Metro putting finishing touches on improvements, repairs

WASHINGTON - Brand new platform edges and state of the art slip resistant tiles will greet Metro riders come Monday.

Metro gave the media a tour at its Braddock Road station this week as finishing touches and rigorous testing and coordination were underway.

“Right now everything looks good for Monday. At the end of the day unless it's safe, we won't run it, as you know, so we'll be testing power, that's our next big milestone to test,” said Metro CEO and General Manager Paul Wiedefeld.

Before the six stations can open to the public, safety tests must be complete – Fox 5 was there, “As you know, we haven't ridden trains for three months so there's a lot of work to do there, signals and systems work.  The platforms look good from top to bottom,” said Wiedefeld.

Metro says testing includes alignment between the new platform edges and tracks, bringing power back to the systems and reconnecting the systems to Metro’s networks.

“It's a very exciting project for us to get through. We know it's been painful for our customers but as you all know safety is our first priority and these platforms were unsafe. Now they're not,” said Wiedefeld.

FOX 5’s Tisha Lewis reports Metro spent the summer repairing or replacing all components.  

Even so, at some stations, finishing work will apparently continue after they reopen and service has resumed.