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As in so much of life, where you stand depends on where you sit. Or in this case, where you board.

For example, if I'm boarding at Shaw headed north for Ft Totten, it will indeed seem like there is full-time, if infrequent, yellow line service, since any yellow line train that arrives carries on to my destination. However, if I'm boarding at Gallery Place, only 23% of yellow line trains that arrive continue north to Ft Totten. For riders boarding at Gallery Place or points further south, that hardly seems to be "Full-Time Service".

A reasonable English speaker would probably interpret the phrase "Full-Time Service" to mean something along the lines of 100%, all the time, or without interruption. If you ignore the yellow line beyond the segment between Mt Vernon Square and Ft Totten, you can indeed argue there is full-time, if infrequent, service, on that stretch.

However, that's neither the context of the map nor the context of most yellow line riders. A strict reading of "Full Time Service" would suggest anything under 100% of yellow line trains reaching Ft Totten (well, this is Metro after all, let's say 85%) wouldn't qualify. You might argue that with 51% of trains reaching Ft Totten you could call it Full-Time Service since it's closer to full-time than not. But 23%? Not with a straight face.

So to answer your question: If the map were mine, with the service as described in the original post, the yellow line would be broken/dashed from Mt Vernon Square to Greenbelt and instead of "Rush-Only Service" the description, at least for the yellow line, would be "Intermittent".

by Joe on Jun 12, 2012 8:47 am • link • report