Beginning Saturday, two WMATA stations will close for two weeks for safety upgrade to signal system

WMATA

Beginning Saturday, December 19 through Sunday, January 3, Metro will close two Blue Line stations – Franconia-Springfield and Van Dorn St – to advance safety improvements. The two-week station closures will allow Metro to work around-the-clock to complete substantial work to upgrade the signal system that is essential to providing safe, reliable service for customers.

Blue Line service will continue to operate between Huntington and Largo and free shuttle buses will be provided. Customers can choose a shuttle that will connect to the Yellow and Blue lines at Eisenhower Ave or the convenience of express shuttles direct to the Pentagon.

Doing this work during the holidays will help minimize the number of riders affected by the closures. Ridership at the two stations remains at historic lows, down about 90 percent, due to the Covid-19 pandemic and typically drops even further over the holidays.

The closure of the stations will allow Metro and its contractor to work without interruption over the two-week period, in addition to 10-weekend shutdowns that began last month and will continue through March. This will help limit the disruption to riders, by reducing the duration of the project. To complete the same work with single tracking would take more than twice as long to complete and reduce service with waits up to 36 minutes between trains.