First of all, after visiting my friend Tristan in Alexandria, I got back on the Metro at King Street. I literally ran to catch this train. I saw the inbound PIDS showing a Blue Line to Largo in two minutes. So I was just booking it. Dash into the station, through the faregate, up the escalator, and onto the platform just as the lights are starting to flash. And in comes this Rohr train.
*ding ding* “Doors opening! Step back to allow customers to exit. When boarding, please move to the center of the car.”
So I got on the train, and sat down. I pulled out my log, and started writing. Blue Line, Rohr 1263, origin at King Street. I’m looking at that number as I see it on the cab door and write it down, and it looks awfully familiar. So I checked my log. Sure enough, there’s 1263 at the top of my log: Orange Line, Rohr 1263, origin at Vienna, destination Rosslyn.
Never before in my life have I ever had the same train on two different lines in the same day. I’m like, “hmm” over this. Now I’ve had the same train multiple times before in the same day, hours apart. I’m famous for getting the same train back to Vienna late at night that I rode out of Vienna in the morning. But it’s Orange both times. Never different lines. But I had 1263 in the morning. It was an Orange. I get 1263 ten hours later. It’s a Blue. It was pointed the same way as it was this morning, and it was the same set all the way down on both occasions, so who knows. I can understand a Red Line train suddenly changing destinations and becoming a Glenmont train instead of a Silver Spring train. Both of those destinations are still Red. But not so much for an Orange Line becoming a Blue Line all of a sudden.
I even asked the operator when I got off at Pentagon City: Do you know why this train was switched from Orange? I explained I’d had 1263 that morning on Orange. She smiled and was quite friendly about it, but even she seemed surprised that it was switched in the middle of the day. The conclusion ended up being, “Go figure.” Metro is as Metro does, after all.
I know one thing, though. I’m probably not going to get 1263 when I go back to Vienna. It will probably be galavanting up and down the Blue Line while I’m waiting for my Orange at Rosslyn.