Metrorail Trip Report 10/21/06

Ok...today I commuted with my family to downtown Washington for the Cure Autism Now charity walk on the National Mall. Since I had to leave early (I had to work there for community service hours), my dad drove me to the Mall. The walk was nice, and I always feel good after doing charity. Plus, a cool bonus was that I got to meet the goaltender for the Washington Capitals: Olaf Kolzig! That was quite a thrill.

Now for the train part: My dad went to work out, so I went back home with my mom and brother on the Metro. The closest subway station to the walk was L'Enfant Plaza, so we got on the train there. We waited on the northbound (inbound) platform for about four minutes for our Green Line train. We had just missed a Yellow Line train, we could've made it, but my mom and brother don't like to rush for a train. It seemed that trains were infrequent today...don't know why, I didn't hear any Blue or Orange line trains on the lower level of L'Enfant Plaza, and my brother told me he had had to wait 12-13 minutes for his Red Line train from Grosvenor to Metro Center (they had taken the Blue/Orange line to L'Enfant Plaza instead of the Yellow/Green. I had hoped that I might get lucky and that I would be able to ride a new Alstom car! To my disappointment, the train that came was not an Alstom consist, but a six car train of CAF cars. Which was still good, because the CAFs are my favorite cars in the system (excluding Alstoms; I can't say whether I like them or not because I haven't ridden them). The CAFs dominate the Green Line. Our train's interior LED signs were working, which was good because they are not always. We took the trains two stops to Gallery-Place Chinatown and took the escalator to the upper level Shady Grove-bound platform, where we waited about 5 minutes for our Shady Grove train. It was a six car Rohr consist. It was a nice ride, and during my favorite part of the system (the dash between Friendship Heights and Bethesda), the train went so fast I felt like we were being hijacked. It was AWESOME! Trains sometimes break 80 mph easily during that stretch. We got off at Grosvenor and went out to eat, then went home.

Overall, a nice trip. I am disappointed because most of the nice new cars (Breda Rehabs, CAFs, Alstoms) are on all the lines EXCEPT the Red, which is my line, while the Red is always stuck with the old Rohrs and Original Bredas. There are some Breda Rehabs and CAFs on the Red Line, but not nearly as much as the other lines. Oh well, the Red Line is supposed to get some Alstoms soon so that will be good.

Oh wow you rode on the Red. I ride all the way to Shady Gorve during my visits there, and it's also my entry/exit point from the WMATA system for me.

I also like that Flyover right at 495 & 355 where it comes out and flies over the median strip of the Rockville Pike (355) until the downgrade to Grosvenor.

The flyover is cool. You go over that at a pretty good clip.

"njt/mnrrbuff"
The flyover is cool. You go over that at a pretty good clip.

Watching the trains on the flyovers is pretty impressive from the ground as well. There are many examples, my favorites are between D&G junction and Minnesota Avenue, D&G junction and the RFK stadium north parking lot, over the CSX tracks east of Van Dorn Street, the curve south of National Airport and the Alexandria Yard east leads north of Eisenhower Avenue.

The trains don’t look as impressive on the elevated sections of the southern Green line because the those post tension concrete elevated structure are so massive the trains are dwarf by them as they go by.