WASHINGTON — (WMAL) – D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is preparing for the worst.
“The project will affect every single commuter and no matter if the surge is happening in the District proper or not, we think Washington D.C. will be affected by all 10 months of the work,” said Mayor Muriel Bowser.
Metro’s SafeTrack plan consists of 15 periods of repairs known as surges.
During those surges, it will mean single-tracking, rail segment shutdowns, and no late-night weekend service.
The first surge to happen in the District will begin in June 18th and last for 16 days. Mayor Bowser says that surge is expected to affect more than 230,000 riders.
City officials are concerned about more commuters traveling by car to get to work. In an effort to alleviate congested roads, the city has a number of plans in place:
- expanding rush hour parking restrictions in the morning and evenings. The new hours will be 7 to 10 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m.
- enhancing Capital Bikeshare by giving riders the option of paying just $2 for a ride up to 30 minutes
- creating a citywide traffic control center with multiple agencies
- a moratorium on public space construction along certain corridors
- expanding taxi stands and areas for pooling rides
- deploying addition traffic control officers on the streets
WMATA’s Acting COO Jack Requa says he appreciates the city’s plans to help make commutes easier.
However he said,” In the end with the numbers the Mayor talked about, and the numbers we’re projecting, not everybody is going to be able to ride Metro every day as they normally do.”
Mayor Bowser says they are taking a look at possibly expanding the Circulator service on weekends to 3 a.m., however, nothing has been finalized.
WMATA Board Chairman, Jack Evans, said that this is going to be difficult on every community that relies on the Metro system.
He said this year-long plan to fix Metro’s rails won’t be the end of work.
“I want to caution everybody not to expect a brand new system a year from now but a system that is better than the one we have today,” said Evans.
The first surge for the project will start this weekend, on June 4.
The orange and silver lines between East Falls Church and Ballston will experience single-tracking for 13 days.
“We are committed to doing everything we can to ease this burden,” said Mayor Bowser.
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