Your Nation's Capital has been scrambling to prepare for Tuesday's inauguration day. Restaurants are getting ready for crowds, the homeless have been swept under the rug, and Metro is issuing more expensive fare cards and telling people to walk.
Nope. This is what the Farragut West Metro platform looked like on Thursday night, without the crush of people who will be in town today through Tuesday. And those are just people waiting to get on a westbound train heading out of the district at 6:00 p.m.
Earlier that day, I picked up Metro's guide to getting around during the inauguration. Tips included looking for alternate means of transportation - including walking.
In a December WTOP interview, Metro's head conductor, General Manager John Catoe, said the system can move up to 1 million people but that "a million and a half is not a number we can physically move." Metrorail handles about 750,000 commuters daily, and the disctrict is expecting an influx in the millions. So do the math: Metro cannot handle the crowds they know are coming.
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