ROCKVILLE, Md. — There will be no need to shut down an entire Metro line for six months, Metro’s general manager assured the Montgomery County Council during a meet-and-greet session and lunch Tuesday.
“I don’t see anything that would require anything near a six-month shutdown,” Paul Wiedefeld told the council members in reference to statements Metro board chair and D.C. Councilman Jack Evans made last week.
Evans said that some Metro lines could be shut down for months for repairs needed to improve the system’s safety and reliability.
But Wiedefeld did say that comprehensive maintenance is needed to replace the piecemeal approach of the past.
“So for instance, not just looking at the fasteners, or not just looking at the boots, or not just looking at the rails, but coming in and basically doing something where we take care of it all at one time,” he said.
For such work, Wiedefeld said that using a bus to provide service between stations would be the approach he’d take.
Wiedefeld fielded a range of questions from council members including concerns about safety, operations and reliability.
Noting that Metro — and transit in general—is far safer than other modes of transportation, Wiedefeld acknowledged that that doesn’t matter to a rider who’s experienced a problem while using transit.
“If you feel that you’re not safe, you’re not going to use it,” he said.
The meeting with Wiedefeld was originally intended as an introduction — the council had not met with him since his appointment as general manager last fall. But that planned meeting was delayed due to the January snowstorm that dropped as much as 3 feet of snow on the region and shutdown the Metro system for several days.
