Do you spend any part of your morning commute in the Gallery Place/Chinatown stop? Can you alter your plans tomorrow morning to be there? If so, you could be one of the lucky Metro riders picked out by the official 30th Anniversary “Prize Patrol” between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. on Friday, April 28 to receive a Metrorail key chain, notepad, lapel pin or similarly adorable but actually worthless offering.

Surely there are Metro riders out there who would be thrilled to get a gift of a ball point pen or plastic mood ring from our WMATA overlords. Several DCists are no doubt among them. And it’s nice to see Metro showering their customers with a little appreciation now and again. But we’re just going to say it: They couldn’t come up with something we could actually use? Like, oh, say, Farecards with $5 or $10 on them?

For those of you who can’t get to Gallery Place tomorrow morning who are feeling left out, fear not. Quoth the press release:

As part of the 30th anniversary celebration, the prize patrol will visit one station each month through March 2007 during the morning or evening rush hours. They will reach riders on all five rail lines in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.

Now to set the timer to see how long it takes Metro to put up signs reminding us not to leave newspapers and unwanted prizes on train cars.

Photo snapped by Flickr user sabre0link.