Monday, March 22, 2010

Communications Consultants Pay Off--Again!


So, Metro finally came out with a broadside awareness campaign to inform customers that there are speed restrictions on the Red Line.

We first heard about them on the 17th, and we asked Metro.

They said "there are some track issues between Tenleytown and Medical Center that have several speed restrictions in place."

We tweeted about it.

We asked Metro to be more specific.

They sent us to this press release, which only vaguely hints at what the "issues" might be.

Of course, we don't know why Metro was not completely forthcoming last week, but if you've been riding the western Red Line for the past several days, you must have wondered what the heck was going on.

Now that Metro has come out with this belated press release, it appears as though Metro had been holding out and only decided to finally come clean after some major attention was starting to get focused on the issue.

What was that about restoring confidence?

Nicely played.

Should we chalk this one up to the communications consultants?

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

The culture at wmata is to hide, hide hide and prey that no one finds out. believe me. i worked there.

Anonymous said...

Can we riders sue to get out dimes back now?

FIRE CATOE GOD DAMMIT! And the consultants too.

I guess Catoe is retiring permanently after this, because I don't see anyone hiring this douche.

James said...

One of the first things the new interim GM should do is reevaluate the WMATA communications strategy. It's terrible and only reacts when the pressure's on.

Anonymous said...

After three or four days of 15+ minute delays between Friendship Heights and Bethesda, I finally asked the station manager at Medical Center (my last stop) on Friday if he knew what was going on. He said he didn't know anything about the track problems there -- he only knew of the single tracking over the weekend between Medical Center and Grosvenor. I told him that I was not going to take Metro at all this week, as I was concerned. He said "I don't blame you" for driving.

Anonymous said...

You know, I've been late to work just about every day because of this. And if my bosses were to ask why, I couldn't even tell them to look at the WMATA status to make them understand IT ISN'T ME. Thanks WMATA. If I lose my job you will have one less rider and one less source of income.

Anonymous said...

This became particularly annoying this am when I swear I could walk faster than we were going between Bethesda and Friendship Heights and the annoying guy in the middle of the car wouldn't shut the F up.

And AGREED with the poster who said that they've been late to work and tried to explain it but the boss clearly doesn't believe them because nothing is listed on WMATA. GET IT TOGETHER METRO!

Anonymous said...

God they suck. We believe in you Mr. Unsuck, but the job is too big;)

Anonymous said...

even GUNN told the Board to level with the public and tell the truth about how bad it is>>>>>guess they didn't get the message .......

Anonymous said...

I have a question. Who, exactly, needs to get this message? Obviously they either are not connected to the outside world to receive it, or they are being held hostage by Hannibal for a good laugh, or do they even exist? Is there really someone that exists who should/could get this message and start in on a cure? Perhaps... there's no one really there....

Anonymous said...

For at least the last couple of weeks, I have noticed that the northbound Yellow and Blue Lines slow to a crawl between the Braddock Road and National Airport stations. This morning the slowing occurred around the bridge over Four Mile Run. I don't notice this on the southbound trip home in the evening but, perhaps, I'm too absorbed in my book.

Anonymous said...

I noticed it last Friday, took like fifteen minutes to go from DCA to Braddock Road.

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