WASHINGTON —An unprecedented 29-hour safety shutdown of subways in the nation’s capital inconvenienced hundreds of thousands of people on Wednesday, but despite predictions of “Metromageddon” or “Metropocalypse,” it was hardly the end of the world.

Many riders shrugged it off, saying it’s what they’ve come to expect from the aging, troubled Metro system.

One popular Twitter feed about the system, (at)unsuckdcmetro, was running a poll on whether the shutdown would solve “Metro’s flaming cables problem.” Thousands voted, with more than three quarters saying no.

“Metro sucks,” said Bob Jones, 26, of Arlington, Virginia as he waited for a bus. The subways are “always slow, always crowded,” he complained.

The nation’s second-busiest rail system stopped its trains at midnight Tuesday for a system-wide inspection of its third-rail power cables after an electrical fire on Monday.

With inspections nearly complete as of 5 p.m. Wednesday, Metro’s general manager, Paul Wiedefeld, said at a news conference that the system would reopen as planned on Thursday at 5 a.m. Inspections of 600 cables found 26 areas of concern requiring replacement or repair, Wiedefeld said, including three he called “show-stoppers.” Many of the issues have already been fixed and others will be before the system reopens, or officials will modify service as a result, he said.