WASHINGTON — Several dozen Metro riders were stuck on a train rolling through Red Line stops during the Friday evening commute.
Matthew Swanson of Arlington was on the train at Dupont Circle when the train operator announced around 5:40 p.m. that everyone needed to get off because of an equipment problem. While he says people in the other cars did get off the train, several dozen people in his car stayed on because someone near the doors said someone on the platform told them it was okay.
“I’m assuming it was an employee, I mean there were enough people up there that if it weren’t an employee, I would imagine they wouldn’t have been staying on like that,” he says.
Swanson, who says he was also on a train at Foggy Bottom a few months ago when the train doors opened on the wrong side, believes the person on the platform was wearing a white button-up shirt, but could not see whether the person had any Metro gear on.
He says the doors then closed and the train moved through Farragut North and Metro Center stations as he and several other passengers tried to contact the train operator.
“It wasn’t until they passed the next stop that we started thinking, okay, something’s not right here. But there was definitely confusion over what to do,” Swanson said in an interview with WTOP Saturday morning.
A video Swanson recorded shows the operator responding by saying that he told everyone to get off earlier.
A Metro spokesman said they did not have any additional information on the incident Saturday morning when contacted by WTOP.
The train finally stops briefly at Gallery Place, but the doors do not open.
“We thought it was going to stop, and he did, and so everybody you know let go of the hand railing, and then he just immediately started back up again, and there was actually a woman I had to catch her so she wouldn’t fall down,” Swanson says.
A Metro employee in a bright yellow vest gets back to the car before Judiciary Square, where he opens the doors for riders to get off.
Swanson says there was no further explanation, and he got back on a train going the other way to Gallery Place so he could make the transfer he was planning to reach U Street.
“There was no sorry, no explanation of what happened or what should have happened, no attempt to figure out why we were still in the car, nothing” Swanson says.
“It’s a total Metro thing where nobody knows what anybody else is doing and they don’t coordinate things,” he adds.
Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld has said improved communication with riders is one of his priorities after safety and reliability.
Swanson has filed an official complaint through Metro’s online system.
He says he has filed complaints before because he needs Metro to get around.
“I feel like if I keep complaining, maybe they’ll fix it, but I’m not gonna hold my breath on that,” he says.
