WASHINGTON — A deer apparently jumped over a fence onto the Red Line tracks near Silver Spring, Maryland, and Metro workers stopped train service to try to shoo it out through a fence opening toward the end of Friday morning’s rush hour.
Metro service was disrupted for more than three hours as Metro dealt with the wayward deer.
Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said the deer had been wandering around on the tracks for about an hour unable to get out when Metro decided to cut power to the tracks so workers could attempt to channel the deer out an opening.
Initially, trains were delayed by the deer beginning just before 9 a.m. Metro shut down service between Silver Spring and Forest Glen around 9:45 a.m., Stessel said, although Metro did not say that service was completely suspended until close to 10:30 a.m.
Stessel said that workers could not find the deer after about an hour with power down, so Metro began to restore power and run test trains through the area just before 11 a.m.
Once the deer was found, transit police managed to get the deer off Metro’s right of way at 11:55 a.m.
“Officers exercised incredible restraint to guide the deer to a gate along the fence and off the property,” Stessel wrote in an email.
Red Line trains in the area were already running less frequently than usually scheduled due to 24/7 track work.
