Unsuck DC Metro: They're Lining Up Early

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

They're Lining Up Early

Crowds line up at Foggy Bottom to get their hands on a new iFareAdjustment 3.0.1.*

After much fanfare and a few last minute technical delays (and here) that cost the agency some $60,000, Metro is finally ready to unveil the highly anticipated release of iFareAdjustment 3.0.1 during this evening's rush hour. It is the third fare innovation this year! The iFareAdjustment 3.0.1 includes new features like:

A new 20-cent peak-of-the-peak fee during afternoon weekday travel periods
An increase in the cost of three Metrorail passes
A 25-cent increase in cost for Metrorail customers who use a paper fare card instead of a SmarTrip card
SmarTrip wackiness
SmartBenefits screw ups
Crazy signage
More single tracking
Bigger offloads
Dumbfounded tourists
Longer broken escalators
Ruder employees
Slower operating faregates
More broken trains
Hotter hot cars
Longer delays
And much, much more!

It's everything you love to hate about Metro at a new, higher price!

*Crowds like this are expected for some time.

Other items:

Original photo: @peroty Foggy Bottom elevator line. http://yfrog.com/6bturoj and stairs http://yfrog.com/7gq6jsj #wmata @unsuckdcmetro

Comments (17)

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Djohnson · 764 weeks ago

Something I've not seen answered, not that I've really looked particularly hard since I currently use a Smartrip--will the 25-cent surcharge on paper tickets apply to every trip taken using a weekly-pass (short- or fast-pass) paper ticket?

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mdguy429 · 764 weeks ago

Ah, the Metro penalty for working. Gotta love it. And what news do I find out the same day as the penalty is enacted? My home station will be closed over Labor Day!

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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@kara_h · 764 weeks ago

You have to wonder where they think we go twice a day. Maybe they think those dimes come from thin air or something.

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Marsh · 764 weeks ago

If the month has an "R" in it, will there be another surcharge?

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jkuchen · 764 weeks ago

FAIL!!! I entered WFC at 4:32 and tried to exit Vienna around 4:46. The turnstiles would not let me pass! The station manager re-entered me, and I exited through the handicapped turnstile. Of course the display wasn't working, so I couldn't tell what I was charged. This happened for everyone who got on at WFC or Dunn Loring. and for a friend who was on a later train who entered the system at Ballston. Major fail!

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More is More · 764 weeks ago

I rode the Metro today because I had to head to Downtown DC via the red/green lines. My ride there was smooth but the ride back... not so much. I transferred to the green line at Fort Totten and when I got the the platform at 5:28pm, the message board said the next trains would arrive in 8, 18, and 20 minutes. I thought to myself, "Isn't this rush hour? Is this what I'm paying these peak-of-the-peak charges for?". On the brighter side, when I arrive at my destination, the Smartrip machine at the parking garage was broken so parking for the day was free! So while I had to pay 20 dents extra for that stellar train service, I saved $4.25 in the end. Way to go Metro!

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@elizabethtalks · 764 weeks ago

I can't even begin to describe how angry this Foggy Bottom situation is making me. They have been persistently having problems at that station with the turnstiles, and there was literally a cop yelling at people today to stay off the escalators and not enter the station. Mornings where the mezzanine is backed up trying to get out. Or nights like tonight where I had to go completely out of my way to get home.

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dddddda · 764 weeks ago

Are the slow faregates a consequence of the new fares? I noticed about 3 weeks ago that the gates were sooooooo slllllooooooowwwww at reading my SmartTrip, to the point that I've almost run into several gates! This truly sucks!

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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Godsend Conspirator · 764 weeks ago

I've noticed the Smartrip readers on the faregates have been acting differently as well. The light used to always been red. When you swiped your Smartrip, it would immediately turn green and allow you through. NOW, the light is always OFF entirely, so when you swipe your Smartrip, it first has to turn red THEN green. It's like a one second difference, but it threw me off.

+7 Vote up Vote down

Dying patient · 764 weeks ago

Time to start over from scratch. New WMATA compact, new union contracts, and all.

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@kara_h · 764 weeks ago

Hmm ... I wonder if people who got to Foggy Bottom well before peak of the peak but were kept out until then (and thus charged more through no fault of their own) would have a legitimate class action against metro?

Just a random idea ....

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@deafinthecity · 764 weeks ago

Can someone tell me what is the fare for rail to bus transfer for Metro? I'm asking because when I got on the Dash BusVA, the rail to bus transfer was 1 dollars! They did not say anything about this when they increase their fares last month and I'm pissed.

Thanks.

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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Kipp · 764 weeks ago

Yes, all local bus fares increased. I ride the Fairfax Connector and the transfer fair increased from 75 cents to 1 dollar. The discount for the transfer remained the same, it's just that all bus fares went up by 25 cents. It was communicated in the fare increase documents.

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mark5four0 1p · 764 weeks ago

Free rides to Vienna last night! When I got there at 5:15 the station manager just opened all the turnstyles and let everyone through because they couldn't figure it out.

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dddddda · 763 weeks ago

Yep, it sounds like Metro's hit its limit on the programming. Not that what they did should have been so incredibly difficult, but, obviously, the system that they have can't handle the multitude of fares being charged. While Metro covers a lot of ground, and I can therefore see their argument for a distance-based charge, the peak, peak-of-the-peak, paper farecard, and harvest moon specialty charges are clearly too much for the system to handle. It's time to simplify the system, guys. Perhaps work on getting that pass-on-SmartTrip thing working, and then sell a discounted off-peak weekly or monthly pass, and charge peak fares all the time otherwise? Commuters who travel during peak times won't be charged any more than they already are, tourists who pay per trip would pay slightly more (fine by me, since they insist on mucking up my commute by traveling to the Smithsonian at 8 AM when it DOESN'T EVEN OPEN UNTIL 10!), and those who can adjust their travel times to travel in off-peak hours would still be rewarded (I understand the incentive to get people to spread out the commuting a bit, and you COULD get a pass through Metro benefits, before they went SmartBenefits only). It seems like that might knock *just* enough programming off to keep the system working, maybe?

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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@kara_h · 763 weeks ago

The pass is .... ehh. What if some of your trips in the month are off-peak and some are peak? Should you have to pay for an entire monthly/weekly pass just because you went home early one day?

Even if all of your trips are off-peak, there is a certain radius where you are actually paying more to use a pass than to pay per trip. Only one year so far has it actually made financial sense to me to even get a short-trip pass.