With passengers already fuming over this week’s service disruptions, Metro officials have further alienated customers with a bizarre attempt to make amends for one of its recent failings.
Last Tuesday, firefighters had to evacuate roughly 200 passengers from a Blue Line train after it derailed not far from the Arlington Cemetery station. According to NBC4, first responders transported one person to a local hospital.
Now, according to NBC4’s Adam Tuss, Metro is trying to atone for this safety failure by compensating the passengers who were onboard the train when it derailed.
How much compensation is Metro providing? A SmartTrip credit worth $21.
NEW: Metro says it is giving a $21 credit to all those passengers who were on last week’s derailed Blue Line train. #wmata @nbcwashington pic.twitter.com/8fkVh5IdOs
— Adam Tuss (@AdamTuss) October 20, 2021
On a day that passengers are already fed up with the lengthy delays to their commutes, the early public reviews for the compensation package have been harsh. Here are the most unsparing that we found on Twitter:
Dying to know what a train fire is worth? $46?
— John Glenn (@JohnGlennX) October 20, 2021
Who’s running Metro? Dan Snyder? Embarrassing…..
— Juan Villalba ⚾️ (@juanjvillalba19) October 20, 2021
Just enough to catch the Red Line to my attorney’s office and back
— Kevin Stanfield (@StanfieldKevin) October 20, 2021
https://twitter.com/FragrantFC/status/1450841876928647171
https://twitter.com/steven_badeau/status/1450826201199693825
Luke Mullins is a senior writer at Washingtonian magazine focusing on the people and institutions that control the city’s levers of power. He has written about the Koch Brothers’ attempt to take over The Cato Institute, David Gregory’s ouster as moderator of NBC’s Meet the Press, the collapse of Washington’s Metro system, and the conflict that split apart the founders of Politico.
