Another shining example of WMATA (Metro) competence. In this time of heightened alert for transit, a MetroRail operator responded to a report of a suspicious bag on the train by telling people to move it so she could close the doors. The train then proceeded through two more stations as passengers frantically evacuated on their own before transit police were finally called to investigate.
The bag was harmless—some kid had forgotten it at an earlier station—but Metro’s handling of the situation is truly frightening. Reports of unattended bags must be taken seriously, now more than ever. The MetroRail operator should be thrown in prison on hundreds of counts of reckless endangerment (one for each passenger on the train, every customer who was in a station the train passed through, and every passenger on trains that passed in the opposite direction in the same tunnels). Additionally, WMATA should be investigated and fined heavily by the Transportation Security Administration.
Metro has proven it is incapable of learning without getting smacked upside the head. For this, they should be smacked very, very hard.
- Metro’s Response To Alert Delayed (Washington Post, free registration may be required).