Metro said Thursday it will close nine stations in Virginia this summer to rebuild platforms and connect the Silver Line with the rest of the network.
Starting May 23, all stations west of Ballston on the Orange and Silver lines will be closed. Those stations are East Falls Church, West Falls Church, Dunn Loring and Vienna on the Orange Line and McLean, Tysons, Greensboro, Spring Hill and Wiehle-Reston East on the Silver Line.
What’s more, the Silver Line will not run at all during the summer construction.
“This is about two things: working smarter and working safer,” Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld said in a press release. “Closing the stations to get the work done while ridership is historically low allows us to limit the exposure of our front-line staff and contractors, mitigate delays to our capital program, and minimize inconvenience to the public.”
Free express shuttles from the closed stations will be available to essential workers, according to the press release.
These shuttles will run seven days a week during the same hours as the rail system, 5 a.m.-9 p.m. weekdays and 8 a.m.-9 p.m. weekends:
• The Orange Line Local: Service between Vienna, Dunn Loring, West Falls Church and Ballston.
• Orange Line Express: Direct service between Vienna and Ballston (no intermediate stops).
• Silver Line Local: Service between Wiehle-Reston East, Spring Hill, Tysons Corner and Ballston.
These shuttles will run every 10 minutes on weekdays and 15 minutes on weekends. They won’t stop at stations closed as part of Metro’s coronavirus response.
Stations west of Ballston are seeing about 1,200 customers per weekday, which is less than 5% of normal ridership.
• Sophie Kaplan can be reached at skaplan@washingtontimes.com.
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