Metro has announced a huge rehab effort expected to last a year and result in long-duration shutdowns of entire sections of a track at a time. The work will apply to the entire Metro rail network, except for new portions of the Silver Line.

Metro general manager Paul Wiedefeld called SafeTrack a massive undertaking in a press conference Friday morning. "We need to do something different," he said. "Dramatically different."

In total, the work will complete a 3-year repair program within one year, according to documents released with the SafeTrack announcement.

The work includes 15 "safety surges," causing long-duration track outages that will require single tracking or line-segment shutdowns, including impacts during rush hour commutes.

"We will have impact on rush-hour services," he said of other work that can't be reasonably completed during off hours. "The goal was not to eliminate any service … If we have to shutdown a station, we will have busses so people have transit."

Would you want to start doing any work, after 50 years of doing noth and collecting 100K+ for snoozing all day at a workfare job? Mechanical things deteriorate over time. That is why you follow a schedule of maintainance and repair for your car and hopefully your county and state does so for the roads. But when all money gets skimmed off the top to guarantee full employment for everybody in the family at 100K + a year, for 50+ years, there is just not enough to go around for fixin' the rail system...maybe the gubmint'll bail them out again...

It's the feds that want to close metro, and if they want it closed, there must be something good about it. I think I'll ride metro to work tomorrow.

Maintenance is that other guy's problem 50 years down the road. Just keep putting it off. Saves money for salaries.

WujXW