Metrorail, Metrobus back in business for Monday

MetroAccess service limited

All 86 Metrorail stations will be open and ready to move customers on Monday morning (December 21), two days after a record-setting snowfall forced trains into underground-only mode from 1 p.m. Saturday throughout the day on Sunday. Metrobus service will also be back on the area’s streets providing significantly improved service from the skeletal service available on Sunday. MetroAccess will be operating limited service from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for individuals whose trips are associated with life-sustaining medical needs such as chemotherapy and dialysis.

“I want to thank our customers for their understanding as we used Sunday to recover from more than a foot of snowfall and layer of ice that blanketed our tracks, trains, platforms, escalators, station entrances, parking lots, sidewalks, rail yards, bus garages, bus routes and bus loops,” said Metro General Manager John Catoe. “The good news is that our trains, buses and paratransit service are all back in business.”

Metro employees and contractors labored from Friday night through the wee hours of Monday morning fighting the ice and unprecedented amounts of heavy snowfall. “Digging out 106 miles of tracks, our rail yards, our bus garages and our vehicles was an uphill battle from the start. I thank all of our employees who brought us through to be able return service to the region,” Catoe said.

Monday’s Metrobus service will be significantly improved, but is likely to be running somewhat behind schedule. All but two bus routes will be operating in the District of Columbia. Buses are not yet able to maneuver in the neighborhoods served by Metrobus routes 60 and G2 in Washington. In Northern Virginia, six routes remain restricted from Metrobus service due to snow and ice—they are routes 1, 3, 7, 8, 23 and the 24T. Metrobuses will stick to snow emergency routes in Maryland to start the day. Bus service operations managers will monitor all of these areas with an eye toward returning service to those lines when road conditions improve and it is deemed safe for buses to drive along those streets.

via Metro

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Posted by admin on Dec 21 2009. Filed under Northern Virginia News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.