Article Lead Image

Photos via Jaya Saxena/Twitter

The D.C. Metro can’t handle all the people going to the Women’s March

They're shutting it down, starting with the Metro.

Photo of Samantha Grasso 

Samantha Grasso

IRL

Posted on Jan 21, 2017   Updated on May 25, 2021, 4:06 am CDT

The Women’s March on Washington is underway—that is, if they can get through the D.C. Metro stations first.

Twitter users attending the march have posted photos showing congested areas through the Washington area’s subway stations and trains. It appears to be an amazingly empowering scene with a side of slight inconvenience. 

https://twitter.com/jayasax/status/822786442510368771

https://twitter.com/jayasax/status/822791537025228800

https://twitter.com/jayasax/status/822807724874493952

https://twitter.com/jrud/status/822812559086616576

https://twitter.com/periodsforpols/status/822818933178855425

This echoes the nearly-all Women’s March flights coming into the city on Friday. But airplane cabins lit pink and “nasty women” greetings from flight attendants have been swapped Saturday for longer wait times and packed train cars.

“In general [there are] really packed subways and lots of frustration that they weren’t opening the Metro gates for everyone. But people were shouting and chanting in the stations already,” Daily Dot writer Jaya Saxena reported. Having left for the march at 8am ET, Saxena took 10 minutes to get through the Springfield Metro station and another 20 minutes to get to the march.

But many others have waited much longer.

https://twitter.com/livetowonder/status/822820846565728258

https://twitter.com/ckbarrett/status/822817094588895236

Aside from the prolonged wait times to get onto the train, reporters following both the inauguration and the Women’s March have noticed the … interesting discrepancy between the Metro volume of the last two days. And the numbers provided by the Washington D.C. area transit authority don’t lie.

As reported by CNN, as of 11am ET on President Donald Trump‘s Inauguration Day, 193,000 trips had been made on the Metro subway system. However, in 2009 by that same hour, 513,000 trips had been taken for President Barack Obama‘s first inauguration. And in 2005, 197,000 trips had been taken for President George W. Bush’s second inauguration.

According to the Metro Authority, Saturday’s ridership as of 11am ET is already at 275,000—what they say is eight times a normal Saturday and busier than most weekdays.

Twitter users and reporters backed up the numbers, too.

https://twitter.com/CharlotteAlter/status/822809679118090241

https://twitter.com/JoeBerkowitz/status/822810170581483522

(Sorry, this embed was not found.)

Great job, ladies—it’s not even noon and you’re already shuttin’ shit down! Here’s to hoping that your hour-plus-long commute clears up soon, however…

https://twitter.com/jrud/status/822799739439738881

Share this article
*First Published: Jan 21, 2017, 6:15 am CST

Samantha Grasso

Samantha Grasso is a former IRL staff writer for the Daily Dot with a reporting emphasis on immigration. Her work has appeared on AJ+, Vox, Splinter, Los Angeles Magazine, and Austin Monthly.

Samantha Grasso