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Metro to cut hours every day of the week

By Max Smith

WASHINGTON — Metro trains will run fewer hours each day under a new service schedule that the transit agency’s board approved on Thursday.

The board agreed to the service cuts under a compromise designed to prevent D.C. board members from vetoing the reductions. There was little debate over the changes before the final vote.

Under the new schedule, Metrorail will close at 11:30 p.m. on weeknights and at 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. Trains will run from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Sundays. The new schedule begins in July.

As part of the compromise with D.C. members, the service hour reductions will expire in two years. And a report will be due to the board in 2018 providing an update on Metro’s maintenance progress.

General Manager Paul Wiedefeld has said that more maintenance and track inspections could be completed if trains ran fewer hours each week.

Trains will continue to run until midnight through June.

WTOP’s Amanda Iacone contributed to this report.

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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