Metro Center station by the author.

On Sunday night, WMATA announced they were pulling all of their 7000-series trains out of service Monday morning as part of the ongoing investigation into the Blue Line train derailment last week. The 7000-series trains make up about 60% of Metro’s rail fleet.

By Monday morning, Metro was operating on reduced service, with six-car trains running every 30 minutes on all lines. I rode the Red and Green lines to see what the commute was like for riders.

At evening rush hour, station boards throughout the city showed crooked numbers for train arrival wait times. 7. 13. 19. 24. Some boards didn’t have numbers at all, instead displaying the dreaded five-letter, four-letter word, with the three-letter shorthand: DLY.

Just before 5 pm, a southbound 3000-series train pulled up to Shaw/Howard University. A group of teens in school uniforms raced onto the train before the doors closed, just as passengers do every day. One was too late, and tried to shimmy through the partially closed doors, just as some passengers do every day.

The 3000-series train couldn’t accommodate the extra muscle and remained on the track for multiple minutes following the longer-than-normal arrival. Many passengers loudly sighed behind their masks, knowing their abnormally long evening commute just got a little longer.

Some riders got off, electing instead to wait for the next train, which was scheduled to arrive 12 minutes. Metro Police on the platform were able to get the door back working again. The train, delayed an extra three minutes, now was headed to Gallery Place.

Gallery Place / Chinatown station. Image by the author.

At Gallery Place/Chinatown, Michael Void waited on the upper platform for the next westbound train toward Twinbrook (which is the current terminal station while Rockville and Shady Grove are closed for renovation through early December). Void, who usually takes the bus, knew the Metro was going to be crowded but didn’t expect such long wait times when he had to make a stop in the city between Fort Totten and Tenleytown. “It’s taken me longer than it would have by bus,” Void said.

Laura Sloan moved to DC about a year ago and has only experienced the Metro since the pandemic began, with train cars usually empty, and always tries to avoid catching the train during rush hour.

Unaware of the system-wide delays when she set out on Metro to visit some museums, Sloan said she didn’t know why the trains were so crowded at first.

“I honestly thought this was just a rush hour thing,” Sloan said. Though this was her leisure time, as she made her way back from the National Mall, she was caught in as much of a delay as anyone in a rush. Upon entering the station, Sloan discovered her choices for a train back to Woodley Park were either in 27 minutes or in 31 minutes.

Gallery Place / Chinatown station. Image by the author.

A crowd at Gallery Place / Chinatown station. Image by the author.

Around 5:20 pm, the Red Line platform was dotted with passengers from tunnel to tunnel. People waiting for the end car, which is generally less crowded than cars in the middle of the station, watched as the last of the six-car, 3000-series train whizzed by them a few hundred feet.

They hurried over to the crowd of people waiting to get on the last car. Passengers streamed off the train, looking for empty space to walk through, and hordes of people waited anxiously on the sides of the doors before they filled in the newly-vacated train car.

Every seat was filled. Every handrail, taken. When there wasn’t any more space, passengers would inch a few steps to the center of the car, making space for a few more riders waiting on the platform. Most passengers were masked; one of the only clues that this wasn’t a World Series-bound train in October 2019 or a regular rush hour train in early March 2020.

Red Line from Gallery Place to Metro Center. Image by the author.

Platform at Metro Center station. Image by the author.

Grant Crawford, (pictured above on the right), confirmed that his afternoon commute was “taking forever.” Monday was Crawford’s first day at a new job after moving to DC with his wife from Ohio. “This is literally my first time ever riding Metro,” Crawford said. The new DC commuter made his maiden voyage Monday afternoon after reading about the delays Monday morning. He opted to take Uber to ensure he arrived at work earlier that morning.

Crowds on the Red Line platform waited for the next train to Glenmont in three minutes. Across the tracks, a man in a blue suit and striped tie stood alone holding a briefcase on a newly-empty platform. Mark, who did not disclose his last name, said he works for “one of those 3-letter agencies.” He came in from Bethesda on Monday morning without any delays, but 23 minutes of his usual 25-minute commute home was about to be spent just waiting for the train to arrive. “My employer drove a lot of people to work,” Mark said, “so there were probably a lot of people on the roads.”

Metro Center station. Image by the author.

Stephanie Muñoz considers herself to be a lucky person who never checks her phone for trains. “I think there’s something telling me when to leave to make the trains,” Muñoz said, illustrating how she usually makes them right on time. Even Muñoz didn’t have luck on her side during her usual 40-minute morning commute, enduring a 25-minute wait leaving Glenmont and making her late to her job at the Department of Justice.

“This is the first time I’ve ever had to wait,” Muñoz said. Even more luckily, perhaps, the wait on the board was only seven minutes.

Just before 6 pm, WMATA sent out an alert announcing that Metrorail service disruption will continue through at least the end of the week. The alert urged riders to expect significant delays and to leave additional time for commuting. The third largest rapid transit system in the United States also urged riders to consider alternative transportation.

As several safety boards and agencies continue with the derailment investigation, time will tell what impact the delays will have on commutes, ridership, and the system. For now, everyone is waiting.

David Andrews is a photographer and videographer at the University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. He’s also a journalism grad student at Maryland, interested in covering all things urban planning.