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  • WMATA - months-long closure of Yellow line bridge starting Sept. 2022

  • Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.
Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.

Moderators: mtuandrew, therock, Robert Paniagua

 #1593204  by JDC
 
Adam Tuss is reporting that Metro will close the Yellow line bridge over the Potomac River starting in Sept. 2022 for seven or eight months. https://twitter.com/AdamTuss/status/150 ... I-1ud_ZmJA. According to his tweet, Metro will also be repairing the tunnels in the Pentagon-L'Enfant Plaza stretch.
 #1593209  by STrRedWolf
 
Okay, so there's a few scenarios here. The common of them will be that the Yellow as we know it will be shut down. The Blue will run between Largo and National Airport via Arlington Cemetery.

Here's where the scenarios will differ:
  • WMATA runs shuttle train service service between Bradock Road and the two endpoints: Franconia Springfield and Huntington. Bus bridging will go from King Street/Alexandria Amtrak to Regan National via Washington Street and the GW Parkway.
  • WMATA runs shuttle train service between Franconia-Springfield and Huntington, cutting out King Street & Bradock Road. Bus briging at Eisenhower Avenue will have local service to reach King Street and Bradock Road and express for direct to Regan National service.
Possible option: WMATA reaches out to CSX and VRE (who'll reach out to MARC) to run shuttle trains from King Street to Union with rush stops at Crystal City and L'Efant.
 #1593217  by STrRedWolf
 
Okay, here's WMATA's release on the fall shutdowns.

WMATA is saying "everything south of Regan National shuts down for 6 weeks to tie in Potomac Yard" (paraphrasing). That would simply things a bit and turn it into a bus subsitution event.

That said, you'll still have what I mentioned earlier. It's all going to be Blue Line. No Yellow on the Green, it'll make no sense. You *may* get a Yellow up to Regan National, use that middle track for the turn-around point... which gets into some operational questions: Would they open all the doors? Or would they open the Northbound side first, empty it out, close it, open the Southbound side for those waiting to get on, close, and go back. I can see the latter being safer.
 #1593222  by scratchyX1
 
STrRedWolf wrote: Tue Mar 08, 2022 5:32 pm Okay, so there's a few scenarios here. The common of them will be that the Yellow as we know it will be shut down. The Blue will run between Largo and National Airport via Arlington Cemetery.

Here's where the scenarios will differ:
  • WMATA runs shuttle train service service between Bradock Road and the two endpoints: Franconia Springfield and Huntington. Bus bridging will go from King Street/Alexandria Amtrak to Regan National via Washington Street and the GW Parkway.
  • WMATA runs shuttle train service between Franconia-Springfield and Huntington, cutting out King Street & Bradock Road. Bus briging at Eisenhower Avenue will have local service to reach King Street and Bradock Road and express for direct to Regan National service.
Possible option: WMATA reaches out to CSX and VRE (who'll reach out to MARC) to run shuttle trains from King Street to Union with rush stops at Crystal City and L'Efant.
How many additional slots on long bridge are available for a shuttle?
Whose gear would be faster on those low platforms, marc or Vre?
 #1593224  by RandallW
 
According to a 2020 article, this has been long planned along with a partial closing of the Regan National platforms and of the Blue / Yellow lines at the Potomac Yards location. (I couldn't find the full brief, but have this slide:)

Image

I think best bypasses / other services are additional busses between L'Enfant Plaza, Pentagon, and Regan National with additional services on MetroWay around the Potomac Yards location during those track outages mostly b/c Pentagon is designed so that ~3/4 of workers / visitors there must use public transit and it is a major employment center and transit hub on the Yellow and Blue lines.
 #1593277  by davinp
 
Since the Long Bridge is only 2 tracks, that limits the capacity of trains that can run. Remember that VRE shares the tracks with CSX and Amtrak. Because of this, I don't know if CSX will be able to let VRE operate more trains.

In the future, after the new bridge is built, more trains will be to operate and MARC would go to Alexandria.
 #1593293  by Sand Box John
 
STrRedWolf
That said, you'll still have what I mentioned earlier. It's all going to be Blue Line. No Yellow on the Green, it'll make no sense. You *may* get a Yellow up to Regan National, use that middle track for the turn-around point... which gets into some operational questions: Would they open all the doors? Or would they open the Northbound side first, empty it out, close it, open the Southbound side for those waiting to get on, close, and go back. I can see the latter being safer.


Likely open to the northbound side first as that is the side the train is being operated from then open the southbound side. The operator making the return trip south might end up opening the doors on the southbound if the operator that brought the train in from the south did not open them before leaving the cab of the train..
 #1594146  by danib62
 
I feel like the success of FasTrak and Back2Good have made WMATA way to quick to order full scale shutdowns instead of making due with night and weekend shutdowns and single tracking. I don't understand why tying in Potomac Yard an extended full scale shutdown south of DCA.
 #1594272  by STrRedWolf
 
danib62 wrote: Thu Mar 24, 2022 2:02 pm I feel like the success of FasTrak and Back2Good have made WMATA way to quick to order full scale shutdowns instead of making due with night and weekend shutdowns and single tracking. I don't understand why tying in Potomac Yard an extended full scale shutdown south of DCA.
Easier to turn around trains at DCA because of it's three tracks, plus you can shut down power in the areas affected.
 #1594490  by danib62
 
Right but why is it taking 6 whole weeks for full time shut down to tie in the station? Tying in NoMa only required two weekend shutdowns. There should be a way to do this while preserving service except for some night and weekend closures.
 #1594624  by Sand Box John
 
danib62
Right but why is it taking 6 whole weeks for full time shut down to tie in the station? Tying in NoMa only required two weekend shutdowns. There should be a way to do this while preserving service except for some night and weekend closures.


The NoMa tie in was in a confined area that did not require a lot of grading to control drainage. The amount of track needed to be realigned at tie in point at NoMa was much less then what is being realigned at Potomac Yard. The C11 1A turnout on Track C2 in the new double crossover north of the station protrudes partly into the space of the existing alignment of Track C1. The ground work for all of the interlocking wiring and third rail conduits are partly into the space of the existing alignment. The conduit stubs next to the 1A turnout on Track C2 in the new double crossover are in the existing alignment of Track C1. This work must be done in one shot because it can not be done in multiple stages.