Long lines of Metro riders seen Monday in Friendship Heights were replaced during Tuesday’s afternoon commute by buses stretching down Wisconsin Avenue.
Metro employees were everywhere, guiding passengers emerging from the Friendship Heights station to buses that would take them to stations closed for summer construction in Maryland.
From the moment a rider reached the top of the escalator, there was someone directing them to the shuttles. Once they got to Wisconsin Avenue, another employee was pointing the way to the buses. And when riders crossed Western Avenue, Metro personnel and bus employees were helping them get on the right shuttle bus.
Metro closed Bethesda, Medical Center and Grosvenor‑Strathmore stations for summer construction. North Bethesda is the first open station, so Metro is running shuttles between there and Friendship Heights.
The line of buses stretched along Wisconsin Avenue Northwest from Western Avenue all the way to Jenifer Street, which meant Maryland-bound commuters were able to board a bus almost immediately after they crossed Western Avenue to the waiting buses.
Maggie Gerardi told WTOP that for the last two days, her commute from Germantown, Maryland to Tenleytown in D.C. stretched from 45 minutes to two hours.
While Gerardi kept a smile on her face, she was the only person who said their commute time was not shorter today than yesterday.
Simone Golding, who lives in Rockville and commutes to Farragut North, said her shuttle bus was so packed she had to stand the whole time, “which sucked,” but she was still impressed with Metro’s effort.
“I think it’s a big undertaking,” Golding said. “They seem to be handling it fine.”
Cordell Pugh, a frequent Red Line rider, believes the shuttle system is performing better than he expected.
“I’ve been on the shuttle, I think, four times already. And overall, it’s gone really well,” Pugh said.
Pugh said the driver from his morning shuttle bus was from New Orleans and pointed out that a lot of the drivers of the motor coaches are from out of the area.
