Metro

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Veggie Garden at Central Library Feeding Those in Need — Did you know that Arlington Central Library now has its own vegetable garden? The garden’s first crop of leafy greens was harvested yesterday. All produce grown in the garden is being donated to the Arlington Food Assistance Center. UPDATE: We hear that Christie Vilsack, wife of Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsak, may visit the garden later this month.

Gov. McDonnell Wants a Say at Metro — Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell is making a heavy-handed push for the state to get two seats on the Metro Board of Directors. If he’s successful the seats may be taken away from Arlington and other Northern Virginia locales. More from the Washington Post.

Arlington MS-13 Member Sentenced — A member of the notorious street gang MS-13 has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiring to extort money from a prostitution ring, the Arlington Connection reports. Prosecutors say the defendant, 23-year-old Alcides Umana of Arlington, is an illegal immigrant from El Salvador.

Flickr pool photo by Mark C. White.

DEVELOPING — Smoke Reported on Metro Tracks off I-66

By ARLnow.com

Update at 4:00 p.m. — The disruption has been cleared, WTOP reports.

Update at 3:35 p.m. — There’s smoke on the tracks between Ballston and East Falls Church, Metro spokesperson Cherry-Ann Santos confirms. Currently, there is no impact on service, Santos says. However, riders are being told to expect delays on the Orange Line.

A possible fire has been reported on the Orange Line Metrorail tracks that run parallel to I-66, near the North Harrison Street overpass.

Passersby report white smoke coming from the tracks. Arlington firefighters are en route.

There’s currently heavy traffic on I-66 near the scene.

EXCLUSIVE: Metro Employee Pepper Sprayed, Arrested At Pentagon City Station

By ARLnow.com

An employee with Metro’s Track and Structures/Systems Maintenance Department was arrested by Metro Transit Police at the Pentagon City Metro station Thursday night, a Metro spokesperson confirmed to ARLnow.com this morning.

“MTPD officers on patrol at the station observed a man who appeared to be unsteady on his feet around 5:15 p.m,” Metro spokesperson Ron Holzer said in an statement. “The man began to run as the officers approached. He then struggled with the officers when they apprehended him… He was charged with being drunk in public and impeding an officer with force (assault).”

The employee was off-duty at the time of his arrest, according to Holzer. He was in his uniform but “his shift had ended many hours before his arrest.”

The man was pepper sprayed during the struggle with police. At that point Arlington paramedics were called to evaluate him. After he was evaluated, officers could be seen pulling an empty glass bottle from the employee’s back pocket.

The man, who has not been identified, has been working for Metro since December 2006, Holzer said.

He could be overheard yelling as police officers surrounded him on a public sidewalk near the Pentagon Centre shopping center.

“I’ve been arrested so many times it’s hilarious,” he said at one point.

Beware the Courthouse Creeper

By ARLnow.com

He is apparently known to Metro employees as “the guy who stands at the bottom of the escalators every morning looking up girls’ skirts.” And Erica Walters, the local blogger behind Books Are My Boyfriend, says she had an up-close, personal and very disturbing encounter with this creepy dude at the Courthouse Metro station this week.

Erica writes that she was going up the escalator at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday when the man suddenly took a photo up her skirt with a cell phone camera, grabbed her and walked away.

To make matters worse, as tears were streaming down her face she asked a “nicely dressed older woman” for help. The woman’s reaction? To shake her head and keep on walking.

Erica goes on to say that she spotted the man on the Courthouse escalators again on Thursday. This time, she had the presence of mind to turn the lens on him. She snapped her own cell phone camera photo, then filed a report with Arlington police (who she says have been “immensely helpful”).

She also talked to a Metro employee, who said she recognized the man in the photo as someone who has a track record of sexual harassment in the station (see the quote above). It’s not clear whether anybody at Metro has ever tried to do anything about it.

Photo via Flickr. No association with the story is implied.

Reminder: Orange Line to Be Split in Two This Weekend

By ARLnow.com

There will be no rail service between the East and West Falls Church stations on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Metro is splitting the Orange Line into two sections this weekend to facilitate work on the Dulles Metrorail project.

Shuttle buses will run every 10 minutes between the stations. Orange Line riders should add 30 minutes to their travel plans.

The work and the split will also be in effect on the weekends of June 5-6 and June 12-13.

Zimmerman Warns of Impending Doom at Metro

By ARLnow.com

Arlington County board vice chairman and Metro board member Chris Zimmerman says now “is the time to get scared” about Metro’s future.

In a Washington Post Op-Ed titled “The sky really is falling at Metro,” Zimmerman warns of dire consequences if the agency doesn’t get the full $11.4 billion it needs for infrastructure projects over the next decade. That “massive infusion of infrastructure investment” will only be possible if state and local leaders from D.C., Maryland and Virginia increase Metro’s funding, he writes.

Zimmerman proposes that localities, at minimum, maintain current funding levels while working to implement a new regional tax to fund Metro. Zimmerman also calls for the federal government to begin making annual payments to the agency.

Arlington is among the localities that currently contribute to Metro’s operating fund. The county board recently approved $24,191,077 in funding for Metro as part of its FY 2011 budget. Metro receives an annual subsidy of almost $600 million from local governments.

Zimmerman is campaigning for re-election to the county board this year.

Metro Warns of “Lengthy Delays” on Blue, Yellow Lines

By ARLnow.com

Metro is warning Blue and Yellow Line riders to add a half hour to their travel time this weekend.

Track work, starting at 10:00 tonight and ending at midnight on Sunday, will force trains to single-track through parts of the system.

Metro says riders should expect trains to run about every 30 minutes on both lines.

As a reminder, those driving into the District may also face delays this weekend. Chain Bridge will be closed to all traffic starting at 9:00 tonight.