Metro ridership spiked on day of Glenn Beck rally (510,000 riders)

Washington Examiner ^ | 8/30/2010 | Markham Heid

[Kay Ludlow]

The metro stop at RFK Stadium was shut down by capacity by 08:00am. Hundreds of us (at least hundreds) walked the 4 miles to the Lincoln, as the metro people were telling us it would be a 2 hour wait. That means the pre-rally numbers missed lots of bus riders.

In the afternoon, we had some volunteers at the rally who stayed at the rally site till 3:00. When they got to the Smithsonian stop it was still really backed up - they were letting people board without a fare card, saying they would be able to pay at the destination. When they got to the Stadium station, they couldn't move people out as fast as the trains were coming in (still packed trains), so they had them leave without paying as well, so hundreds (at least hundreds) weren't counted on the return trip either.

I heard that 5 Metro stations were in the same situation as Stadium-Armory, so the metro count would underestimate the total attendance at the rally.

[Loyal Buckeye]

The trains were a mess. Packed. Take me more than a half hour to exit the train and get to street level. A lot of people made it to the event late because of the trains and traffic.

[Dianer0839]

When we rode the lines were so long that they sent us through without scanning our tickets. The crowds on the train were patient even though we were packed like sardines.

We took pictures after the event because you couldn’t get near the main areas during the rally.