(Photo by p2-r2)

Update (Aug. 5): Metro Board Chairman Jack Evans says the transit agency won’t provide private railcars for those attending the “Unite the Right II” demonstration in D.C. This comes two days after Metro’s largest transit union released a statement that said rally attendees would get three private railcars.

“Metro never considered providing private trains and will not be doing so,” Evans said to WAMU.

Original:

Metro will provide three private railcars and a police escort for those attending the “Unite the Right II” rally in the District, according to the transit agency’s largest union.

Metro wouldn’t confirm that would happen. Spokeswoman Sherri Ly said transit police, D.C. police and Virginia State Police are discussing how to keep everyone safe during the rally.

“While details of the plan are security sensitive at this stage, I can tell you that it has not been finalized,” Ly wrote in an email to WAMU.

The white nationalist group is gathering Aug. 12 at Lafayette Park to rally for “white civil rights” and to mark the anniversary of the protests in Charlottesville that turned violent.

Tim Heaphy, a former U.S. attorney who authored an independent review of what went wrong during the Charlottesville protest, said separate cars are a good idea.

“It’s absolutely imperative that public safety officials keep buffers between people who vehemently disagree,” Heaphy told WAMU.

Last year, police failed to separate the white nationalists and counter-protesters. It helped contribute to the chaos of the day, Heaphy said. One woman was killed and several others injured.

Several tweets swiftly condemned the idea of Metro giving special trains to white nationalists, but Heaphy said while many disagree, it makes sense for safety.

“Metro is doing their best to ensure the First Amendment rights of the permit holders are protected,” Heaphy said. “The laws are content neutral.

“We don’t decide that someone who issues hate speech is any more or less worthy of public safety protection than someone with a message that most of us would agree with.”

Even if Metro segregates trains, that doesn’t mean rallygoers will abide — or even all be on the same page. Heaphy said Charlottesville police had a plan to get “Unite the Right” followers in and out of the event, but rallygoers didn’t follow through.

“It’s unclear why they did that … it may be that they want to provoke a violent reaction and walk in through the throngs of Antifa and Black Lives Matter groups,” Heaphy said. “I think that’s what happened in Charlottesville last year … who knows if that will happen again.”

Amalgamated Transit Union 689, which is comprised of more than 80 percent people of color, says it will not play a role in what they called a “special accommodation.”

President Jackie Jeter says the union is proud to provide transit for many events, but “we draw the line at giving special accommodation to hate groups and hate speech.”

“[We are] the very people that the Ku Klux Klan and other white nationalist groups have killed, harassed and violated,” the union press release said. “The members of ATU Local 689 have been informed and are encouraged to follow safety protocol in the presence of this hate group if the rumored special accommodations General Manager Paul Wiedefeld plans to give are true.”

Rallygoers plan to use the Vienna and Foggy Bottom stations.

Metro officials say they won’t have any other comment until D.C. police Chief Peter Newsham is ready to brief the media.

Metro also did not respond to questions asking if it had provided private trains to other groups or people in the past.

In 2012, D.C. police escorted a group of Aryan Nation protestors. They kept the 14 rallygoers away from the 150 counter-protestors. Past visits from white nationalist groups in 1999 and 2008 saw small contingents of protesters met with a massive police presence.

This story originally appeared on WAMU.