How Messed Up Was The Red Line This Morning?

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by Prince Of Petworth August 18, 2016 at 8:56 am 12 Comments

union station
Photo by Liz Sablich

Liz writes around 8:30am: “The line to get INTO metro at union station. Can’t imagine what it’s like on the platform.”

Earlier in the morning Red Line trains were single tracking at Woodley Park for unplanned maintenance.

RedLineRider

It’s been like that for a few days. Three of the four escalators on that side of the station are broken, so there’s just the one entrance/exit. The platform itself is fine.
- Dave
  
  This drives me nuts. Besides wasting everyone’s time, it seems like such a safety issue. Metro clearly does not care.
- Zora
  
  It seems like they aren’t working on all three of the broken escalators simultaneously, so why can’t they at least let us use one or two of them as stairs?
  - Interested bystander
    
    I believe that escalator handrails do not meet the requirements needed for a (non-moving) staircase.
    - oh2dc
      
      That may be true, but I doubt that came into their logic here. If it did, then for any non-running escalator, they would fence off the top and bottom.
F ST NE

It’s been worse….the line to get into Union Station was terrible because the escalators are being repaired. It’s been like that all week. Wait for the train was no worse than normal….
Belinskaya

The Union Station line is just because the escalators are jacked.

Red line in general was normal – a downed train at Forest Glen causing delays getting trains into the city from the Glenmont side. You know, normal.
jumpingjack

I managed to squeeze onto a train at Takoma at about 8:45, but the next downtown-bound trains were 11 and 18 minutes away.
AJ

Got on at Woodley around 8:15 – no waiting for a train. Next trains looked to be about 6 and 10 minutes out.
asdfas

When the lines are that long because of broken elevators/closed stairs, I would assume it is equally difficult to get out of the station. Isn’t that a fire code violation?
Girl on a Hill

I was in this line at around 8:00 am this morning. The platform was fine – lighter than normal if anything! Also, the escalator construction has been happening for a few weeks now however this was the first day there was a line for me.
jenster8dc

“Unplanned maintenance” is one of my favorite WMATA euphemisms. That, and “continuing to improve.” HA. HA. HA.

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