With less than four weeks to go before the Yellow Line is extended from Mt. Vernon Sq. to Fort Totten WMATA has started adding new maps and signs, 5,000 of them, to the system. The new service begins December 31:

The Metro Board in April agreed to extend the Yellow Line from Mt. Vernon Sq/7th Street-Convention Center to the Fort Totten Metrorail station during off-peak hours (weekdays, 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., 7 p.m. to closing, and weekends) as part of the 18-month pilot. The District of Columbia will cover the $5.75 million cost of expanding service.

By extending the Yellow Line to Fort Totten, passengers traveling beyond the Mt. Vernon Sq/7th Street-Convention Center Metrorail station to the Shaw-Howard U, U St/African-Amer Civil War Memorial/Cardozo, Columbia Heights and Georgia Ave-Petworth Metrorail stations will have additional off-peak rail service. Weekday off-peak service between these locations, which is every 12 minutes, will operate every six minutes. On week nights after 7 p.m., and on the weekends when trains run every 15 to 20 minutes, trains will operate every 7 ½ to 10 minutes.

In other words, in the early afternoons, late evenings, and weekends, Ben’s Chili Bowl is being served by twice as many trains. Perhaps the Yellow Line will start getting a little more respect now.