Rush Hour Promise Calculator

Not endorsed or produced by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority.

What is this?

This calculates the length of time between two MetroRail stations before Metro owes you a refund under its Rush Hour Promise.

Why this app?

Metro does not have an easy-to-use tool to know when a Rush Hour Promise credit is due. This calculator fills in that gap by allowing you to enter any station pair and finding out what the duration should be.

How does Metro determine the Rush Hour Promise?

Per Metro webpages, a Rush Hour Promise credit is due to customers when travel takes longer than 10 minutes than the expected travel time.

The expected travel time is calculated as per Metro as the sum of:

  • The travel time between the stations according to the journey planner,
  • The maximum amout of time to wait at the platform for a train based on WMATA's timetable,
  • The time to travel between the gate line and the platform at the origin and destination,
    3 minutes at Rosslyn and Wheaton,
    2 minutes at Fort Totten, Gallery Place, L'Enfant Plaza and Metro Center,
    and 1 minute at all other stations
  • and 1 minute to complete transfers across platforms.

What are the limitations of this app?

This app makes certain assumptions about travel on the MetroRail network.

  • If both stations share a rail line, no transfer time is included, even if a transfer might have taken place.
    For example, this app includes no transfer time for a journey from Pentagon City to Capitol South as both stations are on the Blue Line, even though a route on the Yellow Line to Gallery Place might have been faster.
  • If both stations do not share a rail line, 1 minute is added for transfers, even if the transfer time may not have been calculated by WMATA.
  • This app only includes the maximum expected wait time for the next train at the source station, and does not include any waiting time at transfer stations.

Who built this?

Me! A guy named Leo Ji. Say hi on Twitter! @theleoji