Ask DCist: Why Would Metro Skip a Stop?
Friend-of-DCist Angel Preble tells us about an experience she had on the Orange line this morning:
I boarded an Orange line train at Farragut West at 8:26 a.m. (I was rushing this morning, so I remember the time) headed toward Vienna. I work almost directly across from the Dunn Loring stop.Angel said she had to wait about four minutes after exiting at West Falls Church before catching the next train to Dunn Loring. Asking around today, at least one other DCist staffer had a Metro train mysteriously skip a stop once, so we asked Metro about it.
It wasn’t until we were rolling up to the East Falls Church station that the operator made an announcement that this train was "express service to Vienna," and would not stop at Dunn Loring, and that we’d have to get out at West Falls Church and wait for the next train which was “directly behind us.” This only applied to those who had to go to the Dunn Loring station.
Despite talk back in 2005 that stop-skipping express trains might be in store during rush hour, WMATA spokesperson Steven Taubenkibel said that Metro "is not currently testing any type of skip stop service on the Orange line or anywhere else."
According to Taubenkibel, there are two reasons why a Metro train might skip a stop. The first is that a train operator may be ordered to skip a stop if it has fallen far behind schedule. The other is when a service disruption causes a large gap in service on one end of the rail line.
In the case of Angel's Orange line train this morning, Metro spokesperson Candace Smith confirmed that the operator was indeed ordered to skip the Dunn Loring stop for the former reason: the train was running late and and trains behind it were being pushed off schedule. The operator's announcement that the train was "express service" wasn't exactly accurate, in other words.