Metro’s grand plan to ease rush-hour congestion by attempting to divert Blue Line passengers onto the Yellow Line isn’t working out quite as well as envisioned, the transit agency said Friday.
Although Metro billed Rush Plus as something that would benefit more than 110,000 commuters every day, WTOP reports that people just aren’t too keen on switching to a Yellow Line train for their daily routine:
“It hasn’t been the numbers that we thought it was going to be. We learned that the reluctance to try Yellow [Line] was around the reluctance to transfer,” says Metro spokesperson Lynn Bowersox.
While Rush Plus increased the number of trains offered systemwide between 6:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., it decreased the number of trains running on the Blue Line. Customers who depend on the route between Franconia-Springfield and Largo Town Center—i.e., a lot of people who work in downtown D.C. and Foggy Bottom—have found themselves facing an additional six minutes of waiting time between trains.
As a token of recompense and enticement, though, Metro is going to try to sweeten the allure of boarding the Yellow Line next week by handing out $5 fare cards at affected stations.