DC Metro to close three stations over holiday weekend...

[GTaudiophile]

And not just any stations.

From this Friday evening until Tuesday morning, WMATA (Washington Metro Area Transit Authority) will close the Pentagon City, Crystal City, and Reagan Airport Metro stations on this the weekend prior to the September 11 anniversary.

Not only that, it will be a busy Labor Day weekend. Never have all three stations been closed for such a prolonged period of time since the stations were opened in the 70s.

Washington Post article

So, makes you wonder, what do they know that we don't?

 

[SP33Demon]

The Pentagon is right by those stops so maybe it has something to do with that.

 

[K1052]

Welcome to the joys of an aging transit system. Multi-day line cuts are eventually unavoidable if they need to do major track work.

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: K1052
Welcome to the joys of an aging transit system. Multi-day line cuts are eventually unavoidable if they need to do major track work.

Problem is there are 2 lines and they could work on one side and shut the other down. They flip ovre the other way. Heck after the crash that killed people thats what they did. So what they are doing is worse then a deadly accident?

But I just hope they are done by Tuesday when I have to go to work.

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975

Originally posted by: K1052
Welcome to the joys of an aging transit system. Multi-day line cuts are eventually unavoidable if they need to do major track work.

Problem is there are 2 lines and they could work on one side and shut the other down. They flip ovre the other way. Heck after the crash that killed people thats what they did. So what they are doing is worse then a deadly accident?

But I just hope they are done by Tuesday when I have to go to work.

The article indicates they are also installing several crossovers at the same time so they need both tracks to be out of service.

Also, it looks like they have some bridge/structure work planned too.

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: Marlin1975

Originally posted by: K1052
Welcome to the joys of an aging transit system. Multi-day line cuts are eventually unavoidable if they need to do major track work.

Problem is there are 2 lines and they could work on one side and shut the other down. They flip ovre the other way. Heck after the crash that killed people thats what they did. So what they are doing is worse then a deadly accident?

But I just hope they are done by Tuesday when I have to go to work.

The article indicates they are also installing several crossovers at the same time so they need both tracks to be out of service.

Also, it looks like they have some bridge/structure work planned too.

Yea I figured as much but to pick a holiday weekend to do ALL of this. That and I don't remember a cross over at Washington National airport. That and they could start at Washington airport and then open it from the Springfield side as they move toward DC. That way at least part of the airport would be open.

But yea this will be a mess for those that don;t live in this area and fly into VA and find this out after they get here.

 

[b0mbrman]

DC's claims:

It's a three day project (so couldn't do it on a normal weekend)

Some stats allege Labor Day is the least busy of the three day holidays.

So they picked Labor Day...

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: Marlin1975

Originally posted by: K1052
Welcome to the joys of an aging transit system. Multi-day line cuts are eventually unavoidable if they need to do major track work.

Problem is there are 2 lines and they could work on one side and shut the other down. They flip ovre the other way. Heck after the crash that killed people thats what they did. So what they are doing is worse then a deadly accident?

But I just hope they are done by Tuesday when I have to go to work.

The article indicates they are also installing several crossovers at the same time so they need both tracks to be out of service.

Also, it looks like they have some bridge/structure work planned too.

Yea I figured as much but to pick a holiday weekend to do ALL of this. That and I don't remember a cross over at Washington National airport. That and they could start at Washington airport and then open it from the Springfield side as they move toward DC. That way at least part of the airport would be open.

But yea this will be a mess for those that don;t live in this area and fly into VA and find this out after they get here.

WMATA probably figures it's better to inconvenience the out of towners rather than steady commuters who make up the vast majority of their ridership.

The track work that they're doing means rail bed/traction power work too so not sure what all they'd have to shut down at a given time if they phased the work like that.

 

[BoomerD]

The SF-Oakland Bay Bridge will close sometime Thursday night and be reopened on Tuesday...That ought to create quite a clusterfuck for the Friday afternoon commute...which is traditionally horrible for a 3 day weekend anyway.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/sto...ces/traffic&id=6991978

This is the kind of work I did for most of my working career...and it doesn't matter how much you plan, how often you practice...when you get to the real job at hand...things don't always go as planned. :roll

Especially since everything they're doing is about 150 feet in the air. Just the littlest "oh shit" could be catastrophic and cause a much longer closure of the bridge.

 

[uli2000]

I was there back in July and used the Metro for all my transport. On the news there, they talked about swich problems along some of the lines, like what caused the crash in June. We got stuck on a train with my 4 kids for an hour between stations because of a switch problem. Hopefully, its just to fix that.

 

[monovillage]

Usually the long Holiday weekends are the best time to close roads/bridges/etc. to get major work done, it has the least amount of traffic and does less to disrupt commuters then any other time.

 

[MovingTarget]

Public transportation in our nation's capital? OMGSOCIALISM!

/obligatory

Anyway, the metro really is a good system. I've used it many times when visiting DC and would LOVE to have a similar system in my city. However, good luck getting any meaningful and/or useful public transport system anywhere in the South. These kinds of delays are unavoidable though as the tracks/systems need to be maintained regularly. At least they gave the riders ample notice and are doing it during a time of year that isn't snowed under...