Monday Morning on Metro

Another fun Monday morning for transit, and by “fun” I mean “not fun” — and on Car Free Day too!

At around 8:20 AM, a train with mechanical difficulties caused delays on the Orange Line in the direction of New Carrolton. Around the same time a switch problem backed up the Shady Grove-bound Red Line. Trains were holding for 10-15 minutes (an eternity in transit terms) at stations from Farragut North upward, and platforms packed quickly with rush hour crowds. Right now a “situation that has now been resolved” (earlier, a “sick customer”) at Rosslyn has left residual delays on the Blue and Orange Lines, which are still slowed by the earlier rush hour backup.

To Metro’s credit, once the switch malfunction between Farragut North and Metro Center was resolved, the Red Line got back into a smooth flow pretty quickly, and we had no problems transferring to an Orange Line train afterward.

To cap it off, a friend informs me that MARC trains on the Penn Line were delayed by a conductor suffering a heart attack and needing evac at Bowie State station.

Did the delays hit you on your morning Metro ride? Leave a comment.

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.

3 thoughts on “Monday Morning on Metro

  1. Out of town so I didn’t take Metro this morning, but no eAlerts on either Metro incident. The agency REALLY can’t get this system working.

  2. Nope, no alerts. I was trapped on the blue line and made it to work about an hour late — on the way to Farrugut North we, for no discernible reason, had to exit the train at Arlington Cemetary and wait (only about 10 minutes, to their credit) to pile on the next one. The looks of horror on the people already riding that next train WERE priceless, however.

  3. Their issue seems to be a general communications one, not just eAlerts – I’m supposed to get metro related updates through another system run by my employer, but I got nothing from them either. I presume that’s because my employer’s system received no information from WMATA…