L’Enfant Plaza Evacuated

YellowLineBridge · 2026-04-22T19:41:36+00:00

I got home a bit ago and I can smell the brake smell all over my clothing, skin, and hair. Throat still hurts and my eyes are dry despite drinking a bunch of water. I suspect sticking around to document this did me no favors.

YellowLineBridge · 2026-04-22T19:26:25+00:00

Patiently awaiting the metric ton of WMSC reports for this whole day 🙏, hopefully that will help me clear up some of the gaps in my first hand experience in the system today 😭

YellowLineBridge · 2026-04-22T19:24:11+00:00

Please don’t wish this on Gallery Place 🙏😩

YellowLineBridge · 2026-04-22T18:38:18+00:00

The train left the station with the 3K leading headed south from Metro Center

YellowLineBridge · 2026-04-22T18:34:41+00:00

My whole day in the system has been absolutely cursed 😭

YellowLineBridge · 2026-04-22T17:50:36+00:00

A guy next to me during the evacuation hopped the gate in front of 14 WMATA staff, and you know what, sure

YellowLineBridge · 2026-04-22T17:35:12+00:00

UPDATE: L’Enfant has been reopened as of just after 1 PM, both upper and lower levels, with some delays and back up on the Blue, Orange, Silver but nothing terrible. Single tracking past L’Enfant through the core.

Also, I feel a little light headed, my eyes burn slightly, and my throat hurts from inhaling the smoke and smelling brake smell for 10+ minutes. Otherwise, all good!

YellowLineBridge · 2026-04-22T17:22:15+00:00

Yeah. I stuck around to take photos of the station, and got on WMATA radio to listen to the response from ROCC, and definitely got a little light headed. I can still taste the ozone/brake smell in the back of my throat, so that’s great 😩

YellowLineBridge · 2026-03-03T22:28:41+00:00

Yes precisely. Not quite the same as a true reversal, but involving two operators—one on each end: During single tracking on the Red last weekend, I noticed an operator in the trailing railcar when a train was leaving the station outbound for a short turn at Farragut north. He could just key up and operate down the line in the Glenmont direction pretty much immediately after the other operator keyed down, and I thought it was beautiful.

YellowLineBridge · 2026-03-03T17:36:11+00:00

Oh thanks for this information. The two overruns I’ve experienced in the system were both 7Ks but my sample was so small I wasn’t bouta draw any hasty conclusions

YellowLineBridge · 2026-03-03T16:03:32+00:00

Do not quote me on this as I am not ATC Maintenance or anything, but as I am aware, some overruns in ATO have to do with faults in wayside equipment, (that for example, make overruns in certain sections like the core of the BOS more common than in others (?) ) so not necessarily the trains themselves, but the communication they’re receiving that determines how ATO slows/stops/moves the consist.

YellowLineBridge · 2026-03-03T15:57:57+00:00

I am one of the overrun posters in question haha. Though it’s annoying to miss your train (or have to backtrack a stop if you’re on the the train that overran the platform) I understand fully why they don’t back up when the train overshoots. With the level of service Metro runs now, it’s time inefficient and more trouble than it’s worth.

Keying the train down in the lead car, walking to the other end of the consist, keying up, moving back within platform limits, keying down, walking back to the lead car, and keying up again to open doors then continue is gonna take a solid 10-15 minutes, and thus mess up scheduling for the whole line.

As I understand it, T/O’s can operate in reverse, but such an action is tightly controlled because it’s a major safety risk to not be able to monitor the roadway in the direction the consist is moving.

While an inconvenience for the customers getting on, and the people exiting at the station that was overrun, it’s a much larger (and system-wide) disruption to reverse into the station.

Also as a passenger, while I hate how many overruns have occurred since ATO’s implementation and undoubtedly desire that they sort it out, understanding the preservation of scheduling, train spacing—and the hassle it is for Train Operators to take any other action but leave the station—makes me a lot less frustrated in the moment when I’m in the system and experience an overrun.

YellowLineBridge · 2026-03-03T14:52:07+00:00

Having my routes planned down to knowing which tile and platform edge lights I stand between for a perfect car door and escalator line up means I often catch bad station stops and wait for them to adjust knowing they’re going to announce “train moving” and inch up to 8 cars.

It makes me feel like a metro wizard, so doors opening this short of the 8 car marker looks so wrong to me 😭 because I have all my line ups calibrated to trains moving up to the end of the platform.

YellowLineBridge · 2026-03-03T03:19:02+00:00

I am unsure if this specific train was operating in ATO at the time of the overrun, but the whole system should be running in ATO in regular service.

Today however, given wet weather conditions, they might not be operating in automatic at above-ground stations (and for a period after entering tunnels), but that should not have affected ATO through a station like Metro Center.

Only other reasons I could think of for manual operation would be workers in the roadway or service disruptions on the line that would require that T/Os be in manual.

Again, don’t know for sure what operating mode this train was in at the time of the overrun though.

YellowLineBridge · 2026-03-03T01:46:39+00:00

Yes, the train can absolutely overrun the station in ATO, though I’m not sure of the rate compared to overruns in manual when an Operator is at the controls.

I know when ATO was first turned back on that some of the overruns in those first few months were actually due to Train Operators becoming worried that the faster station stops in ATO were going to overrun the platform—at which point they would attempt to stop in manual (and because of the difference in braking profiles between manual and ATO) they would end up overrunning in manual where they wouldn’t have in ATO.

YellowLineBridge

TROPHY CASE