Metro Fail
I left my MARC Transit Link Card at home today (it had become demagnetized for Metro use already earlier this month) so I had to buy a Metro farecard when I got to Union Station today.
I went ahead and put $6 on the card and ended up missing the first Red Line train out of Union Station toward my transfer destination of Gallery Place because of an especially challenged Metro customer trying to use the farecard machine.
The next train, also a 6-car one, was showing 8 minutes on the sign on the platform. The next train after that one was also listed as a 6-car train with 10 minutes between the next train and it. The platform was like a sauna. I didn’t make the train after the 8 minute wait because it was short and because of a few stubborn passengers who didn’t move out of the way of boarding passenger.
It looked like I was going to be leaving Union Station a lot later than usual but then all of a sudden an 8-car train showed up on the board with a 3 minute wait (3 mins after the last one and 7 minutes before the next one.) It was virtually empty when it got there and still empty enough that everyone boarding could have sat down. Of course, we waited a good 4-5 minutes on the platform before finally leaving.
I finally left Union Station’s Metro platform at 6:47, a good 20 minutes after my MARC train got there.
When I got to King St. to walk to work, I had fun waiting on the station manager who was dealing with the usual summer morning tourists having trouble with the farecard machine. I had to wait for him because my brand new farecard just purchased at Union Station, was telling me to see Station Manager and wouldn’t let me leave. He tried to fix it a couple of times and finally let me walk out the gate and told me to try it again later and if it didn’t work I’d have to go get a refund (which means I’d have to buy a new farecard if I absolutely had to have one.)
I’m glad I take VRE in the afternoons to get back to Union Station. This situation with longer headways and shorter cars around the 6:30 a.m. timeframe on the Red Line at Union Station was going on well before the wreck last week.
I’m wondering why people paying for Rush Hour service at that time of the morning aren’t getting it.