Halfway to the finish line. New escalators open at Grosvenor-Strathmore and Farragut North, as construction moves to K St entrance starting Monday

Metro’s escalator replacement project is headed for the home stretch with installation complete on half of the 130 escalators planned for replacement . On Monday three brand new, more reliable escalators will be up and running at the Farragut North Entrance on L Street NW, and another new escalator is returning to service at Grosvenor.

Metro’s contractor, KONE, is working to complete the remaining escalators as part of an ongoing escalator replacement project through 2028, helping to ensure our infrastructure remains in a state of good repair.

"Metro has more escalators than any other place in North America and the two longest escalators in the Western Hemisphere at Wheaton and Bethesda,” said Metro General Manager and Chief Executive Officer Randy Clarke. “It is no easy task, but through our aggressive replacement program, our escalators are more durable, and reliable. Today, more than 94 percent of our escalators are in service at any given time, including those taken out of service for maintenance and replacement.”

The average age of Metro’s escalators is now 9.4 years old, a vast improvement over the average age of 27 years in 2011 when Metro first launched its escalator replacement and rehabilitation efforts. Newer escalators also break down less. As a result of the ongoing replacement project, failures have been reduced by nearly 30 percent systemwide.

In addition to the 65 brand, new escalators installed as of Monday, 12 more escalators at Deanwood, Addison Road, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, and Rosslyn stations are scheduled to be replaced later this year and in early 2024.

At Grosvenor, two of four station escalators have now been replaced with work continuing on two others.

Construction will also begin Monday on three more entrance escalators at Farragut North, as work shifts to the K Street NW entrance. To complete the work at the K St entrance as safely and efficiently as possible, the entrance will be closed for approximately six months from October 9, 2023, through spring 2024. During construction, the elevator at the K St entrance will remain available in addition to the two L Street entrances to access the station.

Metro’s escalators are custom built to fit each entrance. It is arduous work to replace each escalator using heavy equipment and cranes to remove the old infrastructure and bring in the new parts. In some cases, additional supports need to be added to the existing infrastructure. While the K St entrance is closed at Farragut North, construction crews will remove the three entrance escalators before repairing an existing support beam and then installing the three new custom-built escalators.

Following completion of the escalator replacement at the K Street entrance, the entrance will reopen and the escalator replacement project at Farragut North will be complete.

Customer Impacts

• Rail service will not be impacted.
• The elevator at the K St entrance will remain open and accessible to customers.
• Customers must enter and exit Farragut North Station using the two entrances on L St.
• Customers will still be able to utilize Farragut Crossing to transfer between Farragut North and Farragut West stations.

In 2020, Metro completed its first large-scale escalator replacement initiative, replacing 146 of the oldest, least reliable escalators in the system over seven years.

Additional information can be found on the Escalator, Canopy and Elevator project page. Customers are also encouraged to sign up for MetroAlerts text or email messages to receive project updates and service information orcontact Customer Service at 202-637-7000 with additional questions.