Above-Ground Metro Stations to Stay Closed Thursday

After hinting at it all day, Metro announced Wednesday evening that above-ground rail stations will be closed again Thursday.

For all of 6 hours and 15 minutes Tuesday, all Metrorail stations were open for the first time since Friday night, but Tuesday evening, Metro said it would go back to serving underground stations only when it opened Wednesday at 5 a.m. The service reduction came earlier, though, as officials monitored the snowfall and road conditions and decided to stop above-ground service at 8:45 p.m.

When service resumed at about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday on the Blue Line between Franconia-Springfield and Largo Town Center stations, where heavy snow drifts had kept five stations closed, trains on the Red, Blue, Orange, Yellow and Green lines operated every 20 minutes, and all 86 Metrorail stations were open.

All 40 above-ground stations are closed Wednesday and trains will service underground stations at intervals of about 30 minutes from opening until midnight:

• The Red Line will be split into two segments. It will operate between Union Station and Medical Center Metrorail stations and between Glenmont and Forest Glen Metrorail stations.
• The Blue and Orange Lines will both operate between Ballston and Stadium-Armory Metrorail stations.
• The Green Line will run between Fort Totten and Congress Heights Metrorail stations.  
• The Yellow Line will run only between the Pentagon and Crystal City Metrorail stations.

Because of the blizzard conditions, it was too dangerous to have Metro workers clearing snow during the storm, preventing them from trying to get above-ground stations ready for Thursday. 

Officials are keeping a close eye on conditions and may change service levels if possible.

Rail customers are encouraged to use station elevators from the street level into and out of the stations as they are safer than escalators in this type of heavy snowfall.

Buses

Metrobus and MetroAccess service are not likely to be offered Thursday either.

About 500 Metrobuses on more than 100 bus routes were operating as of 5 p.m. Tuesday, but they were all be parked Wednesday.

Service will begin to be restored as conditions allow, but the fact that some jurisdictions paused snow removal operations because of the conditions Wednesday means bus service is further delayed..

For the second staight day, Montgomery County's Ride On bus system will not operate Thursday.

Commuter Trains

MARC, the commuter rail system that runs from Washington into Maryland and to Martinsburg, W.Va., said there will be no service again on Thursday.

Likewise, Virginia Railway Express said its trains will not run again Thursday.

Amtrak will continue to offer limited service on the Northeast Corridor Thursday.

The following service adjustments have been made for Thursday:

• Acela Express: Limited service is available between Washington, New York and Boston.
• Northeast Regionals:  Limited service is available between Washington, New York and Boston.  All Northeast Regional service south of Washington to Richmond and Newport News is canceled. 
• Northeast Regional train 176 will operate Lynchburg to Washington and onto Boston and train 171 will operate through to Lynchburg.
• Keystone Service:  Limited service is available between Harrisburg, Philadelphia and New York.
• Empire Service: Limited service is available between Niagara Falls, Albany and New York.

 
The following services are canceled in their entirety with no alternate transportation:

• Capitol Limited: Trains 29 and 30 (Washington, D.C. – Chicago);
• Auto Train: Trains 52 and 53 (Lorton, Va. – Sanford, Fla.);
• Palmetto: Trains 89 and 90 (New York – Savannah).

The following are offering service along a portion of their normal routes:

• Silver Service: Trains 97 and 98 will operate between Miami and Savannah only.  Trains 91 and 92 will operate between Miami and Raleigh only.
• Carolinian: Trains 79 and 80 will operate between Raleigh and Charlotte only.
• Cardinal Service: Trains 50 and 51 will operate between Huntington, WV, and Chicago only.

All other Amtrak services are expected to run as scheduled. Check Amtrak.com for a particular train's schedule.

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