But that would interfere with WMATA's ingenious plan to replace old faregates that basically encourage faejumpers with NEW faregates that are exactly the same but just allow a new form of payment. /s

Shoot! I don’t even think about that. I’m sorry. But…Amtrak works in both directions and isn’t toooo much more costly. I mean, they use the same tracks and station so that may be a good alternative. Less frequencies, though, so you’ll have to plan more carefully.

If you're a Civil War (or general history) buff, you can take VRE down to Fredericksburg and explore/visit the battlefield for the, aptly named, Battle of Fredericksburg. It was fairly pivotal in the larger scheme of the war given how close it is to DC. It's been a while since I was there as part of a class, so I may be off base. But it's still easy to do without a car. Plus the historic part of F'burg is cool for the old homes/businesses and boutique shops, if that's your thing.

It's not impossible. And those are just as valid guesses as any - save for maybe the whole "wrapped in paper" thing. But not being up to date on meth/crack practices, who knows what advances have been made through science. Crackpipe-less crack? The future is now!!

Meth, maybe? Or crack.

Oh, I absolutely get that and that's a well-spoken point. It's a problem everywhere, and not just in the US. I live part time in Barcelona and while the metro there has slightly less jumpable fare gates, it's still done with some frequency. What's comical is that WMATA has the audacity to act as if they care, when they clearly don't nor does the city. So the anti-gate-jumpers media is so frustratingly stupid and the complete lack of give-a-shit from Metro PD when they literally have nothing else to do is all just so laughable. It truly makes me wonder what kind of trained geese are running WMATA.

This is so comical to me because I've seen, in the last 2 months, three instances on the Red Line alone of a group of teens-to-early-twenties kids/people jump the turnstiles while a literal group of DC Metro PD officers (at least 4 each time, one with a dog) were about 20 feet away just shooting the shit and having a good time. In each group, at least half of them saw this happen and none of them did a thing. Admittedly, I don't have a ton of respect for Metro PD because, honestly, what do they actually do? Then you see junk like that and any modicum of respect I did have is completely erased. Then on top of that WMATA is actively posting digital and physical posters about reporting turnstile jumpers. What a farce. What's Metro PD going to do? Stand around doing nothing even harder? Instead of raising fares (though they are pretty cheap comparatively, I'll agree), why doesn't WMATA make their cops DO something? Or maybe install fare gates that prevent jumping?