of the problems), mainly in the yards as I remember. I want to say that this is one of those NTSB recommendations that Metro put in guard rails at every similar switch.

by Mainland on Jul 14, 2011 10:53 pm • link • report

Whoops....yep, Metro actually calls it an NTSB recommendation, d'oh. Well, here's some background on the yard derailments:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/metrorail/documents/day2_derailments.pdf

by Mainland on Jul 14, 2011 11:03 pm • link • report

@ adam l:In situations like this, shuttles should run between Vienna, Dunn Loring, and West Falls Church and East Falls Church instead of getting people back onto a train to ride for one or two additional stops.

I am not sure that is possible, but metro should offer the option of separate bypass buses and destination buses. Bypass buses would bypass the entire interruption, while destination buses would go by every station in the interruption.

For this weekend's EFC-WFC there would be no difference, but when there are stations that are closed, it would save bypassers a lot of time.

by Jasper on Jul 15, 2011 12:21 pm • link • report

When the stations are closed does Metrobus or other local bus service in the immediate area go up by any amount or is it the same ?

by kk on Jul 15, 2011 1:53 pm • link • report

I've got to admit, when they closed Eastern Market, it worked pretty well with the shuttles.

by betatbox on Jul 15, 2011 3:26 pm • link • report

Had the unfortunate experience over the weekend of METRO's unannounced (to my knowledge anyway) track work on the Yellow/Blue lines from Braddock Road to Huntington. They were single tracking...causing 20 minute or more delays with no warning unless you happened to read the message Board on the platform when it was working. METRO staff were their usual non-helpful selves...not answering questions by 'pointing' to the platform to stand on for trains. This is hardly 'world class'.

by Pelham1861 on Jul 18, 2011 8:28 am • link • report