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Twenty-four hours after the deadliest crash in Metrorail history forced road closures, bus bridges and the splitting of the busy Red Line, commuters at the Silver Spring station expressed confusion about shuttle buses.
Metro General Manager John Catoe warned commuters to avoid the section of "the Red Line from Rhode Island Avenue to Glenmont." But many commuters had no choice. Metro had established a bus bridge between the stations, but passengers found it chaotic.
Manny Van Pelt said he "got to the Metro an hour early this morning and ... found .. the bus drivers don't know what's going on. The supervisors don't know what's going on."
Some commuters decided it was too much trouble, and called it off.
"My heart goes out to those people," said Alfred Plummer, "but it's an inconvenience to me. I'm not going to be able to get to school."
Commuter David Howard expects the "same coming home."
He's right, according to Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein.
"You should build 30 to 60 minutes to your commute," she said. "If you have to cross the section that's closed . . . you need to build closer to an hour."
"We're expecting slower conditions than usual that would be on the Red Line," Farbstein explained earlier Tuesday morning. "We expect the other lines to be a little bit more crowded as people try to enter the system on the other color lines."
Other rail lines are also running slower Tuesday morning. "We usually run a combination of trains that are running in manual mode and automatic mode, depending on conditions and the length of the train. And today we asked all of our train operators to operate in manual mode today," Farbstein also noted.
Farbstein forecasted that these conditions would remain in effect for the whole of Tuesday and perhaps into Wednesday as well.
The Bottom Line
Red Line trains are operating in two sections on Tuesday: one will run between the Glenmont and Silver Spring Metrorail stations and the other between the Shady Grove and the Rhode Island Avenue-Brentwood Metrorail stations. Free Metrobus shuttles are available, stopping at the Silver Spring, Fort Totten, Brookland-CUA, Rhode Island Avenue-Brentwood and Georgia Avenue-Petworth Metrorail stations. Passengers will be able to transfer to Green Line trains at Fort Totten.
Metro warned people planning to use the shuttles to expect long delays, because each train can carry 600 to 800 passengers, and each bus can carry about 50.
Metro officials recommend that customers who can should commute to stations on the other side of the Red Line, between the Shady Grove and Grosvenor-Strathmore Metrorail stations, or commute to the Green Line stations and then transfer to the Red Line at Fort Totten.
Metro also recommended several Metrobus lines to avoid the disruption (CLICK ON LINK TO SEE SCHEDULE/MAP):
- Metrobus C8 line (Glenmont to White Flint)
- Metrobus Q2 line (Wheaton to Rockville)
- Metrobus C2, C4 line (Wheaton to Twinbrook)
- Metrobus J1, J2, J3 line (Silver Spring to Medical Center)
- Metrobus J4 line (College Park-Bethesda)
- Metrobus L7, L8 line (Friendship Heights)
MARC (web | news) 's Brunswick Line service will be suspended on Tuesday due to the proximity of its tracks to the accident scene (CLICK HERE FOR MOST RECENT UPDATE).
Metro officials warned all passengers to expect delays, because all trains on the system will be operated in manual mode.
The incident also required officials to close off a number of streets, including the 5000 block of S. Dakota Ave NE. New Hampshire Avenue was closed between N. Capitol and Peabody St. NE (near D.C. / MD border), including the bridge.
MPD plans to reopen at least two lanes of New Hampshire Avenue for the evening rush hour, but there is no guarantee.
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