POLL: Do You Back Plan to Change Metro Hours?

by Andrew Ramonas — December 1, 2016 at 2:45 pm 9 Comments

A proposal that would keep the Metro system open until 1 a.m. on weekends, but close it before midnight on other nights, cleared a key hurdle today.

A Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority panel this morning endorsed new Metro operating hours to allow for more repair and maintenance time, NBC Washington reported. The new hours, which still need the support of WMATA’s full board, would go into effect July 1, 2017, and last for two years.

Under the plan, Metro would have service on the Sliver Line and its other lines:

Mondays to Thursdays from 5 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.
Fridays from 5 a.m. to 1 a.m.
Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m.
Sundays from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Since SafeTrack repairs began earlier this year, the system has closed at midnight every day and opened at 5 a.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. on weekends. Trains previously operated from 5 a.m. to midnight Monday through Thursday, 5 a.m. to 3 a.m. Friday, 7 a.m. to 3 a.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. to midnight Sunday.

Do you back WMATA’s plan? You can weigh in through the poll and in the comments.

Photo courtesy of Mike Heffner

Guest

I don’t ride Metro, but closing early will hurt the people who need it most – those who can’t affored more expensive transportation.
- Greg
  
  It would be far more cost effective to hire private Ubers for each of those whom you allege may be affected than to waste a penny more on Metro.
Mike M

Higher prices, lower service levels? What’s not to like? 😉
Sam

Metro is going to run themselves out of business. Poor and unreliable service has already decreased ridership outside of the city (I used to love convenience of taking Metro downtown but refuse to now; nevermind that fares now rival parking fees); closing early will decrease anyone using it for nightlife (thank God for Uber, huh?) and severely impact riders who work late and have no other form of transportation.
John L.

New hours seem reasonable too us and more than meet our needs.
Do hope there will be good bus service in the off hours for all the people who need them for their work?
jmsullivan

Just don’t care anymore. I’ve given up on metro.

Shame, really. It used to be a really great transit system.
Greg

We said a decade ago that the silver line was an expensive mistake. When a business’s core service is FUBAR, a successful business does not spend $6 billion to add more of the same.

We also said that the Tyson’s portion should be fully buried. Mark our words — in 15 years that hideous eyesore will be falling apart from exposure to the elements and will cost hundreds of millions more to maintain than the tunnel would have cost.

#doomed.
Rosa McDaniel

new hours will not fit people who work late in bars and restaurants
- Greg
  
  Too bad. The very few affected by this wise and long-ago needed change can get different jobs, closer to home, bike, carpool, walk, hitchhike or call an Uber pool.
  
  Government cannot do all things for all people at all times regardless of the costs, especially when the tools being demanded to do so have been shamefully mismanaged at great cost and remain very broken.
  
  We need look no farther, the the affected can move to, than Cuba, Venezuela or Russia to see the results when government overreaches.

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