[www.washingtonpost.com]

Red Line riders, who flirted with SafeTrack single-tracking for three weeks in August, are in for a real challenge: the next surge, which begins Saturday, will shut down service along a critical corridor of Metro’s busiest line, the biggest test so far in the yearlong repair program.

Surge #10 will suspend service between NoMa-Gallaudet and Fort Totten stations, impacting an estimated 200,000 daily rush-hour trips for 25 days. Officials say it will snarl travel from end-to-end, shuttering two stations in Northeast for nearly a month and drastically reducing service elsewhere on the Red Line.

Officials warned Wednesday that the surge’s impact will ripple throughout the line — not just in the vicinity of the repairs, which continue through Nov. 22.............................