Transit agency defends service
Metro on Monday defended its service — and its decision to continue weekend track maintenance — as hundreds of thousands of riders jammed entryways and platforms during Saturday’s rally with Comedy Central stars Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.
More than 825,400 people rode Metro on rally day, setting a Saturday record. But Metro’s additional 20 trains and 31 employees were not enough, and customers reported lines at farecard machines that extended out the station entrance and platforms so crowded they couldn’t exit the stations.
Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said the agency had prepared its weekend service and decided to keep its track maintenance on schedule during the “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” on the National Mall based on attendance estimates provided by Comedy Central and on ridership during the Aug. 28 competing rallies by Glenn Beck and Al Sharpton. About 510,000 riders were recorded that day.
“We went ahead with track maintenance [because] there was some work that was taking place that was absolutely critical and necessary to complete,” Taubenkibel said. “That work had to go.”
He attributed the especially long delays at farecard lines to the many first-time riders.
“[But] we anticipated crowds … similar to the end of August based on our conversations with the organizers,” he said, adding that Metro had conducted track maintenance during the August rally weekend without major delays.
But riders were not sympathetic. Adam and Jessica Cefai said it took them close to an hour to travel four stops from the Columbia Heights station.
“The line to even get through the turnstiles was backed up to the farecard machines,” Adam Cefai said. “Then when we got off the train we couldn’t even get off the Archives [station] platform, so we turned around … and got off at Gallery Place.”
Frank DeBernardo, chairman of the Metro Riders Advisory Council, said the agency missed an opportunity.
“This was a clutch situation and required really some backup plans that they just didn’t have,” he said.
Taubenkibel said he believed Metro would evaluate its performance and consider alternatives for future events.
The failed suicide attempt Friday occurred just before 8 p.m., according to spokeswoman Angela Gates. Red Line service between Judiciary Square and Dupont Circle was suspended until 9:35 p.m.
The man, whose name is not being released, was taken to a nearby hospital.
At least 15 people have killed themselves on Metro property since the start of last year.
