The Metro board will discuss a plan to divert some blue line trains on to the yellow line tracks during rush hour.
The service change would steer Blue Line trains away from the Rosslyn Tunnel, and instead send them over the Yellow Line bridge. Blue Line trains would run from Franconia-Springfield, first over the Yellow Line Bridge and then on the Green Line up to Greenbelt.
The thinking is that with fewer Blue Line trains running through the tunnel, Metro could run three more trains per hour on the Orange Line. During rush hour, those trains would run between West Falls Church, through the center of the city, and then head out on the Blue Line to Largo Town Center.
The Washington Post has a very helpful graphic to visualize the changes.
Confused? It's a plan with a lot of wrinkles. Passengers would have to be notified of the change, which means that thousands of systems maps and hundreds of fare charts would need to be reprinted.
The meeting to decide on whether to adopt the plan will take place at 9 a.m. Thursday. If adopted, the service changes would not go in effect until 2012.
