June 4, 2008
East Falls Church Metro is a Disaster
Check out these photos taken at 5:30 p.m. at the East Falls Church Metro station, where downed power lines have shut down Orange line travel in both directions. Metro has finally issued a full press release on what's happening down there. Based on these images, if you're heading out on the Orange line, our best advice would be to stay in the city tonight until much, much later, if not crash on a friend's couch.
Service between the East Falls Church and West Falls Church-VT/UVA stations remains suspended. Free shuttle bus service has been established, but nightmarish road and traffic conditions mean people are waiting for a very long time to get on one.
WMATA also says that a tree fell on the outbound track between the Dunn Loring-Merrifield station and Vienna/Fairfax-GMU stations, which is forcing trains to share one track between the two.
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Uhhh... it seems like Metro could have at least called some NoVa cab companies to say "You know, I get the feeling you could do a lot of business at East Falls Church Metro."
Now I am doubly glad I took up my coworker's offer to get dropped off at a different metro stop. This looks like a nightmare!
I live near there, and to bypass the shuttle, I tried to drive my friend to West Falls Church. Big mistake. A trip that's normally 20 minutes took more than an hour round trip. It's times like this I think it might be a good idea for the police to commandeer a route between the two stations so the shuttle buses can get through.
I was coming the opposite direction from Tysons Corner on the orange line. When the bus dropped me off at West Falls Church there was a huge mass of people waiting for shuttles to East Falls Church. I got lucky because a shuttle pulled up right in front of me. However, due to traffic it took 1h 15m to get to EFC. Along the way I could see people walking from EFC to WFC. People were streaming all around EFC trying to find a way west. About 10 minutes after I arrived, the trains started moving again. All together it took 2h 40m for me to get home today to Logan Circle from Tysons.
Couple of pics from my phone
That was hell on Earth...
That's what you get for living in the suburbs - NoVA douche bags
old city - I'm pretty sure you're the reason the NoVA douchebags are in NoVA.
Major f***ups like this would never happen downtown.
yeah, old_city, you might want to lay off on the use of douchebag this early in the morning. it's uncouth before 10 a.m.
I hadn't really realized how poorly designed the East Falls Church station is. There is NO stairway from the upper platform to the ground level, just two down escalators and a small elevator, with bottlenecks on either side. Getting off the platform to the ground level was a mob scene. And then there was a huge crowd waiting for shuttle busses standing right outside the only street exit, blocking people from leaving. I could see no Metro employees or police trying to deal with the situation or direct pedestrian traffic an any way.
N.B: This is the station that will be the terminus of the new Dulles line.
I must say that metro riders rarely distinguish themselves in these situations either. They stay to their usual habits and don't make any effort to look for alternative exits or get out of the way of people entering or leaving trains. When I say something like "please move on into the center of the car" or "please step out to let the others exit," everyone looks at me like I'm crazy. It seems to be forbidden to say anything.
It all makes me think about just how disastrous a real disaster would be.
"Douchenozzle" I got no problem with, particularly if she's in her Benz on her cellphone doing 20 MPH under the speed limit.
Virginia.. sorry you do not know much about the silver line. East Falls Church will be the first stop for the silver line that will utilize the current the infrastructure -- it will not terminate there. The trains will actually run from the new line (1st Wiehle Ave then Loudon County) all the way downtown and terminate at Stadium-Armory. It still amazes how many people just don't get that and start crying how crowed the orange line trains are going to be when that is not the case.
Classy, old_city. Until there's a NoVAist, we'll be here for you to kick around.
But at least my vote counts.
By the way, Falls Church's Big Chimney's: 1699. The Old Stone House in The District: 1765. Of course, both were populated by native people long before that.
well, at least we can all look at... the Silver Lining...?
Couldn't help myself.
And no, that's not hell on earth. Get over yourself and learn to suffer properly!
With waits that long, did anyone walk? Just curious, and I don't know the area that well, but it seems from E. Falls Church to W. Falls Church it's around two miles. I hate waiting personally, so I would have hoofed it just to avoid the clutter. Looks like a mess though. Sorry to see that.
I'm with you, Sean Jean. I walked from downtown to Courthouse yesterday to avoid the Orange line crappiness.
The WWOD bike path was chock full of people walking from EFC to WFC.
This doesn't even do the situation justice once the 2nd and 3rd waves of the storm hit.
There were people walking to gas stations and other points far from the station to catch rides... Traffic was jammed because of the amount of people and down trees (portions of roads closed).
I walked from East Falls Church to West Falls Church via the W&OD trail. It took about 40 minutes, the last ten with a new wave of storms approaching. I was told by another rider, once I finally got on a train going west, that the shuttle buses were stuck in traffic to such an extent that he got out and walked. It was just as terrible as every time Metro has a service disruption. The only bright side when it happens downtown is that it's a ten minute walk between stations.
There were masses of people walking.