If you live in a home in Washington DC or Montgomery County and commute by Metro rail, you should know that this week the Metro will have a 15 mph speed restriction on the Red Line between Friendship Heights and the Bethesda Metro rail stations. This speed restriction is due to track work that will be taking place during overnight hours; they will be changing out rails as well as rail fasteners. These speed restrictions were first put into effect last week because of assessment which said that Metro needs to replace running rails and fasteners on both tracks between Friendship Heights and all Bethesda Metro Rail Stations. If you rode on the red line this past weekend you may have experienced some delays due to the replacing of these fasteners. Currently Metro has already replaced 579 fasteners and installed 3,200 feet of new track, 85 new wood ties, and 73 new third rail insulators. As a result of this, the Metro could only operate at the 15 mph speed limit on inbound tracks from Grosvenor Strathmore to Medical Center. Metro is hoping to have the red line trains running back at full speed by Tuesday Morning. So if you use the Redline to commute into work this week, you may want to give yourself some extra time.
