Metro News Release
For immediate release: October 9, 2012
Travel tips for Nationals fans attending post-season games
Metro is reminding fans of some important travel tips:
- Nationals games will have the potential to add thousands of additional riders onto the system during already busy travel periods. Whenever possible, fans are encouraged to plan a route to the ballpark that avoids downtown transfer stations during rush hours.
- For example, riders traveling to/from stations the eastern side of the Red Line should consider connecting to Green Line service at Fort Totten, rather than Gallery Place.
- Blue and Orange line customers should consider using Capitol South Station, rather than Navy Yard-Ballpark Station, to avoid transferring at L’Enfant Plaza or Metro Center. Capitol South Station is located 0.8 miles from the ballpark via First Street SE.
- After the game, customers connecting to Yellow Line trains toward Huntington should consider making the transfer at Archives Station, rather than L’Enfant Plaza.
- Navy Yard-Ballpark Station has two entrances. Half Street is slightly closer to the ballpark and often gets very crowded. Meanwhile, the New Jersey Avenue entrance is a short three-block walk from the ballpark and is usually significantly less crowded. Both entrances are equipped with elevators, in addition to escalators.
- To avoid potentially long vending machine lines after the game, Nationals fans are reminded to load enough value on their paper farecard or SmarTrip for their entire roundtrip. Customers using paper farecards pay $1 more per trip than those using SmarTrip. SmarTrip cards can be purchased in advance at local CVS and Giant Food stores, Metro Sales offices, regional transit stores, online at smartrip.com, or at 47 Metrorail stations.
- Metro operates a combination of six-car and eight-car trains. Often, the last two cars of eight-car trains are the least crowded. Take note of the number of cars on the platform information displays, and spread out along the platform to take advantage of the additional space of eight-car trains whenever possible.
Before and after each post-season game, Metro will operate additional trains on the Green Line to provide extra capacity for Nationals fans traveling to and from the ballpark. The additional trains will operate between Mt. Vernon Square and Anacostia Stations, making stops Gallery Place, Archives, L’Enfant Plaza, Waterfront and Navy Yard-Ballpark.
In the event of a Friday night game, Metro will delay the start of scheduled track work until Nationals crowds are through the system. Similarly, in the event of a Sunday game, Metro will end scheduled track work early.
Additional customer tips
- Sign up for MetroAlerts to be notified of Metrorail and Metrobus service disruptions.
- After boarding the train, move into the center of the car—away from the doors—to create space for customers behind you.
- Allow plenty of extra travel time. Consider arriving at the game early and waiting until crowds disperse after the game ends. If a train is too crowded, do not attempt to board it. Allow the doors to close and wait for the next train.
About late-night service
In the event of an 8:05 p.m. post-season game*, Metro will provide service at Navy Yard-Ballpark station until 12:20 a.m. -- one hour later than normal – as a result of a service agreement made possible by LivingSocial.
- Customers using expanded service (after 11:20 p.m.) must enter the system at Navy Yard-Ballpark Station. All other station entrances will close at their regular times; however customers will be able to exit at all stations.
- If the game is still being played at 11:45 p.m., a second additional hour is triggered. Customers will be able to enter at Navy Yard-Ballpark Station until 1:20 a.m.
* Extended hours only apply for Sunday through Thursday night games, as Metrorail provides service until 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.
News release issued at 5:31 pm, October 9, 2012.