Here was the scene this afternoon at Metro Center as I transferred to the Red Line from the Orange at rush hour: delays on the Glenmont side, platform filling to capacity, signs giving no train arrival times, with no announcements over the PA system. After a few minutes of waiting, the train labels changed to the dreaded "-- TRAIN", which could mean out-of-service ghosts, or no train at all. Estimated arrival times started to appear which exceeded the amount of time it would have taken me to walk home from Metro Center. Next train expected in nine minutes, next one after that in 16, and the platform continued to fill up with harried travelers. Judging from the crowd, no way I would be able to cram myself into either train. All the while, still no announcements from station managers.

So I left the station and walked home. Ten minutes later, from home, I checked out WMATA to see what was up, and was greeted with, what else, “There are no service alerts at this time.” Hard to believe.

Great work, Metro. Nice to see the added revenue from all that advertising finally kicking in, eh? How much did you spend on those station performers again?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Paulo Ordoveza

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.