Two Metro Stories

Those of you living outside of the Washington DC area may not be aware that bloggers living in the DC area are required to write at least two posts a year about Metro, the public transit system that can be great some days and not so great on others.

On Wednesday, trains were packed due to a disabled train causing delays for riders on three separate lines. As a result of the overcrowding, one of the doors on my train was unable to close. The driver made an announcement warning passengers that he would unload the train if the door could not be closed. No one likes to be offloaded. Sure enough, 30 seconds later, the driver sent us to our rooms, I mean, announced that the train was out of service. As we offloaded the train, the driver reversed course and announced doors closing. Some people rushed back on the train while others (like me) were stuck on the platform. Essentially, the driver eased the overcrowding by pretending that everyone had to get off the train. I'd never seen this before. Pretty sneaky (and surprisingly effective).

When you go through the Metro gate, you are able to see the amount of money on the person's fare card that went through the gate before you. I always look at this to ensure that my card actually worked (you can see the balance change from their card to your card meaning that the system successfully read the card). However, I rarely notice the actual amount of money on someone's card...until Monday. The person in front of me had a balance of $896 on her card. That is insane! Why so much? Put that money in a bank or invest these funds in gold or stocks or something. Please note that I'm sure that this amount was automatically added over months or years from the employer. I guess that means this person rarely if ever uses Metro. She really should sell her card and get a new one.

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