For immediate release: May 18, 2017

SafeTrack program to end June 25 with final surge on Red Line

SafeTrack will end on Sunday, June 25, Metro announced today, along with service information for Surge #16, Metro's final surge in the year-long emergency maintenance program. 

Beginning Saturday, June 17, and continuing through Sunday, June 25, a five-mile segment of the Red Line between Shady Grove and Twinbrook will be shut down for nine days during the final surge, which includes crosstie replacement, rail renewal and welding. 

Two stations – Shady Grove and Rockville – will be closed, with rail service replaced by free shuttle buses running at all times of the day.

Customers who normally use Shady Grove or Rockville are encouraged to consider starting their trip at Twinbrook, White Flint, or Grosvenor during the surge.

Elsewhere on the Red Line, trains will run at near-normal intervals:

  • Red Line trains will operate near normal service between Twinbrook and Glenmont every 8 minutes (normally 6 minutes).
  • Additional Red Line trains will operate between Grosvenor and Silver Spring every 4 minutes (normally 3 minutes).

Service on Metro's Orange, Silver, Blue, Yellow, and Green lines will not be affected.

At the conclusion of Surge #16, Metro will have completed three years of track work in a single year, including the replacement of more than 50,000 crossties compared to about 15,000 in a typical year.

New Metrorail system hours will take effect June 25, as Metro transitions out of the emergency SafeTrack program and into a regular program of preventive maintenance for safer, more reliable rail service. Following SafeTrack, rush-hour service free from scheduled maintenance work will become the norm. However, Metro may need to schedule certain capital-improvement projects--such as interlocking replacements and platform reconstruction--that could affect a handful of stations in the year ahead. Any such capital work will be scheduled only if necessary (i.e. if the work cannot be completed during weekend times or overnight), and planned during low-ridership times of the year.