Red Line commuters’ summer detour is nearly over. Three stations will reopen Sept. 7.

At long last, Metro’s Red Line will be back to normal on Sept. 7. Construction that shut down three stations this summer is projected to be completed on time, according to Metro officials.

Metro’s Bethesda, Medical Center and Grosvenor-Strathmore stops have been closed since July 6. The transit agency paused service to allow for the completion of construction projects at some stops, including a second mezzanine at the Bethesda station for the Purple Line, a light rail line that will travel between Bethesda and New Carrollton

“Metro thanks customers for their patience while we build this new connection to MTA’s Purple Line, which will provide new regional connectivity when it opens,” Metro spokesperson Jordan Pascale told The Banner in an email Wednesday. “Customers will also see improvements at Grosvenor-Strathmore, including improved lighting and new tiles.”

In lieu of trains, Metro is paying about $16 million for private charter buses to shuttle passengers between stations, according to Pascale. Metro receives some of its funding from local transit agencies, including the Maryland Transit Authority and the Montgomery County Department of Transportation.

Commuter chaos

While some Metro passengers — including this reporter — had decent experiences taking the shuttle, others were frustrated.

Mike Larkin, vice president of the Action Committee for Transit, a county advocacy group focused on transit equity, said his commute has been fairly pleasant — and easy to nap through.

“After taking the bus three or four times, I begin to drift away in the seats,” Larkin said.

But he and other ACT board members have heard complaints, particularly from people with disabilities. Commuters with mobility issues have experienced challenges boarding the shuttles, WTOP reported last month.

“It’s definitely inconvenient for people with accessibility issues, and that’s something that in future shutdowns are going to need to be addressed,” Larkin said.

Metro’s social media pages have been flooded with complaints about the shutdown.

“Please finish early and tell the bus drivers to stay out of the left and middle lanes in downtown Bethesda,” one X user commented on an Aug. 9 post about construction progress.

“The first day was abysmal — I waited at Bethesda for 35 minutes!” one rider lamented in the comments section of a Metro Instagram post.

“This closure ruined my entire summer, no offense,” wrote another.

Construction disruption

In the summer of 2024, Metro shuttered several stations on the eastern side of the county, including the busy Silver Spring and Takoma stations.

Commuters complained of longer rides and waits in the heat for shuttle buses.

Montgomery County Council member Kate Stewart, who represents the area impacted by the 2024 closures, told The Banner last month that the county and Metro learned a lot from that experience.

“We made changes once we heard from residents and local businesses,” Stewart said. “We found that signage and clear road demarcations were really important, so people understood where to go.”

For this summer’s closure, the State Highway Administration installed 7.5 miles of bus lanes on portions of Rockville Pike between the Friendship Heights and North Bethesda stations.

Some of the bus lanes established in 2024 remain because they were so effective at moving buses, transit officials said, and they’re considering keeping the new bus lanes, too. County officials said they will evaluate the northern segment of the bus lanes, stretching from the Beltway to Marinelli Road, to determine whether to make them permanent.

Larkin said that while it may be painful now, he hopes the construction will eventually provide higher quality public transit.

“If you have any type of subway shutdown, it’s going to be inconvenient to get around it. But I think WMATA’s done a pretty good job,” Larkin said. “The larger lesson here is when we want to do some transit priority infrastructure, we can do it pretty quickly.”

While this project is slated to finish on time, the long-delayed Purple Line is not.

Purple Line construction began in 2017 and was supposed to begin serving riders in 2022. But cost overruns, the COVID-19 pandemic and litigation from disgruntled residents forced delays. The line is currently projected to open in late 2027.

The original design-builder pulled out of the Purple Line project in 2020, forcing the MTA to take over construction while finding a new builder. Work under Maryland Transit Solutions began in 2022.

The project’s total cost, including its operations contract, is estimated to exceed $9 billion. The original 2016 agreement was for $5.6 billion.

Meanwhile, Purple Line construction has felt never-ending for many area residents, and shop owners along the line say their businesses have suffered from parking losses, ripped-up sidewalks and obstructed storefronts.