Fifteen seconds before this train reached the station, this guy jumped on the tracks. Someone managed to snap a photo of the incident … but here’s the crazy part. The train stopped. The guy wasn’t hurt. Though it could have been quite the scary moment. I used to get off at this stop every single day for work. (via BuzzFeed)
All Monday Metro service, both rail and bus, has been cancelled, Metro officials said Sunday night.
In explanation, the officials cited the expected high winds, the likelihood of widespread power outages, and the closing of the federal government.
On Sunday night, the system was to remain in operation until the normal close of service.
As for Monday’s Metro closure, officials said said no decision had yet been made about when rail service would be restored. The announcement said bus service would be suspended Monday “until further notice.”
Officials said service would be restored only “when it is safe to do so.”
Well, that’s no good.
The fire department says 55 passengers are being removed from the train. They are being led away from a fan shaft exit at 29th Avenue and Ager Road.
The train derailed near the west Hyattsville, Md. station, which is not far from the area where the deadly 2009 Metro crash took place.
UPDATE: WMATA has cancelled all weekend track work as a result of the derailment, and says that overground trains will travel at slower speeds this weekend as a precautionary measure. There’s also a baseball game tonight; WMATA also recommends riders take the Orange Line and Blue Lines to reach Nationals Park, rather than the Green Line.
How the WMATA Rush+ Maps Are Printed
Many thanks to Matt Johnson for telling me about this amazing photoset on Flickr that details the process involved in printing the new Rush+ station maps for Washington, DC’s Metro system. Click through to see the whole set!
Even as an experienced graphic designer, I was amazed to see that the maps are screen printed - each colour on the map is printed one after the other, each using a separate screen with its own spot colour ink. With a map as complex as this, that means that there are a whopping twelve different colours to print! These being: river blue, park green, National Mall green, Blue Line, Orange Line, Yellow Line, Green Line, Red Line, Silver Line, District/County border grey, Beltway grey, and finally, black.
I would have thought with the advances in digital printing and stochastic (micro) screening, that these could be produced digitally in one step instead of twelve, but maybe these are special long-lasting UV inks that will withstand many years of use without fading - an important consideration for station maps! In any case, these photos are a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at a process that many people may not even think about.
EDIT: A tweet from a Metro representative confirms that there are THIRTEEN colours used in the printing: 4 greys (Silver Line, Beltway grey, county border grey, and icon grey), 3 greens (parks, Mall, Green Line), 2 Blues (river, Blue Line), Black, Red, Yellow and Orange.
OH MY GOD! I <3 <3 <3 this more than that time I met Bieber.
Dear fans of DC Metro maps: Here’s how they make them. Wow. Awesome.
I’m happy they got the guy and I got my iPad. I broke my arm, yeah. But it worked out.DC Metro rider Daniel L. Wenger • Discussing how he chased down a dude who tried to steal his iPad. Wenger, a 50-year-old analyst at the Pentagon, was reading the news when a dude came up from behind him and swiped it. It was quite the adventure from there, involving multiple metro trains, much running, and the suspect crossing over the electrified third rail at one station before he was eventually caught at another station. But Wenger got his iPad. Not bad, brah.
Scary situation on the DC Metro today: Commuters riding the DC Metro during rush hour had a lot of trouble getting home today after an incident involving a person who got hit by a train on the Orange Line in nearby Arlington. The person is reportedly still alive. Our friend Josh Sundquist was at the scene and snapped this photo of the incident. He’s been posting updates on Twitter.
So, it appears DC’s metro system is staying open durring the hurricane. Well, underground, that is. But wait, don’t those underground stations have GIANT FREAKING ENTRANCES that would be perfect for floodwater to fill up?
A classic design gets a refresh: Nearly 40 years ago, graphic designer Lance Wyman designed a map that’s come to define a city. The result — a map of a fairly self-contained Metro system — has survived numerous station changes and many iterations to remain a truly useful piece of work. With upcoming changes to the Metro system that will make the map significantly more complicated, Wyman’s getting another chance to work on the design, which needs room for Dulles Airport, a new color and a ton of names that have gotten unwieldy over the years (see “U Street/African-American Civil War Memorial/Cardozo”). And people are clamoring for a redesign — seriously, check out this contest right here. If you’re wondering if the 73-year-old Wyman is getting nervous about all this, the answer is yes. This is his ‘68 Comeback Special here. (photo by The Washington Post’s Jennifer S. Altman; see a gallery here) source
The DC Metro, circa 1976: Ever wonder what it was like riding the Metro back in the day? We certainly were. Here’s a clip from the first week, when people were allowed to ride for free starting out. Soon after, thousands paid. (via unsuckdcmetro)
Scary Surveillance Footage of the Day: Washington Metro has released security footage from a major escalator malfunction which occurred on Oct. 30th — the day of the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear — when a downward escalator suddenly sped up, resulting several injured riders.
“Initially the reaction was oh good we’re moving faster,” escalator rider Peyton Robertson told Fox 5 News. “Then in about a split second I realized that’s not good. This escalator’s out of control and we were hurtling towards the bottom.”
Metro blamed the incident on “a failure of the braking system to stop when the over-speed safety switch activated.”
*shudder* This is why now, we elevate.
In her last days, my mother occasionally became confused....
”The reporter...
I can’t add much to what’s already been (and will be) ...
One of the perks of being an early employee...
Over the last 90 days, the Digg...
#FMMDI (at 30 Rockefeller Plaza)
» To put it in perspective: The rally had the highest Saturday ridership ever – passing the record set in June 1991, when a rally was held for Operation Desert Storm. That rally gave Metro around 786,358 trips that day. And assuming the riders went round-trip yesterday, that means 237,719 extra riders were on the Metro yesterday. That doesn’t mean 237,719 extra people – the tally doesn’t account for multiple trips by the same rider – but suffice it to say that the crowd was really huge yesterday. And no, the Beck rally (which also took place on a Saturday) didn’t even rate in the top five (which is what we know you were really wondering).
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