Northern Virginia Metro stations to reopen ahead of schedule

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 25: A single rider waits on a train platform at the Archives station as weekday rail ridership across the Metro system is down nearly 90-percent due to the coronavirus pandemic March 25, 2020 in Washington, DC. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is closing more than a dozen stations for an indefinite period beginning March 26 in an effort to limit the mass transit system's staffing and cleaning requirements amid the COVID-19 outbreak. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — The metropolitan Washington region’s Metrorail system says it will reopen two stations in northern Virginia ahead of schedule as service begins to return to pre-pandemic levels.

The East Falls Church and Arlington Cemetery stations are set to reopen Aug. 23, Metro announced Monday. Those reopenings come one week after Metro reopened the West Falls Church and five Silver Line Stations in northern Virginia ahead of schedule.

The rail system took advantage of extraordinarily low ridership during the worst of the pandemic to accelerate planned maintenance and construction work. The closed stations are reopening ahead of schedule.

Once East Falls Church and Arlington Cemetery stations reopen, two of the system’s 91 stations will remain closed: the Dunn Loring and Vienna stations in northern Virginia, which are slated to reopen Sept. 8.