MetroRiders.Org

This week saw an extraordinary number of break-downs and delays on the Metro. I've been riding the Metro every day for over 7 years, and I can't remember a week being this bad. Every day a car on the line I am on has broken down and had to be offloaded.

Of course I am not so naive to think that any major transportation system is going to be trouble-free. But when the consistency leans towards being broken rather than working, there is a problem.

This morning, a train broke down at National Airport. Our train was offloaded at Pentagon City, and all passengers were told by waving Metro employees to go to the other side of the track, that single tracking was occurring. This was rush hour, so as you can imagine, this single platform was mobbed.

Wouldn't you know it, the next two trains that pulled into the station on the "affected" side, kept right on going, not offloading anyone. Everyone was looking at each other like, "What is going on?". So then, it was a mad rush for everyone to get back to the other side.

To sum up, single tracking never occurred, and now you had two mobbed platforms. The Metro employees that were waving everyone to the other side were nowhere to be seen. Not in the booth, not at the escalators, GONE.

I'm not sure where exactly the problem lies anymore. Is it aging infrastructure and equipment causing all these delays? Is it a total lack of communication and organization that simply makes them seem worse than they are? Is human error making things worse than equipment failure?

Anyway, I'm glad its Friday and I take a few days off from hearing the dreaded, "We regret any inconvenience, and appreciate your patience."