DC Metro will shut down sections of lines for year-long subway repair work

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

Metro will shut down sections of lines for year-long subway repair work

By Paul Duggan, Lori Aratani and Robert McCartney May 6 at 11:30 AM

After decades of maintenance neglect, Metro next month will begin a massive subway rebuilding effort that will inconvenience virtually everyone who uses the system, with portions of most rail lines shut down for up to a month at a time and reductions in train service throughout the year-long project, officials said Friday.

The service disruptions will have ripple effects across the region as local governments and employers will be asked to make adjustments — whether it be changing HOV-lane restrictions to ease the anticipated increase in road traffic or allowing employees to work from home or modify their schedules.

“It’s what needs to be done,” General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld declared in an interview before he began outlining his ambitious plan at a late-morning news conference.

“It’s going to impact people’s lives; it’s going to impact businesses, all of that,” he said of the infrastructure overhaul, which is expected to cause more commuting headaches for longer periods than any previous track work in the subway’s 40-year history.

With the system addled by maintenance neglect — caught in a sometimes calamitous spiral of breakdowns and other failures — a day of reckoning has arrived, he said.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/metro-armageddon-is-coming-a-year-of-shuttered-sections-massive-repairs/2016/05/06/9a7160d0-12e6-11e6-93ae-50921721165d_story.html

[dcbuckeye]

1. It needs to be done

The system is falling apart. Breakdowns and fires in the tunnels becoming pretty common. I get nervous every time I board a train. specially if they are single tracking, which they do all the time.

[scscholar]

2. Are we sure it needs to be done?

I'm sure the corporations are going to make a lot of profit from this.

[KamaAina]

3. BART is not much better

Last edited Fri May 6, 2016, 03:16 PM - Edit history (1)

Entire lines are being shut down for whole weekends over several months. At one point the entire East Bay was cut off from SF.

http://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2016/news20160304

As for my upcoming trip to DC in July, well, one of the main attractions is that the hotel is directly connected to the Metro Center station. So much for that brilliant plan.

[dcbuckeye]

4. if you are staying at Metro Center

you can pretty much walk everywhere. I hope you enjoy your trip

[mahatmakanejeeves]

7. If you will be using local transit, please consider getting a SmarTrip card.

It will work on buses as well as trains. The buses go a lot more places than the trains do.

Well, now there's something called a SelectPass. I don't know what that does. One of their passes will be right for you.

WMATA

[KamaAina]

5. Next on the chopping block: Brooklyn

http://www.democraticunderground.com/11302276

[marmar]

6. This is what happens when you don't maintain it as you go.