A major Orange and Silver Line shutdown in Arlington means significant Metro disruptions this weekend.
There are no trains Saturday or Sunday all the way from Rosslyn to East Falls Church. Ballston, Virginia Square, Clarendon and Court House stations will be closed for lighting work. Shuttle buses will be available.
The shutdown also means there is no Silver Line service between Largo Town Center and Rosslyn this weekend.
Between East Falls Church and Wiehle-Reston East and between East Falls Church and Vienna, trains are scheduled every 12 to 15 minutes.
On the Orange Line, trains from New Carrollton through downtown will follow the Blue Line at Rosslyn to Pentagon, Pentagon City, Crystal City and Reagan National Airport.
The last Orange Line trains will leave Vienna 36 to 37 minutes earlier than usual each night. The last Silver Line trains will leave 35 to 41 minutes earlier than usual.
There is also single-tracking on the Red Line Saturday and Sunday between Grosvenor-Strathmore and Twinbrook. Trains are scheduled every 18 minutes, with additional trains during the day between Medical Center and Glenmont.
In the bus system, the strike against private operator Transdev at Metro’s Cinder Bed Road Bus Garage continues well into its third month. Negotiations are scheduled this week between the Amalgamated Transit Union and Transdev, but it remains unclear if or when regular service will resume.
Service has been cut back on more than a dozen commuter routes and other lines since late October.
On the roads, significant construction closures continue for a variety of projects across the region from toll lanes to the Purple Line.
Five years since L’Enfant Plaza smoke incident
Sunday also marks five years since passenger Carol Glover died after the Metro train she was riding filled with smoke near the L’Enfant Plaza station.
Since Glover died, Metro has made a number of policy changes, changed maintenance schedules to include lengthy 24/7 shutdowns and other adjustments directed by local or federal oversight bodies.
Still, just last month the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission issued scathing findings describing many of the same problems that led to Carol Glover’s death just happened again — putting riders and workers at serious risk.
That report described a repeat of a chaotic and dangerously dysfunctional response in Metro’s Rail Operations Control Center, problems getting firefighters to the scene, and a train that was sent toward smoke only to end up stalling in the tunnel.
