The Latest on DC subway shutdown: Heavy traffic on roads

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on a daylong shutdown of the Washington area's Metro subway system (all times local):

9 a.m.

Transportation officials are seeing more people on Washington-area roads as the region faces a commute without Metro's subway service.

DC Department of Transportation Deputy Director Greer Gillis said Wednesday that she's seeing heavier-than-normal rush-hour volume on the roads, particularly coming from Maryland. She expects more traffic and a longer-than-usual rush-hour, but traffic is still flowing early in the morning.

The system is shut down Wednesday for a system-wide safety inspection of its third-rail power cables, prompted by a series of electrical fires.

Gillis says department personnel, including traffic control officers, will be ready to respond to problems. She says crossing guards will be available all day to help with pedestrians.

Gillis says construction activity is suspended during the morning and evening rush hours. She says DC Circulator will offer additional service on three routes and buses are free to reduce boarding delays.

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8:10 a.m.

With the unprecedented daylong shutdown of the Washington area's Metro subway system, normally busy stations are eerily quiet and nearly empty.

The Springfield Metro station is one of the busiest in northern Virginia. But on Wednesday, the massive parking garage was mostly empty, even though parking was free. At 7:45 a.m., a handful of people waited for buses.

Fifty-two-year-old Leander Talley says his commute is normally easy — a bus ride, then a Metro rail ride. But it wasn't easy Wednesday. He says he set his alarm for 4 a.m. instead of the usual 5:30.

He says he'll catch five buses in a commute that will total 3.5 hours. He calls that crazy. He also says that with all of Metro's problems, he thought a shutdown might happen, but not with such short notice.

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7:40 a.m.

The closure of the Metro subway system in DC will mean a long walk home for 26-year-old Bob Jones of Arlington, Virginia.

Jones was waiting for his normal bus Wednesday morning, but he says he usually takes a train home. He says the walk from Metro Center to Roslyn will take him more than an hour.

Jones is a security analyst and contractor for the federal government, and he says half of his office was planning to working from home Wednesday.

Jones had no love for the Metro. He says it's always slow and crowded. But he wasn't too upset with the decision to close. He says that's better than "a fiery inferno."

The system shut down at midnight for an inspection of its third-rail power cables, prompted by a series of electrical fires.

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7:30 a.m.

Many Washington-area commuters are switching to plan B as they try to get to work without the Metro subway system, which is shut down for safety inspections.

Spokeswoman Morgan Dye said Wednesday that Metro isn't hearing reports of overcrowding on buses, but the rush hour is still young.

Fifty-one-year-old Michaun Jordan says she got up an hour early to commute from Baltimore to Virginia. She's a federal government finance officer and says she wanted to be on time. Normally she takes a commuter train to Union Station in Washington, then rail lines and a bus. But on Wednesday she took a $15 taxi from Union Station to Metro's Rosslyn station, where she'd catch a bus.

She says: "At first I was a bit disappointed. Then I thought about it, it's best to be safe," she said.

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7:20 a.m.

Not all commuters got the message that the Washington area's Metro subway system would be in an unprecedented daylong shutdown.

On Wednesday morning at Metro's Rosslyn station in Virginia, just over the Potomac River from Washington, the escalators were running but metal gates with bars closed the entrance. A sign says: "Urgent Message: The entire Metrorail system will be closed all day on Wednesday, March 16 to allow for emergency inspections of power cables. Your safety is our highest priority."

But 27-year-old Derya Demirci arrived hoping to take her normal train to her childcare job in Falls Church, Virginia. She looked disbelievingly at the sign and said: "I don't know what to do."

She settled taking a picture of the sign and asking her husband to drive her to work.

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This item has been corrected to show that the Rosslyn Metro station is just over the Potomac River from Washington, not from Arlington, Virginia.

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4:25 a.m.

An unprecedented daylong shutdown of the Washington area's Metro subway system will force commuters to spend a day without their most reliable form of transportation — and the source of their constant complaints.

Ridership on Metro has dipped as the system's reliability has deteriorated, and gripes on social media occur daily.

Still, more than 700,000 people hop on the trains every day because it's still the best way to get downtown from Maryland, Virginia and the city's outer neighborhoods. On Wednesday, they won't have that option.

The nation's second-busiest transit system was shut down at midnight Tuesday for a system-wide safety inspection of its third-rail power cables, prompted by a series of electrical fires. It will reopen at 5 a.m. Thursday unless inspectors find an immediate threat to passenger safety.