Metro Madness

Since my new job is in Rosslyn, I’ve been taking the bus from the Reston South Park & Ride lot to the West Falls Church metro station and then riding the metro in from there to Rosslyn. From there it is only about two blocks to the office. Normally it takes about an hour each way but on Thursday evening it over two hours. Half of that time was spent in the Rosslyn metro station wandering from the upper to the lower platform and back because the metro staff kept giving us conflicting directions.

A train had mechanical problems between Foggy Bottom and Rosslyn and this sent a good chunk of the metro system into near paralysis. It’s a shame because normally the metro has been very efficient and I’ve rarely had to wait for a train more than a few minutes during peak times. But, with only one track in each direction, any problem becomes a systemic problem because there’s no way to route around it without impacting the rest of the system. Had they built the metro with three tracks instead of two problems like this would be much less annoying but they’re obviously not going to retrofit the system.

At least when the company moves to Tysons Corner I’ll be back to a 20 minute each way commute. I’ll miss the reading time, but I won’t miss the crowded trains and the occasional meltdown of the system.