WTOP NEWS: Get your champagne and noisemakers ready — it’s almost time to ring in 2024. But to help with celebrations, here’s what you need to know about closures around the D.C. area on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
Travel and transit
Metrorail will run on New Year’s Eve from 7 a.m. until 2 a.m., giving riders an extra two hours. On New Year’s Day, trains will run on a Sunday schedule from 7 a.m. to midnight. The ongoing closures on the Red Line will remain in effect.
Metro is also running buses 24/7 for those celebrating late into the night.
In Virginia, there will be no VRE service on Sunday or Monday. The Fairfax Connector will offer Sunday service both on New Year’s Eve and on Monday. On New Year’s Day, some ART buses are running with reduced service available on lines 41, 42, 45, 51, 55 and 87. All other ART routes won’t operate. DMV locations are closed for the holiday.
In Maryland, MARC will offer regular weekend service on Sunday but no trains will run on Monday. TheBus in Prince George’s County isn’t offering service on New Year’s Day. MDOT’s Motor Vehicle Administration is closed from Saturday through Monday.
There’s a couple of changes on the roads that drivers should plan around. Many roads that typically have reversible lanes on weekdays will stick with two-way traffic Monday, like on a weekend. Rock Creek Parkway and Canal Road are among the roadways impacted.
HOV rules don’t apply on many roadways in the D.C. region, including the HOV lanes outside of the express lanes on Interstate 395.
But the rule isn’t tossed out across the board — HOV requirements apply on Route 50 and Interstate 270 in Maryland.
Drivers on the express lanes in the Interstate 95 corridor, Interstate 66 and on the Beltway in Virginia still need to meet the requirement of three or more people to ride for free.
Trash pickup
In D.C., trash collections scheduled for Monday will slide to Tuesday, Jan. 2.
There’s no change to trash pickup in Fairfax County, Virginia, but the recycling and disposal centers at I-66 Transfer Station and the I-95 Landfill Complex will close at 2 p.m. on Sunday and remain closed through the holiday. In Arlington, trash won’t be picked up New Year’s Day; the schedule shifts by one day for all routes.
In Prince George’s County, Maryland, there will be no trash collected including organics (ex: food scraps, yard trimmings) and bulky trash on Monday — regular collections start back up a week later on Jan. 8. In Montgomery County, there’s no trash and recycling collection on Monday and pickups the rest of the week slide by one day. The Shady Grove Transfer Station and Recycling Center will close early at 3 p.m. on Dec. 31 and remain closed on Jan. 1.
Other local closures
On Sunday, Dec. 31, and Monday, Jan. 1:
- Post offices are closed.
- Local schools are closed.
- Public libraries are closed.
- Most banks are closed. Contact your bank branch for more details.
- Monday, Jan. 1 is a county government holiday in many jurisdictions in the D.C. area, including:
