Dear Reader(s),
The post you were going to get today was set to be grand. It was supposed to have it all; intrigue, drama, excitement, adventure, romance, et al. Your beloved IronCityspy woke up early this morning to ensure the dozen or so of you would have a brand new entry to greet your day. Then this happened:
Typical day on the Red Line
Thankfully I was able to save a transcript of this morning:
8:25 a.m [IronCityspy]: “What a glorious Winter morning! [checks watch] Aces, I’ll be 10 minutes early for work today! [Begins to whistle].
8:31 a.m. [IronCityspy enters Dupont Metro, all escalators are broken]: “Well this is highly irregular… I am sure this is just some sort of preventative maintenance for all of our safety!”
8:33 a.m. Metro leaves Dupont Station en route to Shady Grove
835 a.m. Metro arrives at Woodley Park
836 a.m. Metro abruptly stops in-between Woodley Park and Cleveland Park. [Train conductor]: “We’ll be moving shortly — there is a small issue on the track ahead”.
8:45 a.m. [Train conductor, shouting]: “THERE IS A SITUATION AHEAD. WE NEED TO TURN AROUND AND HEAD BACK TO DUPONT. REMAIN SEATED!!!”. Fellow passengers appear to either be praying or making some sort of final preparations.
8:48 a.m. Train safely arrives at Dupont Station. [Train conductor]: “This train will continue on to Shady Grove. Do not leave train”. [New passengers heading in the direction of Shady Grove pile on].
8:53 a.m. [Train Conductor] “Attention passengers, this train is headed towards Glenmont. All headed to Shady Grove please disembark”
8:54 a.m. [IronCityspy has aneurysm]
So if you are keeping count at home, DC’s public transportation took 30 minutes to get me to the exact spot I started from. And what was the issue that caused the the train conductors to prepare for the rapture? Why a small insulator fire on the track. I don’t even know what a metro insulator is, but I am willing to bet my life wasn’t exactly hanging on the precipice.
Metro, as a rule I try not to complain about you too much. I knew when I signed up to live here that I’d be dealing with the clown college of the urban transportation systems. But you caused my beloved readers to miss out on a masterpiece — something I can not forgive.
-IronCityspy
I’m sure the conductor learned to shout vague warnings over the PA system in an extensive crowd control training session on how not to start a panic.
Let me just frame this in that I take great joy in your blog. I always find it to be an entertaining read and there are always great ideas for new places to try out and see! That being said, isn’t it a little insensitive to be posting a picture of a Metro collision where several people were killed, injured and buried alive for hours with the caption of “Typical Day on the Red Line”?
Like I said, I truly enjoy your blog and your writing. And I definitely don’t want to be some sort of instigator, I just wanted to share my thoughts…
Hi D,
Thanks for the comment. Yea, I thought that before I posted the picture and I think you have a valid point. However, I think the real issue is Metro continues to have fatalities and doesn’t really seem to be making any sort of forward momentum. Until such time, I think it’s fair game to continue using dramatic images of their incompetence.
I hope you keep reading though.