Red Line closure impact

The Red Line has been closed for a little over a week now and will remain closed through September 6. (More information here.) I think there has been enough time to work out any kinks in the process and everything should be running smoothly, but is it?

I went to the North Bethesda (formerly White Flint) metro station this morning during rush hour to find out. As you might imagine, when a Read Line train comes in from the north, and everyone gets off, there are a lot of people.  To continue south most people cross under MD-355 using the tunnel, but some folks use the crosswalk.  With all those people showing up at once, there is a long line to board buses. 

Buses lining up

The good news is that there are a lot of buses ready to take them away.  It looks like they load three at a time (I think the fourth bus is the local bus that stops at every metro station along the way, not nearly as many people take that). As the buses fill up they move away, but new buses don't immediately pull up, I think they wait until all three are done loading.

A lot of buses

There are a lot of buses waiting, here is the other side of Old Geoorgetown Road at Pike and Rose, there is a line of buses in the right lane that goes to the next traffic light. I think there are 8 or 9 waiting, plus some waiting on the near side of the light, plus the ones loading.

 

Leaving the station

As people walk out of the station, there is someone directing them to the shuttle buses, and a lot of signs too.

The whole process seems to be going reasonably well. It shows how many people take the Red Line each day.  It does take longer, probably a lot longer. Not only do the express buses take time (about 26 minutes) to get from North Bethesda to Friendship Heights, you also have to get off the train, exit the station, cross the street, load onto the bus (which can take a while if it is busy), then reverse the process at the end. 

Northbound stop

Not many people were going north on the shuttles to rejoin the Red Line towards Shady Grove here. In fact, most of the shuttle buses that went by were out of service as the sped north to get back in line and go south.