We’ve heard of a Bridge to Nowhere. But a MetroAccess Ride to Nowhere? That’s a new one.

WUSA9 was the first to report on the strange ride taken by 21-year-old Rory Doyle on September 22 — Doyle, who is autistic and developmentally disabled, was picked up by a taxi in Gaithersburg with an aim on returning to his home in Adelphi, Maryland. It’s usually about a 30-minute trip between the two towns, but the taxi driver apparently wanted to give him a scenic tour of the entire region, driving Doyle as far away as Andrews Air Force Base and through the District before dropping him off at home.

The most disturbing thing? No one was able to get in touch with the cab driver during the entire trip:

“I thought he was being abducted,” said father Bernie Doyle, who was tracking the trip in near real-time from a computer at his workplace. Doyle says he was on the phone with Metro Access supervisors during the journey trying to get them to stop the driver and re-direct him. According to Doyle, he was told the driver could not be contacted.

“They still don’t have an adequate program in place to deal with an emergency,” Doyle says.

WMATA is investigating the incident; most MetroAccess customers are given rides in Metro-branded vans, but approximately five percent of MetroAccess rides are outsourced to local taxis.