Metro News Release

For immediate release: September 11, 2008

Metro highlights historic role during September 11

On the seventh anniversary of September 11, 2001, and the opening of the Pentagon Memorial, Metro is paying tribute to its employees who played a vital role in evacuating the region on that fateful day.

Along with the bravery and courage of many men and women throughout the Washington region, Metro employees safely moved hundreds of thousands of federal workers and other commuters from the downtown core and provided buses to deploy police and serve as shelters for rescue workers.

Despite the confusion and false reports of bomb threats, Metro leaders made the decision to keep the system open to help get area residents home. Not one Metrorail train operator or Metrobus operator walked off the job that day. Time and time again, train operators continued to go back into the tunnels to pick up customers and bring them to safety. Bus operators stayed behind the wheel, even in snarled traffic, resolved to get their riders home no matter how long it took.

"I am extremely proud of the Metro employees who continued to do their job in the face of great danger at a time when the Washington area needed us the most," said General Manager John Catoe. "If we had closed down it would have been chaos. At a time of adversity and fear, we did the right thing."

To commemorate Metro's important role on September 11, 2001, three special displays have been placed at the Pentagon and Pentagon City Metrorail stations, and at the Pentagon Transit Center. One display is located inside each of the stations and another display is in the bus bay area at the Pentagon.

Metro is encouraging riders to sign up to receive Metro e-alerts or RSS news feeds to stay informed about service disruptions, severe weather or emergencies that might impact their travel plans. Customers can sign up to have electronic messages about Metrorail, Metrobus, MetroAccess or elevator service disruptions sent to their cell phone, pager, personal digital assistant (PDA) or e-mail-capable computer. For more information and to sign up, visit http://www.wmata.com/riding/system_alert.cfm.

News release issued at 8:17 am, September 11, 2008.