Work on the Purple Line mezzanine continues on the Silver Spring platform. About a third of the platform will be covered with scaffolding, but the Metro station will remain open to customers. Over the summer, Purple Line workers built columns that will support the walkway from the Purple Line station across the tracks to the Metro Red Line platform.

Silver Spring will continue to be an active construction site for the Purple Line and the scaffolding will remain in place until 2027.

During the construction work, the Metro teams carried out the following actions:

• 6,500 feet of rail replaced
• 6,000 feet of joint pads replaced, improving ride quality
• 857 areas repaired to reduce leakage
• 1,350 square meters of concrete restored
• 102,000 feet of fiber optic cable installed for communications
• 183 track signs replaced
• 2,500 sleepers that support the rails replaced
• 1,000 fasteners replaced that hold the rail to the joint pads
• Six switch drives replaced
• 12 train control processors replaced
• 650 insulators replaced that isolate the current around the busbar
• 72,000 square meters of tile joints repaired
• 40,000 feet of track bed cleaned
• 2,600 m of drain pipes cleaned
• Repaired sidewalks
• 354 signs replaced on mezzanines, platforms and entrances
• 12,700 square meters of interior and exterior surfaces painted
• Newly marked parking spaces and bus turning circles, directional arrows and zebra crossings

Other work included replacing automatic train control systems, installing traction power cables, replacing sewage pumping stations, replacing the tunnel standpipe, and maintaining elevators and escalators. Metro also rebuilt a switch area between Fort Totten and Takoma before reopening that section of track in late June.

The crews managed to transfer the equivalent of eight months of weekend closures and disruptions into the summer construction period.

Later this year, Metro will install new digital passenger information displays on platforms and digital screens at station entrances at all five stations. Supply chain issues delayed installation during construction.

More than 850,000 shuttle rides were made during construction. We thank customers for their patience while the MTA made progress on this important connection between the Purple Line light rail and Metrorail.

In the summer of 2026, the Medical Center and Bethesda stations will be closed to connect the Purple Line to the Bethesda Metrorail station. The Maryland Transit Administration’s Purple Line is currently scheduled to begin service in December 2027. For more information about the Purple Line, visit PurpleLineMD.com.”

Workers work on the escalators at the Wheaton Metrorail station.

Workers have replaced the broken and uneven sidewalk at Forest Glen Station.

During the closure, workers will replace tracks along sections of the Red Line.

Crews will be working in the Red Line tunnel during the closure.

Workers lay cables along the tracks near Silver Spring.