An Updated List of Washington DC Metro Rail Stations Which Exhibit Mechanical or Other Difficulties, Infrastructural Issues, and otherwise Poor Conditions
Last Update: 05/16/2019
This list is intended to provide a consolidated reference to a series
of posts, messages, and other observations as to mechanical failures and
other defects observed at Washington DC Metro Rail stations.
For discussions pertaining to cellular coverage issues in Metro's
underground stations and tunnels, please click on the specific carrier
(links immediately below) for listings of their known coverage issues with
Metro.
Tell your elected officials what you think!
Use LobbyByFax(sm) to instantly send a free fax from the web to your elected Congressional and State-wide representatives supporting telecommunications, Internet net-neutrality, transportation and other issues! Some of the current LobbyByFax alerts include: For a complete list of all current LobbyByFax alerts, please visit the Interpage LobbyByFax.com site and click the start button on the main page, or click here for a summary page. |
General:
For being situated in one of the wealthiest and most highly trafficked areas in the entire country, Washington DC Metro stations tend to suffer a disproportionate amount of mechanical, electrical and other types of failures.
For example, it is common not only for escalators at a given station to malfunction but for the breakdown to go untreated for hours at a time. Commuters are then forced to walk on the escalator for long distances.
On other occasions, the station's air conditioning system may malfunction. On such occasions, rather than fixing the system, station personnel frequently place large fans on the platform in a crude attempt to compensate for the lack of circulating cool air when common sense suggests they would likely spend less time alerting repair technicians of the problem and promulgating a real solution.
Cited below are occasions when these and other types of mechanical or electrical failures occur. Where possible, they are substantiated with photographs to demonstrate the failure.
Ordering Note: The following list is organized alphabetically: first by line and then by the given stations on that line.
Please feel free to submit your experiences with Washington DC's Metro system which are of a specific nature relevant to this list, so that we may provide a more comprehensive and complete listing of similar problems. Contact information for this list isprovided at the end of this page.
Additionally, if you feel that an item is incorrect, please let us know
the specifics of your experiences in the given station and/or with the
given issue so we can verify and, if needed, update the list accordingly.
Disclaimer/Note: The authors have no
relationship with Washington DC Metro Rail other than as customers.
Although it is uncertain how the staff of each given train station can
permit such flagrantly poor conditions to exist, the primary objective of
this list is to document problems that occur and encourage these matters
to be corrected via this public forum.
Mechanical Failures by Rail Line
The air conditioning system at DuPont Circle appears to be inoperative;
although the vents do seem to circulate air with a sufficient degree of
force, the air conditioning system does not appear to be cooling the air,
and instead simply either recycles the station's own air or blows in warm
air from the surface but has no cooling effect whatsoever. This issue was
also reported to James from Metro on 08/04/2011.
Additionally, on 08/03/2011, two escalators were out of service at the
north entrance, leaving only one escalator in service, yet that escalator
was set to operate only in the down position, leaving existing passengers
with no choice to make a 200+ ft. climb. This had been going on for
approximately two hours without any intervention from staff at the DuPont
Circle station, which happens to be one of DC Metro's busiest stations,
yet no one had the presence of mind to reverse the one functioning
escalator so that it would operate in an upward direction. Also reported
to John from DC Metro on 08/04/2011. As of November 2012, there has been
much repair work done which has corrected this issue.
At the southbound Dupont entrance (below), the two down escalators continue
to not function, which has been the case for the past few weeks.
Corrected Items
Contacting WirelessNotes.org
We may be reached via:
Back to Main Wireless Notes Page
Last modified and ©: 05/16/2019
08/04/2011
01/03/2017 - Is there a cardiologist in the station??! Van Ness/UDC UP
escalator broken but DOWN still running - it's a long climb up!