Metro: Repair projects mean no trains at Huntington station in summer 2019

Trains won’t be running over Huntington Avenue, or anywhere south of National Airport, in summer 2019.

Metro is planning to shut down the Yellow and Blue lines south of National Airport in the summer of 2019 for a massive platform repair project at multiple stations — meaning no trains will run from either Huntington or Franconia-Springfield during that time.

The plans, which Metro announced Monday, will affect a total of 20 stations throughout the system. Work will take place in four phases, with the first phase starting in the summer of 2019. The work in that phase, starting sometime after Memorial Day, will include rebuilds at Braddock Road, King Street and Eisenhower Avenue, shutting down the Yellow and Blue lines south of National Airport.

Metro says the platform rebuilds are “a necessary safety project,” and that based on previous rebuilds of station platforms, a complete closing of the station is preferable to keeping stations open during the repair work.

“The most recent platforms were rebuilt at Minnesota and Deanwood Avenue Stations. The stations remained open during reconstruction (i.e. no rush-hour service impacts),” a WMATA document says. “Work occurred only during nights and weekends resulting in low productivity due to set up and take down time of protective measures at the work zones. The temporary measures to protect areas under construction also created terrible customer experiences. … Rebuilding platforms at these two stations took three years.”

(Metro image)

Huntington’s and National Airport’s platform are scheduled to be rebuilt between January and May 2020, but neither station will be closed during the work. Franconia-Springfield will have its platform rebuilt between October and December 2019 and will also stay open.

“The location and configuration of these stations allows construction to take place while all rail stations remain open,” Metro said in its press release.

Metro also plans on doing other work at Huntington as part of the repair project. During the summer 2019 shutdown, the south parking lot at Huntington will also be demolished, according to WMATA. That parking garage, which is the oldest in Metro’s system, has been mostly closed since late 2015.  The crossover at Huntington will also be repaired during the shutdown. 

Metro estimates the total cost of the repair project will run between $300-400 million, and will be funded by the recent capital funding measures approved by Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.