WASHINGTON, DC — It's a strange announcement for any organization that relies on revenue from customers to make: an impassioned plea for people not to use their service. But that's exactly what Metro is doing, showing that the system is nowhere near ready to return to some sense of normalcy as some of the worst "Surges" yet are about to hit the system in the coming months.

It appears customers are heeding Metro's request. As of late last year, ridership was down more than 20 percent from levels seen back in 2009, according to a Washington Business Journal report. And that has only deepened Metro's budget crisis as revenues have plunged in concert with ridership declines. Nevertheless, the latest "Surge" -- which involves shutting down the Arlington National Cemetery Metro station and forcing anyone who commutes north and south in Arlington to take a detour through D.C. -- has Metro once again asking riders to consider finding another way to get to work, or simply not go to work at all.

"Due to reduced capacity and expected longer travel times, Metrorail riders are encouraged to consider using alternate travel options while safety surge work is scheduled on their line," WMATA says on their website. Fairfax County issued its own warning to Metro riders who will be slammed by Surge No. 12, "urging commuters to telework and use flexible work schedules whenever possible," the county said in a statement that sounds more like a warning about an impending blizzard than standard maintenance work on the rail system.



Even when there isn't a Surge going on, Metro seems unable to handle a normal rush hour on many mornings. On Monday, the Washington Post reported massive problems on the Red Line that caused huge delays during the rush hour commute, with some on Twitter reporting that they waited well over an hour just to go a few stops. As it turned out, trains had to share tracks between the Van Ness and Friendship Heights stations on the Red Line due to a power problem.

It's been eight months since SafeTrack began to fix chronic safety problems throughout the Metrorail system, and despite the fact the region has powered through 11 "Surges" involving both single-tracking and line segment shutdowns for sometimes weeks on end, Metro is nowhere near the finish line.

The next Surge starts Feb. 11 and will last for 18 days. The track work will totally disrupt riders on the Blue Line, who must commute through D.C. in order to get from one end of Arlington to the other. That Surge will be followed by a massive 37-day event involving single-tracking on the Blue and Yellow lines at stations in Alexandria.

Three more Surges will take place after that, none of which have dates attached to them. A Green Line single-tracking will take place sometime in April and May, an Orange Line single-tracking will happen in May and June and the last single-tracking will be on the Red Line in June.