Sweet Up and Down

Dear Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority,

Do any of you have babies? And if so, have you ever attempted to use your rail system with said baby's stroller? And if you have, have you ever attempted to transfer lines at a station with the stroller? Furthermore, have you ever attempted to transfer from the yellow line to the blue or orange line at L'enfant Plaza? Something tells me that no, you haven't. As if it wasn't enough that we had to walk all the way to the deserted end of the platform, away from any activity, in an abandoned dark corner of an underground station, to get to an elevator. We had to go up in the elevator. Up. The blue and orange lines are below the yellow and green lines. But the elevator only goes up. We go up, and see that we are in the mezzanine, where people ENTER the station. Then we have to walk around the entrance turnstiles to the other side to go down in the elevator. That is, back to level we were just on, only we are now on the opposite platform, in the same dark, deserted, scary, end of the underground station. Two elevators and we are still on the level with the yellow and green lines. We then have to walk back towards the civilized center of the station, where we started, to find the next elevator to take us down another level. Really, three elevators just to transfer trains? THREE? Would it not be more convenient to have down elevators on both sides of the track? Isn't metro supposed to be the convenient alternative to driving and parking downtown? You market yourselves as being handicap accessible. But alas, the accessibility is extremely limited. There are plenty of stairs and escalators that make transferring trains on foot fairly painless. Additionally, upon exit at the Smithsonian station, we had to take TWO more elevators to get out of the station. That put our elevator total for a one-way trip from Alexandria to Smithsonian at SIX. Please consider revisiting the issue of handicap accessibility on the rail system.

Sincerely,

Angry and annoyed in Alexandria