Passengers at the Union Station Metro Red/Purple Line Platform stood waiting at 10:00 p.m. Thursday night for an overdue train. A muffled and monotone voice made an announcement that was unintelligible with the exception of the word "Wilshire," which both train routes serve (there was also no update on the LCD screens). Asking other passengers about what it said, they had no idea.

Upon asking a train operator about what the announcement said, he said "we never can" hear those announcements. However, since he already knew what was going on, he explained that the Purple Line was not working and passengers would have to transfer to a bus at Wilshire/Vermont. When told no one knew that due to the announcement no one could understand, he took the time to walk up and down the platform informing passengers about the situation. The train operator, Santos Alvarez (#16671), deserves high kudos for being a helpful and engaged employee.

Delays have plagued the Metro subways this week (three long ones in our experience). One of them was a major delay on Monday evening during rush hour that lasted 80-minutes. We asked Alverez what would happen if he were late to work three out of four days to work. He laughed and said "that would be the end of it."