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If you felt a little closer to your fellow Metro riders last Friday, you certainly weren’t alone. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority reported that more people rode the Metro on July 11 than any other day in the system’s 32-year history.

The Metro system had 854,638 riders, including 25,952 who entered through the Foggy Bottom/GWU Metro Station, said Taryn McNeil, a WMATA public affairs coordinator.

In a news release, the WMATA attributed the surge in riders to a Washington Nationals baseball game, the Women of Faith Conference and a high number of summer tourists. But this summer has already been a record-breaking season for the Metro, with 20 of their top 25 highest weekday ridership days occurring since April—including several days with no major events listed. Commuters and tourists alike seem to be hopping on the Metro to save on rising gas prices.

The previous single-day record took place on June 9, 2004, during former President Ronald Reagan’s State Funeral Service, when 850,636 riders took the Metro. On an average weekday, the Metro and Metrobus combined provide more than 1.2 million trips, according to their Web site.

In loosely related news, two Metro station employees who allegedly ran a prostitution ring out of their Dupont Circle Station were offered anger management, sex addiction and entrepreneurship classes last week in lieu of criminal charges. The charges were pressed when the station’s manager, Sharon Waters, arranged a sexual encounter for an undercover cop—who was posing as a businessman—with Pamela Goins, a Metro custodian. Waters used the Metro’s intercom to page Goins for the arrangement, police said.

Update | 3:06 p.m. Metro has posted a press release on their Web site regarding this morning’s service interruptions. They also issued an advisory stating that any customers who left the system unprocessed will be able to use their farecards during the evening rush hour.

Update | 10:54 a.m. Power returned to the downtown area after the city restored the electrical substation in Chinatown, according to an e-mail sent from the D.C. alert system.

An electrical substation in Chinatown failed this morning resulting in power outages throughout downtown D.C., according to an e-mail from the District’s alert system.

The Dupont Circle, Shaw-Howard U, Farragut North, Farragut West and McPherson Square Metro stations are running on emergency power, which a Metro spokesperson said could make elevators, escalators and fare card vending machines inoperable, according to The Washington Post. However, the stations remain open, The Post said.

City officials do not know when power will be resumed, according the alert system e-mail.

Metrorail service is also affected this morning because of a fire on the Red Line, according to a later e-mail sent from the District’s alert system. Although the fire has been extinguished, delays exceeding an hour remain for commuters using the Red Line, the e-mail said.

Anyone staying on campus this weekend should expect up to 20 minute delays on the orange and blue lines due to track maintenance. There is also construction on the red and green lines, with similar delays.

The full release with complete details was issued earlier this afternoon by WMATA. Plan accordingly.