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Metro adjusts for cherry blossom crowds

By Kristi King

WASHINGTON — Metro is adjusting to accommodate visitors heading downtown for the National Cherry Blossom Festival and to see peak bloom this weekend.

[related_gallery align=”right”]But some delays remain the same.

Service on most of the Blue and Yellow lines will occur at 24-minute intervals. However, additional Yellow Line trains will run between Reagan National Airport and Mt. Vernon Square to provide service every 12 minutes.

Regular weekend service is planned for the Red, Green, Orange and Silver lines.

Expect the same plan for the weekends of April 1-2 and 8-9.

During the festival’s closing weekend, April 15-16, regular service is expected everywhere except on the Green Line.

To avoid delays, even before boarding trains, Metro suggests adding enough money to your fare card for travel to avoid lines at vending machines downtown.

Metro also suggests that riders avoid the Smithsonian station, which can be rather crowded during the bloom, and instead consider the L’Enfant Plaza, Archives or Federal Triangle stations.

Other tips for navigating the crowds and more information on the how best to get around the District during blooms can be found on the Metro site.

Metro hopes for temporary Dupont, Farragut North cooling fix this summer

By Max Smith
WASHINGTON — Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld stood Monday next to the Metro chiller pumps sitting idle for a third straight year about 40 feet below Connecticut Avenue Northwest and said he hopes — but cannot promise — that a temporary fix for the cooling system for Dupont Circle and Farragut North will be in place at some point this summer. Pipes connecting the chiller vault to a cooling tower about 500 feet south on Connecticut Avenue and 13 stories up have been leaking since at least 2015. Metro believes those 500 feet of pipes are the only issue that has kept the stations from being cooled by the shared chiller plant since then.
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