MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — Making weekends plans? If so, and you are planning to travel to or from Montgomery County via Metro, you might want to rethink your method of transportation.
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) announced Thursday that four stations on the Red Line will be closed this weekend, Sept. 16-17, to perform track work in the interlocking.
The four stations that will be closed due to the work are Shady Grove, Rockville, Twinbrook, and North Bethesda, but there will be free shuttle buses to replace them.
Normal Red Line service will operate between Glenmont and Grosvenor, every eight minutes during the day and every 10 minutes after 9 p.m.
Metro will be working to replace the switches in the interlocking outside of the Twinbrook station. This is part of the signaling system embedded on the tracks to ensure trains are routed properly and can safely cross over from one track to another if there is single tracking.
There will also be additional work planned between the stations to install fiber-optic cables to upgrade the radio and signal capabilities, as well as additional maintenance, such as replacing old rails with new ones.
The work is expected to begin overnight after the system closes on Friday. Normal Red Line service will resume with all stations reopening by Monday, Sept. 18 at 5 a.m.
In the meantime, free shuttle buses will be provided for customers from Shady Grove to Grosvenor during normal Metrorail operating hours. Riders also have to the option of taking the Metrorail from the Grosvenor Station as an alternative, where Metro parking is available for free on the weekends.