Are you headed to the Dupont Circle Metro Station this evening? If so, I bet you’ll not want to do my usual “Free Stairmaster Challenge” and climb the 155 steps of the Q Street North Exit at max speed.

No, you’ll want to relax and stay cool as you’re taken to the surface.

Um, good luck with that. It seems that one escalator is unavailable there and both mezzanine to platform elevators are unavailable for an extended capital improvement project.

Before you start to bitch, guess what? Metrorail will be launching Operation H2O this afternoon and giving out 7,000 bottles of water from 2pm until 7pm or they run out.

That should be enough to keep you cool, apparently only 4,620 passengers exit the Dupont Circle Q Street side on average.

Next, give love to Metro Interim General Manager Dan Tangherlini who says:

“Distributing water to passengers after they climb up our escalators is our way of saying thank you to our loyal customers, and to also thank them for their patience while we make these repairs.”

Dan, you got our love and our thirst.