Nats and Metro

Washington Nationals

Thanks to my friend Jim, who obtained some killer tickets, I went to my first Nationals game last night: a somewhat thrilling 4-3 victory over Oakland to give the Nats 7 wins in a row! Nationals games are a pretty good time. The crowd is not as voracious as Redskins or O's crowds are, but since the team is so new, the city seems to be trying to find a comfort level with them. In the ninth, the stadium did get very loud as the Nats were urged to close out the game and the series. I think that by the time they move to their new stadium, the team will have crowds that rival the other bigtime teams in terms of numbers and interest level.

Metro

I rode Metro to the game which these days always seems to be a bit of a crap shoot. The Washington Post has been chronicling the difficulties and mismanagement the system faces over the past week. As we left the game and waited for a train on the track and boarded and Orange line train in the direction of Vienna. The train became filled to full capacity as the many thousands of game patrons left the stadium to head home. After sitting on the tracks for about 5 minutes in sardine-esque conditions, an announcement indicated that our train was out of service and everyone on board would have to get off (about 3-5 minutes to unload).

The platform--already full of people waiting for the next train--became dangerously crowded as everyone unloaded from the now out of service train. Everyone waited patiently on the platform for another 5-10 minutes before the out of service train departed. Note: is it just me or doesn't it seem like if the train can depart from the super-crowded station with no one aboard, it would also be capable of departing with everyone on board and just deposit us at a less-crowded station?

After another 3 or minutes or so a new train arrives and we go through the exercise of loading the train again except with 2-3 times as many people trying to board. The train finally takes off and from there the ride is uneventful.

If you take the time to speak with anyone who rides Metro daily, you will find that such occurrences are commonplace. The bride rides Metro every day to and from work and reports such events roughly 25 percent of her rides. I am a proponent of Metro and wish I could take it to work every day. While I do see an effort from Metro to improve facilities and customer service, they are still behind in their efforts. Ignoring obvious problems will not solve them.