Extended Metro Rail causes workers to seek alternate commute options

The partial and ongoing shutdown of the National Capital Region's metro rail system has undoubtedly caused a number of people on Joint Base Myer Henderson-Hall to plan alternate means to get to work.

Back in May, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) announced that it would conduct the biggest repair, titled Safetrack, on the metro rail system since its creation more than 40 years ago.

"Each of the 15 Surge projects will result in either around-the-clock single tracking or shutdowns of selected track segments and will have a significant impact on rush-hour commuters," reads WMATA's press release.

According to numerous reports, WMATA's repair project may take up to a year to complete.

WMATA's first set of repairs, called Surge 1, has already started. Work began on June 4 and will last until June 16. The Surge 1 repairs are specifically on the Silver and Orange lines, which span from northeast Washington, D.C., to the suburbs of Virginia in Fairfax County.

Clifford Bowens, Child, Youth and program assistant at the Cody Child Development Center on the Fort Myer portion of the joint base, said that since the work began, he has noticed an increase of people at the L'Enfant Plaza platforms during rush hour.

Concerning crowded platforms, Metro officials have said that an increase in crowds on platforms and trains would be limited to those platforms that are being repaired.

"Expect significant crowding on Orange and Silver line trains," according to Metro Rail officials. "Blue, Yellow, Green and Red line services will operate normally during rush hours during Surge 1."

However, Bowens has experienced something different. The Pentagram asked Bowens if the increased volume of travelers has made him late to work.

"No," said Bowens. "But I still feel the impact."

Bowens, who rides the Yellow line to the Pentagon and then catches a bus to the joint base, said that in the past he would have to be ready and out the door by 8 a.m. However, since the start of the repairs, he has to be out of bed by 6:30 a.m. and ready to leave the house by 7:30 a.m. in order arrive at work by 9:45 a.m.

Bowens said that he has sacrificed some rest in order to make it to work on time.

"At the end of the day, I am exhausted," said Bowens. "I get off at 6 p.m. I have to take the same route home again. By the time I get home at 7:30 p.m., I just want to go to bed. I don't want to eat or take a bath. I am too tired to cook."

Bowens also said that for two days he decided to take an Uber ride to work. Still, catching paid car rides is a once-in-awhile fix, not a permanent solution, he said. He can't afford to take cabs or Uber to and from work every day.

Marcus Frazier, Child, Youth program assistant, said that Uber may not be sustainable over a long period of time for him, too.

"Even though an Uber ride is 13 bucks, I spend only five dollars on the train to get here," said Frazier. "If I have to spend $13-15 to get here every day, add that up and do the math."

Frazier said his 15-minute train rides to work have not been extended by the delays yet because he rides the train from the Van Dorn station in Alexandria, Virginia, so he avoids all the delays and the increase in crowds at L'Enfant Plaza.

According to the WMATA schedule for temporary shutdowns, the Blue line track, below Van Dorn and extending to Rosslyn station, is not scheduled to be shut down or moved to a single track until Surge 3 (July-5-11), surge 4 (July 12-18), surge 8 (Aug. 20 -Sept. 5), Surge 13 (Dec. 7-Dec. 24) and Surge 14 (Jan. 3-Feb. 3 2017).

"It's going to be a headache," said Frazier, referring to the times when he is going to have to make other arrangements to get to work.

Morgan Dye, a Metro Rail spokesperson, said that passengers will have the option of taking a free shuttle from stations where train services have been suspended to the next station where trains are operational.

"In the Van Dorn case, passengers can catch the train to Braddock Road, exit, and can catch a bus to either Crystal or Pentagon City," she said. "But they can't go beyond there, because the other trains will have full metro service."

However, Latia Douglas, a teacher's assistant at the Cody CDC who starts her ride from Addison station along the Blue line in Washington, D.C., said she has made other arrangements to get to work in order to avoid Surge 2, which begins on June 18 and lasts through July 3.

"I asked my co-worker for a ride," Douglas said. "She doesn't live like five minutes from my house. I have to make some adjustments because I have to leave my house 20, 25 minutes earlier to get to the [CDC] by 6 a.m., because I'm an opener."

Douglas said if she hadn't made arrangements with her coworker she would have to catch the buses from station to station. But she said she wasn't too sure about how that all works.

"I am fine right now, because it's only supposed to be for two weeks," she said. "I will be glad when all of this is over and then they can move to Surge 3."

Olivia Cunningham, an assistant caregiver at the Cody CDC, who rides the blue line from Washington, D.C., to Virginia, said she was worried because she hasn't made other arrangements to get to work during the Surge 3 shutdown and, at that point, the buses will be her only option.

"I normally leave the house at 6:45 a.m., and now I am going to have to leave at 5: 30 a.m. or something like that," she said. "It's going to put me in a bind, but I have to get here on time because that is my schedule, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m."

Cunningham said not only is she trying to figure out how to get to work on time, she also has to figure out how to get home in time to babysit her grandson.

"I don't know how that is going to work out," she said. "It will be very congested and crowded on those buses and platforms. I have to see how that is going to work out."

WMATA has recently said that the blue line from Rosslyn to Arlington National Cemetery station will be opened Dec. 17 during Surge 13 for Wreaths Across America this year.