9/12 Protesters Decry D.C. Metro Service, Demand Investigation

Crowd estimates for last Saturday's "9/12" protests in Washington, D.C. ranged from the tens of thousands to the low millions. But one statistic is a little more solid: riders of the capital's Metro rail system doubled, from 202,528 on an average Saturday to 437,624 the day of the protest.

And some protesters say the service issues they experienced that day were intolerable -- enough so to warrant a government investigation. Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Tex.) sent a letter to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, saying the taxpayer-funded system was insufficient for transporting the demonstrators around the city to protest government spending. He called for an investigation to determine whether or not the city planned adequately for the event.

"These individuals came all the way from Southeast Texas to protest the excessive spending and growing government intrusion by the 111th Congress and the new Obama administration," Brady wrote. "These participants, whose tax dollars were used to create and maintain this public transit system, were frustrated and disappointed that our nation's capital did not make a great effort to simply provide a basic level of transit for them."

Tea Party Protesters Protest D.C. Metro Service [WSJ Washington Wire]