Ah, what a fun time you had on the Metro if you were on the Orange or Blue line around 8:45 a.m. this morning. I was actually on the train that broke down. It sat at the Farragut West platform for about 7 minutes before everyone was offloaded and told to switch platform sides to catch another train. All this created backups at many of the other stops.

Funny enough, this happened while I was reading an article in The Examiner about how trains would stay in manual mode until WMATA thought it was safe to go back to automatic. They also warned that we should expect slower trains and jerky rides. Now I could be wrong, but wouldn’t you think trains would be less safe with drivers operating them? Seems like a better chance for a crash when a driver is operating the train. Automatic mode gives you 2 chances to prevent a crash: The computer and if that fails, the driver SHOULD be able to apply the brakes.