Here’s where Metro did all its weekend track work in 2015

For years now, the end of the week in Washington has become synonymous with “weekend rebuilding” on Metro. Below is a snapshot of all weekend track work that WMATA did in 2015.

Each number indicates how many total times a particular segment of track went into single tracking, and the color of each station shows how many times it was closed. Map by Peter Dovak.

I found this information for the last eight months of 2015 by searching typing “weekend service adjustments” plus a date into the search bar on WMATA’s website. For weekends prior to May 2015, WMATA lists notices in its archive of news releases.

Key takeaways include:

There were 56 single track zones on the Red Line (single track work zones often encompassed multiple track segments, leading to a higher total in the above chart), and five station closures
The Blue, Orange, and Silver Lones had 38 single track zones, with the Orange line having 15 station closures and the Blue Line having four
The Yellow Like had 33 single track zones, with four station closures
The Green Line had 20 single track zones, with six station closures

This pdf has a more detailed look at exactly what work was done, and where in the system.

Of all the lines, the Red Line— the system’s oldest— had the widest distribution of weekend work zones (15 distinct work zones), though the eastern end of the Orange Line between Stadium-Armory and Cheverly saw the greatest frequency of work: 17 weekends throughout 2015.

Something else of interest is the sheer amount of work Metro did. WMATA’s weekly advisories listed more than 20 different items to be worked on across the system. Much of it is infrastructure related and “invisible” to riders. If anything, seeing all this data in one place reinforces just how much attention Metro needs.

Also, a lot of the work didn’t happen on consecutive weekends, which seems like it’d make the most sense for getting it done quickly. There may have been practical reasons for not doing that, but from the public’s point of view, last year’s weekend track work appears somewhat sporadic.

Combined with a number of weekend closures and track work where there was only a few days’ notice beforehand, that makes me worry about riders forgoing Metro altogether over the weekend.

What else do you see in the data?

See track work for:	Red Line Orange Line Yellow Line
	Green Line Blue Line Silver Line
	Click on any line diagram for a larger version. Tables by Peter Dovak.

Thanks for reading!