Red Line riders were frustrated Friday morning when a sick passenger put rush-hour service at a standstill, but statistics show the situation is not uncommon.
Sick passengers accounted for 16 percent of all major service disruptions in February, the most recent month for which data are available.
Because Metro has only two tracks, a stopped train automatically causes a standstill on the line in the direction the train was traveling, or causes delays in both directions if the agency decides trains traveling in both directions will share one track.
Metro’s rules dictate that when a passenger falls ill while on a train, the operator must stop the train at the nearest station, notify the operations control center, and investigate the situation.
“If the train operator, station manager, or metro transit police officer determine they can remove the customer and the customer is coherent, they will take the customer off the train to the platform,” Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said.
“If it’s a situation where the person is nonresponsive to questions, we’re going to call emergency medical services,” he said. In Friday’s incident, a woman aboard a six-car Red Line train to Glenmont fell ill when the train pulled up to the Farragut North station at 8:35 a.m.
Taubenkibel said he did not know the details of her illness, but said she had to be removed by D.C. emergency medical services and transported to George Washington University Hospital. D.C. EMS arrived at 8:50 a.m. and Metro resumed normal service at 8:53 a.m., he said. In the case of a less serious illness, such as if a customer vomits, the Metro can keep trains moving, Taubenkibel said.
“If there are bodily fluids, we could just simply isolate that car and remove the passengers from it, and keep the train moving until it gets to the end of the line and can be cleaned,” he said.
Metro Deputy General Manager Gerald Francis said last month that officials cannot control how frequently service is disrupted due to sick passengers and are focusing on fixing the other disruptive issues.
Door malfunctions were responsible for 28 percent of major service delays in February, brake malfunctions and problems with the automatic train control system were each responsible for 25 percent, and miscellaneous factors were responsible for 6 percent, according to Metro statistics.
