Metro Briefing for the One-day Tourist

There are only 5 lines, which are named as colors.  Here's a map.

 

Trains are labeled by their ending station.  Some lines share the same track for parts of their journey.  The touristy stops are Smithsonian for the museums (yes there are several), McPherson Square to get to the White House, and Capitol South to see the Capitol building.

On escalators stand to the right so others can walk on the left.  Let people off the trains before you get on.  Don't hover at the bottom of escalators or in the way of train doors.

I'm about to provide this advice to a friend who has about 5 hours to kill in the city today.  Anything else I should share?

Metro Song

To those of you who ride regularly, the new Metro Song covers many of our annoyances about metro and our fellow riders.  This video is from the same guy who gave us the Arlington Rap.  I couldn't stop laughing and I fully expect today's productivity to be inhibited by this video. 




You can find him on twitter @goremy and online at goremy.com

Special Hours

This weekend I traveled out to FedEx Field to see the Virginia Tech / Boise State football game.  (For the record I didn't go to either school, but I love college football.)  I went with some VT alumni who decided to metro out to the game.  It was my first time taking this on for an event like this, and I learned a few things.

FedEx Field, after walking a mile from the metro

Moving Through the Faregates

If you're a regular metro rider, you may have noticed by now there's a slight delay in the gates reading your SmarTrip card.  This can dismally affect your typical routine of tapping and walking without slowing down, causing longer lines to exit the station.  After seeing some people slam into the gates and emerge stunned by this slight delay, I thought we could share some tips to keep the line moving.