Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON (WMAL) – The frustration for Red Line riders trying to get to Shady Grove could soon be ending. Metro’s finance committee will decide Thursday whether to get rid of the Grosvenor turnback, which has half of Red Line trains at rush hour turning around at Grosvenor instead of going on to White Flint, Twinbrook, Rockville and Shady Grove.
“We could get a lot more Metro service if those trains ran all the way to the end, and, of course, it would be a lot easier for folks to get home quickly, so it’s a big issue for us,” said Montgomery County Council President Hans Riemer of the turnback.
Metro had talked about ending the Grosvenor turnback, but the money to do that wasn’t included in the budget for the 2019 fiscal year. When the Montgomery County Council learned this, members wrote a letter to the transit agency asking officials to reconsider.
The transit agency has said in the past there aren’t enough riders to support that service level to the end of the Red Line, according to Riemer, but he said Shady Grove is one of the busiest stations in the Metro system because people from northern Montgomery County, Frederick County and other destinations park there to take the train to the city.
“I hear from people all the time who say, in fact they say they’ve given up on Metro because of those turnbacks, and if the turnbacks were eliminated they would begin using the system once again,” Riemer added referring to the turnback at Grosvenor and the one on the other end of the line at Silver Spring.
If the change is approved by the finance committee Thursday and then the full Metro board after that, it would take effect in January of 2019.
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