Metro in DC is having some serious problems. I went to CUA yesterday morning; on my way back home, my trip on the train was about forty-five minutes for what should have been a ten minute ride. Apparently (from what the announce at the station said), there was some sort of emergency situation: a crack had been found on the track, and Metro was fixing it. This caused them to single track the line between three stations. Several people on the train were annoyed, but I was surprised that no one was actually doing any cussing. They were calmer about it than one would have expected. And I saw several people helping each other out throughout the ordeal. For example, a few people didn’t have cell phones, but needed to make a call to let someone know they will be late. I saw the people next to them would lend them theirs. One guy, who I think was foreign, even had the person make them call for him and tell the person on the other line what was happening. I was surprised — but also pleased — to see how people were dealing with the situation.
Interestingly enough, Metro was telling people on the news, later that day, that they are going to have to deal with track repairs soon, and what happened to me was going to have to become a more common occurance when they do so. It made me wonder if the track work which delayed me was really an emergency, or a test to see what they can get away with.
