Montgomery Celebrates End of Metro ‘Turnbacks’ at Grosvenor

Councilmembers joined officials from @MontgomeryCoMD, @Rockville411, @MCDOTNow and @wmata, and Senator @ChrisVanHollen, to mark the end of Metro Red Line turnbacks at Grosvenor. #Metro #RedLine #Transportation #Transit #MoCo@tomhucker @MC_Council_Katz https://t.co/hD1EVunJtT pic.twitter.com/f1k8qaTxge

— Montgomery Council (@MoCoCouncilMD) December 17, 2018

Montgomery County celebrated the end of Metro Red Line “turnbacks” during rush hour Monday.

All rush hour morning and afternoon trains leaving Washington, D.C., will now travel all the way to the Shady Grove station.

To save money, Metro in 1984 routed half its rush hour trains to return to downtown D.C. at the Strathmore-Grosvenor station.

Montgomery County has been trying to end the turnbacks for more than 10 years.

Within the past year, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia committed extra funding to Metro, which used some of those funds to buy new railcars. That, in turn, led the Metro Board of Directors to end the Grosvenor turnback.

Eliminating the turnbacks will double rush-hour service, which means there will be trains every four minutes at the stations north of Grosvenor: White Flint, Twinbrook, Rockville and Shady Grove.

Rather than deal with the turnbacks, some Northern Montgomery commuters have simply chosen to park at Grosvenor. This added more drivers on Md. 355 and I-270 in the morning and afternoons.

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