"I knew something was up," reports one disgruntled rider. "The conductor was in the middle of announcing the transfers at Metro Center, you know, 'Transfer to the blue line trains in the direction of...' and then she said 'uuuhhh' and stopped talking. Half my train's doors were not opening to the platform."
After several minutes of deliberation, the conductor came back to the loudspeaker to inform customers that the train would not be serving Metro Center after all.
"I was more than a little shocked," says Jackie Pearce of Silver Spring. "Though in retrospect, I guess I shouldn't have been. I mean, if wet leaves can cause catastrophic red line delays, and the orange line--don't get me started on the orange line, then I should not be surprised to learn that metrorail cars don't go backwards."
The Metro Board of Directors is considering various solutions, including but not limited to:
- a fare hike of $0.60 per ride to pay for a study that would document the environmental impact and consumer cost for installing reverse functions on all trains
- horse-drawn trains, which would be infinitely easier to reverse
- installing automatic transmissions on all trains--because, you know, when you let off the clutch you roll backwards sometimes. Oh shoot, unless you roll forward. I guess it would work if they park on a hill...
- hiring competent metrorail drivers
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