Metro Doesn’t Open Doors

Photo courtesy of
‘no-one’
courtesy of ‘cacophony76’

Another scary Metro-related story in the Washington Post today!  On Friday, a train malfunctioned and was taken out of service and all passengers were ordered off the train.  A few passengers couldn’t get out in time though, and they were trapped inside the train for several stations with the lights turned out and no way to escape.

The three women who were trapped tried the red emergency button to contact Metro (to no avail), and they pounded on the windows while screaming for help at every station that the train passed through. They eventually caught the eye of a Metro employee at Metro Center, who helped get them out.  It’s hard to imagine that this could happen, and I hope Metro is taking steps to make sure that other passengers don’t get trapped on ‘No Passenger’ trains in the future.

Shannon grew up in the greater DC area/Maryland suburbs, went to Virginia for college and grad school (go Hoos!), and settled in DC in 2006. She’s an urban planner who loves transit (why yes, that is her dressed as a Metro pylon for Halloween), cities, and all things DC. Email her at Shannon (at) WeLoveDC.com!

3 thoughts on “Metro Doesn’t Open Doors”

  1. It seems some Train Operators seem to be in a hurry to close the doors. They will close doors to soon, not giving enough time for people to board or exit.

  2. I thought they usually do a sweep of the train to make sure that no one is still on when they take a train out of service? I’ve seen this happen at the Convention Center stop when taking the yellow line. Shouldn’t that be standard?

  3. I’ve seen this happen a couple of days ago at the Convention Center stop. There wasn’t much time and the woman inside the train looked confused.