Taking Metro to Nationals Park can be easy if you take note of these helpful travel trips:

Navy Yard-Ballpark Station has two entrances. Half Street is slightly closer to the ballpark and often gets very crowded. Meanwhile, the New Jersey Avenue entrance is a short three-block walk from the ballpark and is usually significantly less crowded. Both entrances are equipped with elevators, in addition to escalators.

After the game, customers connecting to Yellow Line trains toward Huntington should consider making the transfer at Archives Station, rather than L’Enfant Plaza

To avoid potentially long vending machine lines after the game, Nationals fans are reminded to load enough value on their SmarTrip for their entire roundtrip. SmarTrip cards can be purchased from vending machines at any Metrorail station or in advance at local CVS and Giant Food stores, Metro Sales offices, regional transit stores, or online.

Metro operates a combination of six-car and eight-car trains. Often, the last two cars of eight-car trains are the least crowded. Take note of the number of cars on the passenger information displays, and spread out along the platform to take advantage of the additional space of eight-car trains whenever possible.

Nationals games have the potential to add thousands of additional riders onto the system during already busy travel periods. Whenever possible, fans are encouraged to plan a route to the ballpark that avoids downtown transfer stations during rush hours. For example, riders traveling to/from stations the eastern side of the Red Line should consider connecting to Green Line service at Fort Totten, rather than Gallery Place.  Blue and Orange line customers should consider using Capitol South Station, rather than Navy Yard-Ballpark Station, to avoid transferring at L’Enfant Plaza or Metro Center. Capitol South Station is located 0.8 miles from the ballpark via New Jersey Ave SE.