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Passengers at Arlington National Cemetery surprised Blue Line ends

By Neal Augenstein

ARLINGTON, Va. — So far it has happened with every train that arrives at Metro’s Blue Line station at Arlington National Cemetery — passengers are surprised to learn the ride ends here. [related_gallery align=”right”]With Blue Line travel limited to the eight stops between Franconia-Springfield and Arlington Cemetery, some passengers don’t realize the train won’t continue to Rosslyn, or any of the stops in the District or Maryland. From my observations, many of the passengers who end up here by mistake aren’t native English speakers. Some passengers were wearing headphones, and others were absorbed in a newspaper. Operators on the train I rode on advised riders often they needed to transfer to the Yellow Line between Franconia-Springfield and Pentagon stops because Blue service would end at Arlington. Metro employees are positioned on the platform at Arlington Cemetery to give directions to passengers who didn’t expect their rides to end here. Some passengers choose to get back on the Blue Line and go back one stop to Pentagon, where they can transfer to the Yellow Line, and ride to L’Enfant Plaza, where they can again transfer to the Orange or Silver Line. Other passengers decide to walk 15 minutes to Rosslyn, rather than retrace their steps.

Audit: Metro put millions of federal dollars at risk in failed Buy America program

By Max Smith
WASHINGTON — Oversight and contracting failures at Metro risked an immediate loss of millions in federal funding, a new audit report from Metro’s Office of Inspector General found. The audit of Metro’s Buy America contract award and oversight process found $68 million in bus, paratransit or rail car vehicle and parts purchases did not meet federal contracting requirements, and $517 million of the $1.4 billion in contracts reviewed did not follow the Federal Transit Administration’s nonbinding suggested best practices.
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