UPDATE 2:25 p.m. Finally, the poop is gone – some four days after its arrival. Virginia Railway Express spokesman Mark Roeber told The Washington Examiner that the feces at the Franconia-Springfield station had been removed as of 2 p.m.
A team of Metro maintenance workers removed the feces with a power washer, with VRE crews watching, he said.
And, he said, it turns out the area of the stairway was Metro’s turf, not VRE’s.
“It doesn’t mean we wouldn’t have done it, but they had power washers out,” he said.
***
Promises, promises. The fecal mess at the Franconia-Springfield Metro and Virginia Railway Express station is still there.
The Washington Examiner reported that a rider had been complaining about a pile of human feces in the pedestrian bridge between the Metro and VRE sections of the station. The Metro station manager told him it wasn’t Metro’s problem as the bridge belonged to VRE.
After contacted by The Washington Examiner, both agencies pledged on Wednesday to clean it up immediately. Metro said they got there first and took care of it.
But Austin Lasseter said it was still there Wednesday evening — AND Thursday morning (click photo on right to see more of what he documented). It was clear someone had come by to attempt clean it up, though, he said. A yellow alert cone was left there in the stairwell. “But at least they put a cone. That makes it all better,” he said.
“That’s very disappointing,” said Metro spokesman Dan Stessel when told of the unresolved problem.
VRE spokesman Mark Roeber again pledged that it would be cleaned up by 11 a.m.
(And for those who asked how do we know it’s human feces? Well, we have been assured that’s what it was by those who are familiar with the issue. On this front, we will trust but not verify.)
