Entire Metrorail system to shut down Wednesday (Washington DC)

wtop.com ^ | 3/15/2016 | WTOP Staff

[OwenKellogg]

WASHINGTON — Metrorail will shut down entirely for more than a day beginning at midnight Wednesday for safety checks, Metro has announced.

Metrorail will reopen at 5 a.m. Thursday. Metro General Management Paul Wiedefeld says that the 29 hours should be enough time to inspect 600 underground jumper cables that provide power to the energized third rail to run the trains.

There is no word yet of the closure’s impact on federal offices or its employees — many of whom rely on Metro to get to work.

The Office of Personnel Management says it will provide an update later today. Virginia Railway Express will operate on a normal schedule Wednesday and Thursday. Montgomery County’s Ride On will run regular weekday service Wednesday but additional buses will be provided where possible. MARC Train will announce any service changes Tuesday evening.

[OwenKellogg]

This is going to be a commuter disaster tomorrow!

[kingu]

Time for all non-essential government workers to stay home and again remind the public that there really are that many non-essential government workers that we blow tens of billions on each year.

[DoughtyOne]

Must have had a serious threat to do this without much notice.

[dfwgator]

Woo Hoo, that means the government will be shut down, can they make the outage last longer?

[stocksthatgoup]

Too cool. Our masters will have to take their limos to work

[rockinqsranch]

I don’t live anywhere near such a commuter situation, but wouldn’t it be better to close it down for such an inspection in several night operations rather than of over a day, and in the middle of the work week when people require the service?

[SaveFerris]

That’s how I read it, too.

[easternsky]

Yes my thoughts exactly

[dfwgator]

Methinks there’s more to this than just inspecting cables.

[Gulf War One]

Washington DC cannot even administer to itself, much less try to control the rest of us. What better example?

[Velveeta]

TM ping

[DoughtyOne]

Ahh the wonders of diversity carried out to the extreme.

[Truth29]

"Methinks there’s more to this than just inspecting cables."

Ditto. This is much too dramatic and sweeping unless there is imminent danger.

[PghBaldy]

This is ominous

[DoughtyOne]

We don’t know the nature of the thread.

[SamAdams76]

Sounds like they received a threat but don't want to reveal.

I never heard of an entire transit system shut down in the middle of the workweek for "maintenance."

[VTenigma]

Must have had a serious threat to do this without much notice.

---

^^^^^ This

[Road Warrior ‘04]

Something more than checking the cables is going on here. (Tinfoil hat firmly on)

[catnipman]

And they couldn’t do this on a holiday weekend, why?

[easternsky]

When the boy and McCain were running they were informed of threats to the Country, maybe that was after the primaries.