Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro) has advised Orange and Silver line customers to prepare for SafeTrack Surge #15, which runs from Tuesday, May 16, through Thursday, June 15. The surge will result in the closure five Orange Line stations and reduce the frequency of trains on the Silver Line.
The surge — originally planned as a continuous single track that would have had a significant impact on about 78,500 rush-hour trips across the Orange Line — will instead be a "line segment shutdown" that will minimize the impact to riders outside of the work area. By executing the surge as a shutdown, fewer than 18,000 rush-hour trips will be severely impacted.
New Carrollton, Landover, Cheverly, Deanwood and Minnesota Ave stations will be closed to allow crews to rebuild more than 12 miles of track (6 miles in each direction) including an estimated 10,000 crossties, more than 1,000 fasteners and 8,100 linear feet of grout pad.
Customers who normally park at New Carrollton or Landover stations may wish to consider using Greenbelt (Green Line) or Morgan Blvd and Largo Town Center (Blue Line). The alternate stations are conveniently located off of the Capital Beltway.
MARC and Amtrak customers who normally connect to Metro at New Carrollton should consider using Union Station instead.
During Surge #15, frequent express shuttle bus service will operate between each closed station and Blue Line stations. In addition, Metro will change the way the Orange and Silver lines operate during the surge:
- Orange Line trains will operate between Vienna and Largo Town Center every 6-8 minutes during rush hours.
- Silver Line trains will operate between Wiehle-Reston East and Stadium-Armory every 12 minutes (normally 6 minutes) during rush hours.
- Blue Line trains will operate every 12 minutes, as usual, between Franconia-Springfield and Largo Town Center.
Metro will conclude the yearlong SafeTrack program with a final surge in mid-June where buses will replace Red Line trains between Shady Grove and Twinbrook stations. Shady Grove and Rockville stations will be closed.
SafeTrack is an aggressive track maintenance plan that will achieve three years' worth of work in a single year and includes 16 "Safety Surges", long duration track outages involving around-the-clock single tracking or line segment shutdowns.