The face of Washington’s Metrorail map will soon change forever, and those changes will affect riders on the Blue and Yellow lines.
Metro officials announced today their plans to realign service on the Blue and Yellow lines.
Those changes will take effect June 2012, and the move will have one-third of Blue line trains from the Franconia-Springfield station cross the Yellow line bridge over the Potomac River after the leaving Pentagon station, providing direct service to the L’Enfant Plaza station in Washington, according to a Metro press release.
Those trains would no longer serve Arlington Cemetery or the Rosslyn stations.
Also as part of the change, more trains will be added to Metro’s Orange line between the West Falls Church and Largo Town Center stations.
Officials say the changes will increase service to popular rush-hour destinations, benefiting an estimated 108,000 riders.
The changes also come as the transit agency is looking to improve service ahead to the opening of the new Silver line to Dulles International Airport.
“The Blue and Yellow line realignment is meant to address peak period crowding and service reliability at the Rosslyn Metrorail station, realign service to better match ridership and transition to the future Dulles rail extension,” said Metro General Manager and Chief Executive Officer Richard Sarles.
Some 5,000 Metrorail system maps will need to be reprinted, 2,600 station signs redone, and more than 1,200 fare chartswill need to be reprinted.
New schedules should be out months ahead of the service change, but officials on Thursday did not say how much these new changes would cost Metro.
