‘Warp Speed Captain!’
courtesy of ‘Dan Dan The Binary Man’

TBD reports on an assault that happened on the Red Line Tuesday night on a train at Union Station. A group of teens had been getting increasingly rowdy while preparing to exit the train, and as the train idled, one turned and threw his gallon jug of iced tea into the face of an elderly man seated near the door, breaking his nose.

That’s horrifying enough, but when other passengers attempted to contact the train operator via the emergency callbox, they were told to stop messing around with the callbox. Then a station employee at New York Avenue told the passengers to stop bothering him and use the callbox to contact the operator. You know, the one who had just blown them off. It wasn’t until Rhode Island Avenue that a station manager actually showed any interest in helping, and the injured passenger finally got some help at Takoma Park.

There are very good reasons (like the other trains headed for the station) that train operators are not permitted to take it upon themselves to hold a train, but they definitely ARE supposed to report these incidents to Metro central control so that police response can be coordinated and train holds can be managed by those who can make those decisions.  It’s probably a good idea to keep the Metro Transit Police number in your cell phone in case a cranky employee blows you off in an emergency: 202-962-2121.

Tiffany Bridge

Tiffany Baxendell Bridge is an Internet enthusiast and an incurable smartass. When not heckling the neighborhood political scene on Twitter, she can be found goofing off with her ukulele, Bollywood dancing, or obsessing about cult TV. She is That Woman With the Baby In the Bar.

Tiffany lives in Brookland with her husband Tom, son Charlie, and two high-maintenance cats. Read why Tiffany loves DC.