Starting on Sunday, July 18 take the metro at midnight every night of the week and pay a flat fare of $2 on the weekends.
In a recent series of changes by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) to encourage people to take public transport again, they have been improving their systems. For instance, the agency has prolonged the Metrobus night service of 36 of the busiest bus routes, making promises to boost the frequency of buses and metros, as well as create discounted passes.
All these changes and promises are to bring back passengers after over a year of working from home and not needing to commute. Indeed, as we can imagine the WMATA was hit hard by the pandemic. So, now that the city is reopening, they are making adjustments to accommodate the more in-person activities that are taking place.
Now the metro service will extend to midnight seven days a week to accommodate more people as the nightlife picks back up and as people start working in-person again. Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld says: “Riders that work late, enjoy the region’s restaurants and nightlife or need to get to and from places at night will now have more flexibility with trains running longer every night,” he said. “As the region recovers, Metro will be there to meet the transit needs of customers and businesses in the National Capital Region.”
Now on weekends, passengers can take the metro for a standard fare of $2 instead of the distance-based fare. In the fall, Metrorail says they will extend the closing time of the metro to 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
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