Five Red Line stations will be closed for maintenance this weekend, Metro has announced.
The Red Line will operate every 10 minutes between Shady Grove and Fort Totten. Due to switch replacement, there will be no service at the Takoma, Silver Spring, Forest Glen, Wheaton, and Glenmont stations. Free shuttle buses will be provided.
Metrorail will open at 7 a.m. and close at 1 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Escalator replacement is also underway at the Silver Spring station; work began in September at the north entrance between East-West Highway and Second Ave. Metro said that once work began, it would be a four-month closure of the entrance during construction to facilitate the replacement of the escalators simultaneously.
Metro said in September that Metrorail service will not be impacted, and customers will be able to access the station via the escalator and elevator at the south entrance closest to the Paul S. Sarbanes Transit Center.
“The north entrance between East-West Highway and Second Avenue has two escalators leading from the lower level entrance to the upper platform,” Metro said in a September 2 news release. “Closing the entrance will cut the construction time in half. Additionally, replacing the escalators one at a time would leave only one stationary escalator for customers to walk both up and down at the same time.”
Upon completion of the escalators on the north side, the entrance will reopen, and work will begin to replace the three escalators at the south entrance. The entrance will remain open while the new escalators are installed one at a time. The construction process, completed by Metro’s contractor KONE, is expected to take approximately 11 months in total.
Photo: “Silver Spring WMATA Station” by Roadgeek Adam is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0