and i'm autria godfrey.. an historic day for commuters and not in a good way. for the first time-- metro rail service is shut down for the entire day-- in the middle of the week. and that leaves hundreds of thousands people scrambling to get to work, and means more traffic for virtually every other transportation service. here is how other services are reacting this morning. metrobus is operating on a normal schedule, plus limited, supplemental service provided between pentagon and franklin square. vre.. marc... and mta commuter bus service are all operating normally. capital bikeshare is

although usage fees still apply. lyft is offering a 20 dollar discount for first time customers using the "metro-help" code. uber is putting a cap on surge pricing, and is offering a 25 dollar discount for first time customers, using the "metro-dc" code. as for d.c. cabs, they has approved ridesharing from 57 set "taxi stands" across the region. toss to eileen

7am for western md, nw va & eastern panhandle of wv. today: patchy, dense fog early. partly to mostly cloudy. isolated late day showers/t-storms. highs: 70-76 winds: se -> nw 5-10 mph tonight: partly cloudy. lows: 42-49 winds: nw 5 mph thursday: partly cloudy. breezy. isolated showers. highs: 64-69 winds: wsw 10-20 mph turning back to this morning big story-- an historic work-day shutdown

hundreds of thousands of people looking for another way to make it into work. the service stoppage comes days after another fire event in a metro tunnel, and that has metro's g-m very concerned. rich reeve has more on what lead to this drastic decision. and after last year's deadly smoke incident- the n-t-s-b recommended this

incident- the n-t-s-b recommended this type of inspection- saying the transit authority should quote: "promptly develop and implement a program to ensure that all power cable connecter assemblies are properly constructed and installed." that recommendation was made june 8-th of last year. turning to the 2016 presidential race, another big win for hillary clinton. overnight-- the former secretary of state was declared the winner of the illinois democratic primary. she won four of the five states up for grabs tuesday-- padding her lead on senator bernie sanders. the missouri primary is still too close to call this morning. meanwhile-- it's the end of the line for republican senator marco rubio. he suffered a major defeat-- losing in his home state to front-runner donald trump.

their homestate since 1960. not long after-- he thanked supporters for all their hard work. "while it is not god's plan that i be president in 2016 or maybe ever, and while today my campaign is suspended, the fact that i've even come this far is evidence of how special america truly is." we'll have much more on last night's primary results, and the remaining candidates, coming up in just a few minutes. breaking right now-- a university of virginia student-- arrested in north korea, has been sentenced to 15 years in a hard labor camp. 21-year-old otto warmbier was convicted and sentenced after a one-hour trial in north korea's supreme court. he was charged with subversion for trying to steal a propaganda banner while visiting north korea in january. during a tearful statement before his trial-- warmbier says he was paid to steal the banner, and only accepted because of severe financial difficulties.

there is more ahead on this early edition of good morning washington. we continue to follow what figures to be a busy day on the roads, with metro rail service shut down. complete weather & traffic coming up.. in less that three minutes.

dense fog advisory until 7am for western md, nw va & eastern panhandle of wv. today: patchy, dense fog early. partly to mostly cloudy. isolated late day showers/t-storms. highs: 70-76 winds: se -> nw 5-10 mph tonight: partly cloudy. lows: 42-49 winds: nw 5 mph thursday: partly cloudy. breezy. is

metro still ahead and then there were 5..

is bowing out of the presidential race after suffering an historic defeate tuesday. what this means for the rest of the field. not so fast.. forecasters are changing their tune about the peak bloom for d-c cherry blo

up. it's 4:xx. welcome back. a live look at the

non-live banner live rep live banner live bug breaking news right now out of the district.

underway after a man steals a park police car and then crashes it into the 11th street bridge during a pursuit. the suspect is described as armed and dangerous. we don't know the circumstances as to how he stole the cop car - or what lead up to it. the scene of the crash on the 11th street bridge however is now clear. on the morning after some key primaries.. frontrunners donald trump and hillary clinton are celebrating several big victories. meanwhile-- ohio governor john kasich was victorious in his home state. but marco rubio is out of the race, after losing his home-state of florida. abc's marci gonzalez has more. and in missouri-- the primaries there are still too close to call.

call. stay with abc7 for continuing coverage of the race for the white house. for updates anytime, log on to wjla-dot-com. d.c.'s cherry blossoms are now expected to reach peak bloom a little later than expected. the national park service now predicts peak bloom will start march 23rd and 24th. last week, because of the warm weather, the dates were moved up to march 18th through the 23rd. but recent cooler temperatures prompt

abc7 is proud to be a sponsor of this year's cherry blossom festival. at xx time for weather. toss to eileen the big story today is the metro shutdown. many people will be utilizing alternate modes of transportation, so if that means walking or biking, at least it will be mild, but you'll want to stay aware of a few things. for the morning rush, watch out for areas of patchy, dense fog, especially for areas of nw of d.c. otherwise, skies will be mainly clear, so grab the sunglasses. temperatures will be warmer today with highs climbing into the low to mid 70s. a weak front approaching from the west will trigger a few afternoon and evening t-showers, so keep the umbrella handy. also, download the stormwatch7 weather app, so you can track live doppler at your fingertips. tomorrow will be a few degrees cooler, but still mild with highs in the upper 60s. a few isolated showers are possible late in the day, so keep the umbrella handy. cooler air spills in late

highs fall back into the 50s friday and saturday with the upper 40s forecast for sunday. sunday brings a chance for a chilly rain, so keep the rain gear handy and wear a few layers, if you're heading to the d.c. united game at rfk sunday at 5pm. sunday also marks the first day of astronomical spring. the vernal equinox arrives at 12:30am sunday.

it's 4:xx. coming up.. we continue to follow the story

hundreds of thousands of commuters this morning. metro rails shut down-- and thats impacting traffic across the region. complete coverage continues on good morning washington. we'll be right back..

with more on the bus impact, following metro's historic bus impact, following metro's historic announcement. good morning, john? non-live banner live rep live banner live bug it's xx... and there is much more news coming up on good morning washington.

and toss to break.