Monday, March 22, 2010

There's No Such Thing as this Metro Anymore



Ah, the heady days of Metro. The quaint notion of getting to work early, staying "fundamentally alive" and high(er) production value commercials. Yes, for many, Metro is still better than driving to work, but of late, that margin has shrunk tremendously.

Sadly, one of the most accurate aspects of this '80s (or '90s) commercial is the Metrobus nearly crashing into the Metrorail station.

Other items:
Public hearings on budget gap this week (WMATA)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another accurate aspect of this commercial: The doors didn't close properly and the passenger had to exit the train and stand on the platform again. Ah...some things never change!

Hannah said...

LOL @ "Sadly, one of the most accurate aspects of this '80s (or '90s) commercial is the Metrobus nearly crashing into the Metrorail station" and the commenter above me. :D

Unknown said...

Here's my problem with metro v. driving. It costs me $2.20 each way on metro and takes about 45 minutes. I live 10 minutes from downtown, about 30 driving at rush hour. When a friend who lives 5 minutes from me and I drive in sometimes, it costs $10 to park - $5 each. So, for both of us to skip metro and drive in together would only be a few cents more... One more dime in fare hikes will send us straight into the arms of the parking garage.

Varun said...

@Sarah:
Agreed. At $3.65 each way for two of us, that's $14.60 each day on the Metro. The garage is already cheaper per day ($14) if we get in before 9am, which we normally do. But we're factoring in gas and depreciation at about $1 per day, so the car costs about $15 per day to drive in; it may actually be less because I'm paying daily not monthly. Another 20c rise in fares and I'm at parity for driving in, and I don't have to worry about my car breaking down randomly in the middle of a tunnel.

Anonymous said...

Where's your post about Metro having scheduled six hearings to get public input on options for closing a $189 million budget deficit for the fiscal year that begins July 1. They also have a survey to get public feedback about the options at http://www.wmata.com/survey.cfm. My feedback anyway is just replace the DC bag tax for a metro tax and we'll be all set!

By the way - there's a typo in the online survey - Under Section 4 Question 8. Reduce service intervals and train length -

"Change peak period Red Line service such that there will be trains every three minutes from Gosvenor to Silver"

Anonymous said...

Today's commercial would probably say: "Ride Metro. It's Subsidized!" (for federal workers)

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