Frustrating Track Work Delays on Washington Metro last Weekend

[Phila 30th St]

I was in Maryland visiting my brother last weekend and we decided to spend Sunday in D.C. We drove to the New Carrollton, MD station to ride the Orange Line into downtown. Unfortunately, they were single-tracking between Cheverly and Stadium-Armory and it made for a frustrating experience.

Heading into D.C. wasn't too bad. We stopped outside Landover and waited 15 minutes for two trains to pass us heading to New Carrollton. On the way back was the problem. I had to drive up to BWI after getting off the train and we spent over 30 minutes outside Stadium Armory while two trains for Vienna passed us, one empty towards downtown passed us and two Blue Line trains to Largo Town Center passed us. After each train passed us the conductor would say "we apologize for the inconvienence, we're just waiting for one more train to pass".

Not an enjoyable use of the WAMTA.

 

[Ryan]

They're doing that every weekend - lots and lots of maintenance to be done, I guess. The schedules are reasonably well publicized, and most locals know to check (and avoid if necessary).

 

[MattW]

From New Carrolton, my I recommend MARC? It's probably slightly more expensive, but it runs over [what's left of] the NEC into WAS and it goes past the Ivy City shops which at least for me is a nice treat. I know you said drove to BWI, but can I also recommend MARC for that? The station has a free shuttle to the airport to/from the station if I remember correctly.

 

[Ryan]

Doesn't run on the weekends.

 

[battalion51]

Had it been a weekday he could've just taken MARC all the way from BWI to Union Station. Even if you did take MARC from New Carrollton there is a much larger number of frequencies on Metro. But look at it this way, would you rather them do the work on the weekends or during the week with packed trains?

 

[Phila 30th St]

Had it been a weekday he could've just taken MARC all the way from BWI to Union Station. Even if you did take MARC from New Carrollton there is a much larger number of frequencies on Metro. But look at it this way, would you rather them do the work on the weekends or during the week with packed trains?

As it was I was staying out in Easton, MD and wanted to have lunch in Clarendon, VA (literally across the street from the Metro station), then go to the Mall, then BWI so the Metro made the most sense.

Also, why can't they do the track work at night? The Metro isn't a 24 hour operation.

 

[Ryan]

Much of the work done on weekends requires tracks to be shut down for more than the ~4 hour window when the trains aren't running.