Noah Miller
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) Metro currently closes at Midnight every night due to repairs being made to the system as part of the Safetrack program.
But Metro GM/CEO Paul Wiedefeld now wants to close the system at 10 p.m. on Sundays and keep the midnight closures for every other night of the week on a permanent basis. The decision follows rail experts’ and transit agency recommendations for increased safety.
According to a statement from WMATA, this proposal would leave Metrorail operating 127 out of 168 week hours, down from the 135 hours it was open prior to the start of the “SafeTrack” operation.
The one-year-long “SafeTrack” maintenance plan was announced earlier this year by Wiedefeld , which expands track access past midnight closings on weekends, and places a moratorium on early openings and late closings. The plan aims to condense three years’ work into one, eliminating maintenance backlogs while addressing safety recommendations at the behest of the Federal Transit Administration and National Transportation Safety Board.
Wiedefeld is expected to publicly share his plans at a Board of Directors’ meeting Thursday morning. Public meetings are expected sometime this fall.
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(Photo: CNN)
