Something unexpectedly arrived at the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station this morning, and it wasn’t an on-time train. At 10:48 a.m., Metro Transit Police tweeted that a woman gave birth to a baby boy on the platform. The mother and baby were both transported to a local hospital and appear to be doing fine, a follow-up tweet said.

Update: According to Metro spokesperson Philip Stewart, the 23-year-old mother was traveling on the green line toward Greenbelt when she went into labor around 10:30 a.m. Coincidentally an off-duty EMT was also on the train. They both got off the train at L’Enfant, where station managers were notified and medics called. According to Stewart, “the baby apparently was not waiting” and was born before help arrived. The EMT, whose identity has not been released, appears to have assisted in the delivery.

Luckily, l’enfant L’Enfant didn’t need to pay an exit fare, since children 4 years or younger ride for free.

Update: Stewart says this is not the first baby to be born on Metro. He couldn’t provide details on previous births but says this is the first in several years. There has also been at least one close call. Almost exactly a year ago, a 22-year-old woman went into labor at the Congress Heights station and was taken to an area hospital before giving birth.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery