How Long Would You Wait Before 'Self-Evacuating?'

Via @mrblackwealth: Stuck in the tunnel on metro power went out, it's so hot the metal sweating. http://instagr.am/p/VIS3W7OuSm/

A smoking arcing insulator set off a perfect storm of Metro fail last night, leaving hundreds stuck on trains underground and thousands stranded up and down the Green Line and near pandemonium at NavyYard.

A Metro source tells me Metro's insulators have been poorly maintained and have accumulated a coating of dirt and dust. This, they say allows them to conduct electricity, which leads to ugly smoking.

While there are differing reports about how long riders were stuck, the conditions inside the stuck train(s) sounded pretty atrocious according to several tweeps.

Was stuck n the tunnel on the train for over 2 hours, packed like sardines, with no power the fucking worse!!!! hate the greenline..smh
— Shannon Stanley(@Tootrue4u) January 31, 2013

FINALLY off the train. Stuck in a tunnel for over an hr w/o air & no answers. @wmata is THE WORST. I want my money back!!!
— Monique Pratt (@Moniluv07) January 31, 2013

“@sarcatic_nature: I've been stuck in the tunnel on a train with no power and no air for the last 2 hours” Lol man I know it's funky! Lol
—Joshua Pearson(@joshuadagreat) January 31, 2013

Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said riders "self evacuated" from at least one train and that this added to the delays. He has said this before only to be called on it.

Some tweets cast some doubt on the self evacuation story.

Been stuck in a tunnel for 40 mins. No power. They just unloaded our train in the tunnel.
— Lafayette Melton (@LAFgoesON) January 30, 2013

Fire on the green line train to branch ave. i was stuck for a hour & a half. We had to walk through the tunnel to get out at Anacostia! #DMV
— Darlene (@DsTake) January 30, 2013

But even if Stessel was telling the truth, Metro's reaction to the crowds gathering at Navy Yard left much to be desired.

Total insanity at Navy Yard #wmata twitter.com/SadieDing/stat…
— Sadie Dingfelder (@SadieDing) January 30, 2013

My 3.5 hour,13 milecommute is almost over! Only 2.5 hours more than normal and more expensive! #wmata #greenline @unsuckdcmetro
— Brent Goldfarb (@brentdg2) January 31, 2013

Of course Metro communication was a major failure with numerous riders saying no information was available to those stuck on the trains or the masses of people waiting for Metro's anemic attempt to get shuttle service started. Of course, the failure started at the top.

Dan Stessel just said avoid Orange Line instead of Green Line 3 times on NBC4. Super helpful info from WMATA like always.
— Cody (@codywt) January 30, 2013

Dan Stessel on NBC4... Anyone else concerned about the fact that he doesn't know the difference between green & orange? #wmata #metrofail
— Jody Wright (@JodyInArlington) January 31, 2013

The worst aspect of this whole thing? To me it's that there was a similar incident in July, and Metro promised its board of directors it would do better. It most certainly did not.

After July's self-evacuation at CP #wmata promised protocol improvements. Were they followed today? twitter.com/robertdkalb/st…
— Rob Kalb (@robertdkalb) January 31, 2013

All of this begs the question:

Other items:
MTPD behaving badly (City Paper)
Wapo Green Line story