Subway closed for day
WASHINGTON — An unprecedented daylong shutdown of the Washington area’s Metro subway system will force commuters to spend a day without their most reliable form of transportation — and the source of their constant complaints.
Ridership on Metro has dipped as the system’s reliability has deteriorated, and gripes on social media occur daily.
Still, more than 700,000 people hop on the trains every day because it’s still the best way to get downtown from Maryland, Virginia and the city’s outer neighborhoods. Today, they won’t have that option.
The nation’s second-busiest transit system was shut down at midnight Tuesday for a system-wide safety inspection of its third-rail power cables, prompted by a series of electrical fires. It will reopen at 5 a.m. Thursday unless inspectors find an immediate threat to passenger safety, which the system’s general manager said was unlikely.
Federal employees were given the option to take the day off or work from home. A federal shutdown usually makes driving into the city much easier — but that’s with the Metro running. Officials were bracing for a difficult morning on the city’s already traffic-choked streets.
“It’s really frustrating. It’s how everybody gets to work,” said Atlee Ahern, 23, a Justice Department intern who takes Metro from her home in Bethesda, Md. “The whole system shuts down, the whole city shuts down.”
Metro’s general manager, Paul Wiedefeld, said the closure was necessary to ensure rider safety.
“While the risk to the public is very low, I cannot rule out a potential life and safety issue here, and this is why we must take this action immediately,” he said.
Metro’s six rail lines and 91 stations serve more than 700,000 riders daily, and it is a vital link for federal workers and other commuters to Washington.
