Metro Madness

I don't understand why this happened today, but I rode the Metro to work, but at Ballston station, they made all the passengers get off the train and stand on the platform. The only problem was the platform was full of people waiting to board the train.  Not like the platform in this photo; imagine the entire area of the station crammed with soaking wet, harried, hurried commuters late for work because the trains were slow.  Then you might have some idea. 

The Orange and Blue lines were single tracking between Farragut West and Smithsonian for track repairs.  That made every other train on those two lines late.  Which meant the train from Vienna, did not leave on time which made people's attitudes get tense, which made them want to cram into the trains as quickly as possible.

One lady in front of me had a broken foot and had just sat down when the operator said "all passengers must leave this train, all passengers must leave this train." I can understand if there was a bomb or something.  But this was just so they could move the train out of the station because they were behind time - at least that's what Metro does most of the time when they empty a train. 

So I got off the train and caught a bus, which took me on a scenic drive through downtown Arlington before reaching the Crystal City Metro station, where I caught the yellow line to work.  Time I left my home: 7:05 am.  Time I got to work: 10:30! Ridiculous.