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

Being an 8pm game on a Monday night (that was really like a Sunday, since it was Labor Day), I wanted to make sure the system would stay open late enough for us to get home.  I went to metro's website and saw a news release with their Labor Day hours, stating "Metrorail will operate on a Sunday schedule (7:00 a.m. to midnight)."  That means the last train at Morgan Boulevard would be at 11:36, most likely while the game was still going on.  Then I found an earlier news release that "Metrorail to stay open an extra hour for Sept. 6 college football game".  I checked my calendar, and Sept. 6 was still Labor Day.  Apparently nobody had coordinated Labor Day hours with football game hours.

I decided the extended hours were actually happening, since I know that special events organizers have to pay metro to make that happen, and metro wouldn't just forget.  So Monday afternoon, we headed out to FedEx field. 

As we were making our way out of the station, metro workers were herding us through the station and onto the sidewalk towards the stadium.  One worker was on her megaphone, announcing repeatedly that the last train that night would be leaving the station at 11:30.  This, of course, is not extended hours.  We just shrugged our shoulders and walked away, but knowing metro, I was a little worried.

We made the mile-long trek to the stadium during which we passed an ice cream truck waiting to serve us, and a woman selling bottles of water off her front porch (for only $1). 

At 11:30 the game was still going.  I looked around at the 91,000 people in the stadium and didn't see a mass exodus to metro.  Either no one else heard the announcements in the station, or they just didn't care.  I was on the not caring side.

Finally after midnight we made our way to the metro (made difficult by the lack of a single sign inside or outside the stadium hinting at what direction that may be).  Lo and behold, trains were running!  And it was after 11:30! 

I ended up on a blue line train and had to transfer to an orange to get back to my car.  I switched at Rosslyn, and two more blue line trains came through before the final orange line of the night.  I heard announcements in the system about trains holding, which I think was to make sure everyone catching trains from the stadium had a chance to transfer to the last trains on other lines.  So, thanks metro for that.  But no thanks for the lack of correct operating time information, either online or via the station manager that afternoon.