There are no bathrooms at Metro Stations?? (Herndon, Fairfax: shopping centers, safety)

[Winter2010]

I didn't see one and I smelled urine.

There were signs saying no animals allowed. Who's monitoring it really? If a cat or small dog is put in a carrier and carrier in a bag, how would they know?

[hilsmom]

there ARE bathrooms, but they aren't always available to the public. I haven't ridden much in the past 2.5 years, but I thought they were supposed to be making the employee bathrooms more accessible to the public?

[ChristineVA]

Originally Posted by hilsmom

there ARE bathrooms, but they aren't always available to the public. I haven't ridden much in the past 2.5 years, but I thought they were supposed to be making the employee bathrooms more accessible to the public?

I think if you have a real need to go, you just go to the person working in the station and they will take you to the employee bathroom and unlock it for you. I can understand, for obvious safety reasons, why they don't have public restrooms.

[HEATHER72]

Yeah if I have to go bad enough, I ask the attendant to let me into the bathroom. It's never been an issue. I'd even be willing to PAY to pee!

[cdmurphy]

They are supposed to let you go if you ask. The one time I really needed it (during a snowstorm, after sitting 2+ hours on the Fairfax Connector from Herndon-Monroe to West Falls Church), the guy huffed and rolled his eyes and made it seem like it was the hardest thing ever for him to get up and unlock the door for me. It was pretty nice in there, too - no wonder they keep them locked.

Here's a related article: Bathrooms will be plentiful, accessible on Silver Line Metro. At the end of this article, they mention a self-cleaning toilet at the Huntington station that was part of pilot project but was too expensive for the whole system. Anyone know if it's still there?

Speaking of paying to pee... when we were in France a few years ago, we heard other tourists complaining about having to pay for restrooms at nice places (like shopping centers). I guess they never tried the free ones... I'm always willing to pay a little for a clean bathroom instead of wading through inches of filth in a dark stall. That day I needed to go at WFC Metro, I would have given that guy everything in my wallet if necessary. I still had a 45+ minute ride on the Metro to get to work and I wasn't going to make it.

[brooklynborndad]

Originally Posted by HEATHER72

Yeah if I have to go bad enough, I ask the attendant to let me into the bathroom. It's never been an issue. I'd even be willing to PAY to pee!

maybe someone could, you know, make a musical about that!

[Winter2010]

Anyone with comments about bringing animals to the Metro?

[katyusha25]

Originally Posted by Winter2010

Anyone with comments about bringing animals to the Metro?

I could be wrong, but I think only service animals are allowed in there.

[TillyMarigold]

Originally Posted by Winter2010

Anyone with comments about bringing animals to the Metro?

Yeah. I've seen Metro cops or whatever they're called both on the platforms and on the trains at many, many metro stations/lines. Considering there've been tons of articles in the WaPo about people fined for having a visible bottle of water, I don't think you'd be likely to get away with a dog or cat.

[Winter2010]

Originally Posted by katyusha25

I could be wrong, but I think only service animals are allowed in there.

That's what it says, but who is enforcing the rule though?