Orange, Silver Lines Resume Rush Hour Service at Stadium-Armory Station Monday

Orange and Silver Line trains resumed rush hour service at the Stadium-Armory Metro station Monday, following a fire that destroyed a nearby power substation earlier this fall -- but trains are running a little less frequently than before the fire, Metro said.

Since the Sept. 21 blaze, only Blue Line trains have served Stadium-Armory during the morning and evening rush, from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Orange and Silver line trains have passed through the station without stopping, a practice that ended Monday.

However, Orange and Silver line trains are stopping at the station only every eight minutes during rush hour, rather than every six minutes, until repairs at the nearby power substation are finished later this year.

The substation, located in a parking lot of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, was destroyed in the fire and was taken offline.

During the subsequent repairs, Metro has been feeding power to the area from two smaller substations farther away. To avoid overloading the system, train speeds were reduced and Metro limited the number of trains passing through the station.

Metro had initially said that repairs could take six months, although it later pushed up the timeline because crews made emergency upgrades at a power substation near the Potomac Avenue Metro station. That power substation now has increased electrical output to allow all three Metro lines to make stops at the Stadium-Armory station "without overloading the system or disrupting service," Metro said.

The substation near Stadium-Armory is expected to be restored later this year; at that point, regular train intervals Orange and Silver line service should resume, Metro said.