But riders have reported delays and no-show buses on the X1, X2, X3 and X9, which provide access for people who travel from Minnesota Avenue Metro station toward the heart of the District.

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Elected officials and leaders, prompted by a rash of angry emails and phone calls they say they have received from constituents, are calling for immediate changes. Ward 7 Advisory Neighborhood Commission Chair Sherice A. Muhammad and others are doubling down on recent criticisms that Metro failed to adequately plan workarounds for communities impacted by the latest surge.

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“This is what we were afraid of from the beginning,” Muhammad said. “The overwhelming response we’ve gotten in the first few days were not good responses.”

Riders have been sharing commuting horror stories. One woman said an inbound X2 bus was so crowded in the middle of the afternoon that she had to stand next to the driver.

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Another woman, 66-year-old Ella Cuff, said she was late to her job in Georgetown every day this week because of no-show buses. She said she usually commutes to work by either jumping on the Orange Line or waiting for the X2, a bus that normally is almost always regular and reliable.

But Wednesday morning, Cuff said, she waited for 40 minutes before she was able to board the X2. At one point, she said, a bus flashing “X2” on its display arrived at Minnesota Avenue station, where she had been waiting — but when it arrived, she said, a supervisor instructed the driver to switch the display to X1.

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The riders waiting for an X2 grew increasingly angry —and the crowd grew too—with no X2 in sight.

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“The people out there this morning, they were so fed up, they were cursing,” said Cuff, who lives a few blocks from Minnesota Avenue station. “It was just ridiculous. This has never happened before.”

Another resident, who asked not to be identified by name because she is a government employee, also emailed Lini to complain about the buses. She normally takes the Orange Line to work in the mornings, but she decided that her next-best option during the rail shutdown would be the X1 bus, which starts at Minnesota Ave. and terminates in Foggy Bottom.

“After waiting for the X1 the other morning for over 30 minutes, during which time two of them should have already arrived and departed, I gave up and took one of the shuttles to Stadium Armory instead to grab metro rail there,” wrote the woman, who relies exclusively on Metro because she doesn’t have a car. “A serious waste of time, when I was simply trying to use a regular metro bus and route with no major delays.”

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The problems have become so severe, Muhammad said, that she and other Ward 7 leaders — including D.C. Council member Vincent C. Gray (D) — are scheduled to meet with Metro staff Saturday to discuss potential solutions to help better provide service to affected riders for the next three weeks.

Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said any issues with delayed X-line buses are due to increased traffic in the area of North Capitol and H Streets. Some of that traffic may be due to Surge 15, as some Metro riders opt to commute by car for the duration of the Orange Line shutdown.

But even with potential traffic-related delays, ANC Commissioner Justin Lini said Metro needs to improve the options for riders who are staring down three more weeks without the Orange Line.

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“If I were commuting to work right now, my first alternative would be the X2. But instead of a 10-minute headway, there’s a 30-minute headway,” Lini said.

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Muhammad said she has heard from a few people that were satisfied with the bus shuttles running between the shuttered Orange line stations. But, she said, some confusion remains about where those buses go and how often they depart.

Muhammad said she hasn’t seen any data on ridership for the bus shuttles, but she remains concerned that not enough people know they’re available. Metro also needs to improve its communication with riders, she said.