Metro is making improvements at the Arlington Cemetery Station and will begin installing canopies over the station entrances to protect customers, the station, and escalators from the elements. Work will begin on Monday, June 5, closing the station’s north entrance on the north side of Memorial Drive for approximately three months. Rail service will not be impacted.
During construction crews will demolish and rebuild the parapet walls around the escalators to prepare the area for installation of the new canopy. Completing this work safely and efficiently requires closing the entrance. While the north entrance is closed, the south entrance will remain open and accessible using the crosswalk on Memorial Drive, directly across from the north entrance. Throughout construction, the two elevators on the north side of Memorial Drive that service both sides of the Metro platform will also remain open.
When the north entrance reopens, work on both the north and south canopies will continue during non-passenger hours until completion in late fall 2024. This work is not expected to require additional entrance closures.
Metro is installing canopies as part of an ongoing project to replace or install nine canopies across the Metro system by 2026. Since the program began, Metro has installed canopies at more than 40 station entrances. Canopies shield customers and escalators from weather conditions, helping to protect the life, longevity, and reliability of our escalators, resulting in less disruption for customers and an overall more reliable experience.
Beginning Sunday, June 4, trains serving the Yellow Line will arrive every 8 minutes all day, open to close, an improvement on the current late-night and weekend frequency of 12 minutes.
With the service improvements beginning Sunday, Yellow Line customers will enjoy less crowded trains and shorter waits – an average of four minutes where Yellow and Green line trains serve the downtown core between L’Enfant Plaza and Mt. Vernon Sq.
Ridership has rebounded on the Yellow Line, up 20 percent following an 8-month closure for construction to rehabilitate the Yellow Line tunnel and bridge. Since reopening, customers have taken more than a million trips on the Yellow Line, which operates between Huntington and Mt. Vernon Sq. stations, and 600,000 trips have been taken over the Yellow Line bridge. Ridership is increasing every week, and ridership at the newly opened Potomac Yard station has been strong with more than 25,000 trips taken to or from the station since it opened May 19.
Over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, over 50,000 trips were taken to and from National and Dulles airports as customers took advantage of Metro’s convenient and affordable connection to air travel.
The service improvements coupled with ridership gains are driving a major turnaround for Metro. Starting next week, we’ll have 70 percent more trains in service during peak periods compared to last year, and a 54 percent increase in train trips. More than 17.5 million trips were taken on Metrorail and Metrobus in May, including a 20 percent increase on bus and 43 percent increase on rail over May 2022.
Metro is making frequent service improvements as it works to return more 7000-series trains to the tracks and recovers from a pandemic-driven shortage of train operators. The Yellow Line service improvements come one month after Metro boosted service on the Red Line during peak periods on May 8. Since then, ridership has increased while Red Line customers are enjoying a more comfortable ride in trains that are about 20 percent less crowded.
Metro customers will see additional service improvements later this month on the Blue, Orange, and Silver lines.
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