COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Starting Thursday, a total of 19 Metro stations will be closed – and it’s unclear when they will open again.
After closing Arlington Cemetery and Smithsonian last week in an effort to prevent people from riding Metro to see the cherry blossoms (and potentially spreading COVID-19), Metro announced Tuesday that 17 more stations would close Thursday.
Metro says it chose to close some of the stations because there are other stations nearby that riders can use. It chose to close other stations because of low ridership.
For example, riders took trips from the College Park station an average of 3770 times a day in 2019. On Monday of this week, that number had fallen to 325.
At a number of stations, Metro is closing not the entire station but one entrance to the station.
Metro says the moves will allow it to run the system using fewer employees during a time when it has fewer employees available (some are staying home to take care of children, others are being used for pandemic-related “reduncancy”).
Metro also says the move will save on cleaning supplies, which are dwindling fast in the wake of the pandemic.
Here is a list from Metro of stations that will close because other stations are nearby, and the recommended station to use instead:
Metro put out this list of stations that will temporarily close due to low ridership:
Finally, here is a list from Metro of the station entrances that will be closed while these stations themselves remain open: