There was mass D.C. Metro employee confusion Wednesday over using alternate routes during repairs, delaying rush hour commutes and even forcing riders to give directions to Metrobus drivers.
Metro repairs currently include work on the blue line, which is closed going towards Reagan National Airport. Riders said employees seemed uninformed about alternate routes during the maintenance work and described general confusion among workers. Some riders reported giving directions to their Metrobus drivers while other drivers got lost, adding to commute times, according to The Washington Post.
One passenger on a Metrobus reported the driver pulled over at one point, stepped out and began to look around.
“Then he got back on the bus and started asking people if they knew how to get to the airport,” Jerry Freese, a blue line rider, told The Washington Post. “Obviously, they didn’t train the employees.”
Another Metrobus got lost en route to the McPherson square station, adding time to commutes already facing delays from SafeTrack maitinence. Riders questioned the management of the D.C. Metro in light of the seemingly poorly informed workforce. (RELATED: Mechanical Failures Snarl DC Metro Service On Recently Repaired Stretch Of Track)
The current surge of track work is impacting roughly 50,000 riders and is reducing service on Metro lines south of the Pentagon by roughly 50 percent. Metro closed the blue and yellow line tracks between Reagan National Airport and Braddock Road stations Tuesday for Surge 3 SafeTrack repairs, which will end July 11. The blue and yellow lines will then shut down July 12 for a week between Reagan National Airport and Pentagon City, affecting roughly 86,000 riders.
In addition to the full shutdown of rail service between Reagan National Airport and Pentagon City, the Crystal City station will close beginning July 12. Commuters travelling from Virginia are expected to bear the brunt of delays, but the maintenance will impact travel times throughout the Metro system.
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