Rats are popping up throughout the Metrorail system. No, they’re not scampering underfoot or between the rails. These rats are on posters lining train and station walls that urge riders to follow the law: no eating or drinkinganywhere in the system.
Coming with the posters are transit police ready to hand out fines up to $100 for anyone caught munching or gulping on a train or in a station, a Metrorail spokeswoman said.
She would not say how many more transit police will patrol the system.
The posters depict a medium-sized sewer rat ostensibly asking riders, “You gonna eat that?”
A message beneath the image reminds riders that Metro’s strict enforcement keeps Washington’s trains free from the rodent menace that plagues the rails in other cities, which, the poster says, will remain nameless.
Transit police have issued 29 citations for eating and 21 for drinking so far this year, a spokeswoman said. They also have issued 211 warnings for eating and 119 for drinking. About 131.5 million people ride the rails each year.
Citations are a criminal charge, while warnings are not.
If a rider doesn’t comply with a warning, an officer can issue a citation. If the rider continues to eat or drink, he can be arrested. Officers can skip the warning and go straight to the citation, too.
In October, a Metrorail spokesman told The Examiner a public education campaign would kick off later in the year to address the safety and health concerns that come with food and drink on the trains.
The spokesman also said the crackdown would not include a repeat of the 2000 incident in which a 12-year-old District girl was arrested for eating a french fry, fingerprinted and held in custody at a juvenile detention center for three hours.
The girl’s case eventually reached the U.S. District Court of Appeals in D.C., where Judge John Roberts — the future Supreme Court chief justice — wrote the majority opinion upholding the arrest as constitutional and affirmed Metro’s legal right to ban food and drink.
