The Commute ...

My normal commute to work involves walking past one house to get to Connecticut Avenue; crossing the six lanes of traffic on Connecticut; walking about 200 metres down to the bus stop; waiting for 0 - 5 minutes for the bus; generally getting a seat but sometimes standing for the 10 minute ride to Friendship Heights metro station; walking down into the station; usually getting onto the train within 1 - 2 minutes; usually sitting for the 20 minutes ride into Metro Central station; and the 5 block walk up to the corner of L and 14th Streets. Forty minutes is typical but has been down to thirty minutes on a good day.

Coming home is usually a bit slower as tend to be more in peak period - I tend to leave fairly early to get to work to miss the worst of the commute. However yesterday it took me eighty minutes to get home thanks to the poor state of the Washington train system. The red line which we are on seems to be suffering a range of breakdowns at the moment. The farce yesterday involved:

• waiting 10 minutes for the first train
• by which stage the platform was so crowded that I couldn't get on the train
• so I waited another 5 minutes for the next one
• which was a totally empty train that just cruised through
• so I pushed onto the next train which was another 5 minutes away
• where I stood packed in with the other sheep to the next station at Farragut North where even more packed into the train
• until the driver told us that the train was now out of service so we all had to get off
• so I hopped on a train going the other way and went two stations backwards to Chinatown
• where I ran up the escalators and then down another up escalator to get on a train going the right way
• which sat at the station for another 5 minutes
• before slowly making its way again
• and got crowded at Farragut North as all those who were unloaded with me tried to get on
• and I finally made it to Friendship Heights station an hour after entering Metro Central
• and then waited 10 minutes for a bus home ...

Did I mention that it was also mid thirties Celsius and very humid? Was so impressed!!

Malcolm