Metro’s Red Line shutdown impacting holiday travelers heading to airports
ARLINGTON, Va. (DC News Now) — Millions of people are expected to make their way to the airport for holiday travel this week, and thousands of them are here in the DMV relying on Metro to get where they need to go.
Travelers heading to Reagan National Airport (DCA) by Metrorail told DC News Now the transit system’s Red Line shutdowns had a big impact on their trip before they made it to the airport’s security gate Wednesday.
Part of Metro’s Red Line shuts down for 2 weeks to complete needed repairs
“I left my house at 12:30 p.m., and now it’s an hour later. Usually, I can get to the airport in 20 minutes. It’s amazing. I wanted to get on the Farragut West shuttle from Dupont to just get on the Blue Line, but that’s like across the circle and I would have to pull my suitcase the whole way. So then I was like, okay, I’ll just get on the Farragut North shuttle that takes you to all the places. And I got there, but then I had to walk another six blocks to get on another one, and it just made me very angry,” said rider Carolyn Palaski.
Service was suspended between Metro’s Dupont Circle and Gallery Place stations.
“I totally forgot that there was that whole Red Line outage. But luckily at Dupont Circle, they had plenty of people with signs, yelling, telling you where to go. The bus took a little bit just because of traffic,” said rider Benjamin McEvoy.
Riders looking to get past the shutdown have to jump on shuttle buses or find another way around.
“It was a little crowded [on the shuttle bus]. I kind of sat with [my duffel bag] on my lap just because there was a lot of people trying to go in and out and stuff, but it wasn’t too bad,” said McEvoy, who’s traveling to visit family in Massachusetts.
On the other side of Metro’s fare gates at the airport, check-in and security lines were moving quickly at DCA Wednesday afternoon. Out of hundreds of flights coming in and out of the airport, only one flight had been canceled as of 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.
BWI gives flyers tips for faster, smoother holiday travel
This time last year, travelers were dealing with a major Southwest Airlines meltdown that saw thousands of flights canceled and thousands of people stranded.
U.S. Dept. of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says things are actually looking up for airline passengers this year, saying in a press conference at DCA yesterday, “I don’t want to jinx us, but so far, 2023 has seen the lowest cancellation rate in the last five years, which translates to more people getting to where they need it to be as expected”.
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