Commuter Dispatch: Red Line Teamwork

WHEN WE TRAVEL during rush hour, we get annoyed like everyone else when the doors on a train car are having trouble closing -- whether because of human error (commuters/tourists) or a mechanical malfunction. Red Line commuter Mary Ann Hillier sends us a Commuter Dispatch from a long, ugly commute Wednesday morning that in the end, fortunately, put a smile on her face. If only all such situations ended like that:

The morning commute was not going well. Ever since the Grosvenor-Strathmore station, the train operator had asked riders to stop blocking the doors. Yet at every stop we were delayed, even after she had warned us if we didn't let the doors close she was going to offload the train. She finished with, "The next stop is Friendship Heights, the first stop in the District, and if you don't want to ride this train, that would be a great place to get off. Trains are piling up behind us."

Incredibly, the doors were again blocked at the next station, and the next, and the next. Suddenly the train operator announced just a bit sheepishly that Central Control was telling her a door was sticking and asked if we could all look around for the problem door. Seated in the last car I spied a safety-vested Metro worker making his way through the crowd going from door to door. He came back to the intercom and told the operator the doors in the last car were working.

He then begin to describe, to no one in particular, the problems that "The 5000 series" of trains was having versus the others, how he had been trying to catch a nap but when he heard the operator he had to get up and help her out. "I've worked on all these cars; know 'em like the doctor knows your body. We got to help each other out, you know?" Frowns were now smiles and many wished him well as the train pulled into Farragut North. The problem may not have been solved, but his caring made a difference.

We're curious how a reader quoted yesterday who said Metro "could get rid of the useless little booths where the Metro people nap and get real security" would react in such a situation.

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Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post

Posted By Michael Grass at 11:03 AM on May 25, 2006 Tagged in Free Ride , Red Line

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