Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Overheard on the Blue Line...

I was returning from a Kentucky Derby party a couple weekends ago and am sure I heard the driver announce the following over the PA system:

"This is a Blue Line train to HUNTINGTON."

Hmmmm.... since the Blue Line doesn't GO to Huntington, I can only presume the driver meant to say "Franconia-Springfield" and was confused. OR has Metro begun an experiment, splitting the Blue line such that trains terminate in both places now?

Has anyone heard something similar?

UPDATE: Matt Johnson (of Greater Greater Washington and Track Twenty-Nine fame) provided the answer in reponse to my comment at the bottom of this post. Due to scheduled track work that weekend, all Blue and Yellow Line trains terminated at Huntington. Metro operated a shuttle train from King Street to Franconia-Springfield for those persons traveling to the Van Dorn Street or Franconia-Springfield stations. Thanks, Matt!

1 comment:

  1. A few weekends ago, due to trackwork on the outermost portion of the Blue Line, *all* Blue and Yellow Line trains were operating to Huntington.

    Passengers wishing to travel to Van Dorn Street or Franconia-Springfield had to alight at King Street and board a shuttle train there.

    For a variety of reasons, you can see trains going to strange terminals. Trackwork often causes early termination (Red Line to Friendship Heights) and different ridership patterns like those on the 4th of July can result in very strange patterns.

    The 4th of July, 2009 saw Orange Line trains running from Vienna to New Carrollton *and* Largo. Yellow Line trains ran from Mt. Vernon Sq. to *Franconia-Springfield*. Blue Line trains ran from *Huntington* to *Rosslyn*.

    4 times at the beginning and end of each rush hour, Yellow Line trains leave from or return to Greenbelt. I rode one from Greenbelt earlier this week. This is because those cars are stored at Greenbelt Yard, since Alexandria Yard apparently does not have room.

    ReplyDelete