A recent news report mentioned the potential for blockades of DC Metro Rail stops.
Curbed Washington DC posted a list of those stops, but like many reporters, did not provide links to the stops.
🙁
Here’s their list:
Metro Stops with Hyperlinks
Here’s my version, in the same ticket color order:
- Green Ticket Holders Capital South or Eastern Market
- Orange Ticket Holders Federal Center SW or L’Enfant Plaza
- Blue Ticket Holders Judiciary Square or Gallery Place-Chinatown
- Yellow Ticket Holders Union Station or NoMa-Gallaudet U
- Silver Ticket Holders Federal Center SW or L’Enfant Plaza
- Red Ticket Holders Judiciary Square or Gallery-Place-Chinatown
Presented as the original, the list leaves the impression of more Metro stops than require blockading. Here is “apparent” count of Metro Stops is twelve (12).
Discovering Duplicate Metro Rail Stops
Rearrangement by Metro Rail stops reveals duplicates:
- Green Ticket Holders Capital South
- Green Ticket Holders Eastern Market
- Orange Ticket Holders Federal Center SW
- Silver Ticket Holders Federal Center SW
- Blue Ticket Holders Gallery Place-Chinatown
- Red Ticket Holders Gallery-Place-Chinatown
- Blue Ticket Holders Judiciary Square
- Red Ticket Holders Judiciary Square
- Orange Ticket Holders L’Enfant Plaza
- Silver Ticket Holders L’Enfant Plaza
- Yellow Ticket Holders NoMa-Gallaudet U
- Yellow Ticket Holders Union Station
Deduped Metro Stops and Priority Map
If we remove the duplicate stops and sort by stop name, we find only eight (8) Metro Stops for blockading.
- Capital South Green Ticket Holders
- Eastern Market Green Ticket Holders
- Federal Center SW Orange Ticket Holders, Silver Ticket Holders
- Gallery Place-Chinatown Blue Ticket Holders, Red Ticket Holders
- Judiciary Square Blue Ticket Holders, Red Ticket Holders
- L’Enfant Plaza Orange Ticket Holders, Silver Ticket Holders
- NoMa-Gallaudet U Yellow Ticket Holders
- Union Station Yellow Ticket Holders
All of this is public information and with a little rearrangement, it becomes easier to focus resources on any potential blockading of those stops.
In terms of priorities, Curbed Washington DC posted a map of the gate locations and guest sections for ticket holders. I took a screen-shot of the center portion:
If your are interested in activities around the checkpoints, see the larger map.
So You Want To Blockade A Metro Stop
A map of Union Station reminded me that open street blockading isn’t likely to close a Metro Rail stop.
Why? Even with a large number of hardened protesters, the police can approach you from all sides, driving you in particular directions with “less lethal” weapons.
But the architecture of a Metro Rail stop offers an alternative strategy to open air resistance.
Don’t blockade outside a Metro Rail stop, blockade the stop by occupying stairwells, access points, etc.
Anyone opposing the blockade will seek to restore service and so be less likely to use persistent gases or other irritants in closed spaces.
The other advantage of escalators, stairways is that the police can only approach from in front or from behind you. Enabling you to defend the edges of your formation with layers of the most recalcitrant protesters.
I know you intend to peacefully and lawfully assemble only but be aware you may have those in your midst who damage and/or disable turnstiles. Either with some variety of fast acting adhesives or jamming them with thin metallic objects. Although illegal, those acts will also contribute to delaying the restoration of full service.
More thoughts on blockades reduce the number of people reaching Metro Rail stops tomorrow.
PS: It’s unfortunate the Metro doesn’t use tokens anymore. There are some interesting things that can happen with tokens.