Not a Good Red Line Day

IMG_2272.JPG Double rush hour whammy on the Red Line tonight:

  1. Track flaws on a 39-foot section of rail necessitate reduced speeds between Medical Center and Friendship Heights, causing a mild cascade of delays in both directions.
  2. More urgently, smoke in Union Station prompted an evacuation and closure in both directions, with shuttle buses being called in between Judiciary Square and New York Ave stations.

I got to Metro Center around 6:30PM, saw the trains backed up and the platforms getting crowded, and opted to try and catch a bus home. Murphy’s Law kicked in as soon as I got to E Street, just in time to see my bus leave the station, crammed full — so I set out on foot, having to switch sides almost every other block for one “Sidewalk Closed” construction sign after another, and catching pretty much every Don’t Walk pedestrian light between Metro Center and Capitol Hill.

I eventually made it home, passing one of Metro’s backup shuttle buses at Judiciary Square, crammed full of cross-looking commuters, its LCD sign naturally saying “NOT IN SERVICE.”

Good luck and godspeed tonight, Red Line riders. I hope you can all make it home speedily.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Roving Asian mendicant, can occasionally be seen wandering the streets of downtown Washington, muttering unintelligible gibberish to passers-by while pushing a “bag lady” shopping cart full of old blankets, American flags, soda cans, and healthy secondhand snacks from organic food shop dumpsters. Used to live in a cardboard box at 16th and K but the rent was too expensive.

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