Um, no thanks.

So I've posted before about paying for Metro, waiting for a train for 10 minutes, only to leave the Metro and still paying $2.15. Well, I did that again today, but only waited about a minute before I made the decision to back up and leave.

I arrived in Union Station from my MARC train and walked to the Metro without checking my e-mail for alerts <--foreshadow: that was a mistake. I entered the turnstiles, registered my card and saw all the people at the top of the escalator looking down on the platform at all the OTHER (ahem, a lot) people waiting for trains. That was all I needed. I immediately turned around and walked back out the turnstiles to walk the .9miles to work. 

Oy, when will Metro get something to alert people as they enter the station BEFORE they pay for their entry? Also, I wondered if there was a grace period about entering and exiting a station within a minute if you don't get charged...my initial research came up with one of my favorite Traffic bloggers in the area, Dr. Gridlock, and something he posted about it in 2010:

Q: If you enter a Metro station and see that the platforms are overcrowded, etc., and then just turn around and go back into the office, you are charged for entering/exiting the same station (minimum fare).

Metro claims that they do this so as to prevent a conspiracy of two people exchanging farecards/SmarTrip cards and then entering/exiting "same" station. The problem with this response is that there is still a monetary incentive to do this type of conspiracy because of the the distance charge.

Furthermore, couldn't metro just have a 10-minute grace period of entering/exiting same station? You go in and realize it's terrible. Or, they could just apply zero charge for entering/exiting station to SmarTrip cards and have triggers whereby it's not allowed more than X number of times per month. Can we just get Metro to admit that they are just trying to get more money out of us even when they have disaster days (not uncommon)?

A: I think what Metro should do is make sure that its station managers are alert enough to discover problems on their platforms and have the means to quickly post signs warning incoming riders about severe delays.

Right now, riders don't necessarily have a way of knowing what's going on before they see the platform. (We talked about this a moment ago regarding the lack of consistent e-alerts about disruptions.)

Source: http://live.washingtonpost.com/gridlock-1025.html 

So it appears you do get charged (at least back in 2010) and they still HAVEN'T found a way to know about delays before you pay to enter the station! Grrr...just another fun day as a Metro rider in DC.