Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

the morning commute

Ah, Metro, how I love thee. Except when I hate thee.

For all its problems, the D.C. Metro system is one of the best ways to get around town, and it’s my preferred way to get to work in the morning.

And then there are mornings like this one.

I was trying to get to work early for a meeting today, so I got to the Ballston Metro about 45 minutes earlier than usual. I was expecting it to be busy, being the tail end of rush hour and all, but I didn’t expect the melee: The mezzanine outside the fare gates was packed, and more folks seemed to be leaving the station than coming in. When I heard a garbled announcement over the loudspeaker about a disabled train and Rosslyn (four stations down the line), I gave up on the train and waited for a bus instead.

The Metro was built with just two tracks on each line — one track going each way — instead of the multiple tracks that systems such as New York City’s have. The result is that a breakdown somewhere on the line causes a ripple effect of delays all along the line. There are a series of cross-over and pull-off points, but it takes time to move the disabled train out of the way and get things moving again. (post.com has a nifty interactive map of the system from 2005 which shows how various delay / disaster scenarios might play out.) And God help everyone if there’s a problem in the Rosslyn tunnel, one of the key bottleneck points between Virginia and D.C.

Anyway, once I got back up to the street, I was too late for the first 38B; the bus was packed and the driver turned away the remaining would-be passengers in line. Then I just missed the ART bus (on the other side of the bus station) that would have taken me to Courthouse, so it was back to waiting for the next 38B.

Updated, 11:37 a.m. — The Post has some details on the morning delays:

Shortly after 8:30 a.m., a six-car Blue Line train also lost power, somewhere between the Rosslyn and Foggy Bottom stations. Details were sketchy, but Smith said passengers had been removed from the train. Significant delays were reported.