Unsuck DC Metro: Bring in the Clowns

Friday, September 17, 2010

Bring in the Clowns

After listening to yesterday's Metro Board committee meeting, it's clear Metro has reached the peak of the peak of asinine dysfunction. Here's a sampling.

We've said this before, but if you really want to get a better understanding (not that you need one) of Metro's woes, listen to a Board or committee meeting. You'll laugh. You'll cry.

PS. At yesterday's committee meeting, it was revealed that the number of fires in the Metro system are rising at an "alarming rate."

Other items:
Another MetroAccess driver goes Metro (TBD)

Comments (25)

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+5 Vote up Vote down

horseydeucey · 757 weeks ago

I don't see how suicide prevention can be that high on WMATA's priority list-- unless, of course, they want to keep any hint of dissatisfaction from the operators...

+14 Vote up Vote down

F'n JD · 757 weeks ago

Did the hired media consultants tell them that $250K on a failed suicide prevention measure might buy them some good press?

And a big thank you to the residents of Ward 1 for reelecting that guy Graham who never rides the Metro. We appreciate the service you have done the region. Rewarding ineptitude and incompetence with 4 more years.

2 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

+12 Vote up Vote down

@VeggieTart · 757 weeks ago

Don't blame me, I voted for Weaver. The Metro incompetence is why I didn't vote for Graham.

New Rules: The people who make decisions about Metro should have to actually RIDE Metro.

+4 Vote up Vote down

John · 757 weeks ago

You mean they actually re-elected that Matthew Lesko look alike who tried to outlaw jumbo slice?

-4 Vote up Vote down

ryan · 757 weeks ago

One thing that is clear about all the suicides is that the people who jump on the tracks are regular riders just fed up with Metro's shit.

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

+7 Vote up Vote down

F'n JD · 757 weeks ago

If they were regular riders they wouldn't be so thoughtless as to inconvenience the rest of us. You want to step in front of a train, use CSX.

+13 Vote up Vote down

vitch · 757 weeks ago

The fact that we're running out of smartrip cards ... should be, somehow, a bigger deal. How could they have been so stupid? No, really? This is just childish idiocy.

4 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

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@kara_h · 757 weeks ago

It also looks like we will not get the 25 cent discount over paper fares or did I read it wrong? So does that those of use that use SmartTrip will have yet another increase in the near future?

+2 Vote up Vote down

@VeggieTart · 757 weeks ago

No, you have to pay more if you use the paper card. The byzantine system indicates the SmarTrip rates, and you pay an extra 25 cents if you use paper farecards.

What I really hate is the freaking peak-of-the-peak bullshit. Planned by people who never use Metro, I am sure. What were they thinking? Let's REALLY confuse people?

And stop me before I compare it to the dream sequence in "Inception" again.

+3 Vote up Vote down

F'n JD · 757 weeks ago

Smarttrip cards - Metro is paying over $3 a card. Yet boingboing.com reports they only cost .25 cents when bought in bulk...WTF Metro!?

+3 Vote up Vote down

GlenmontGirl · 757 weeks ago

I agree. Plus, why do they seem so completely clueless now that they've acknowledged there is a problem? So the company making the cards is going out of business. Put the project up for bids and get another company to make new cards that are still compatible with the current system. How difficult is that?

+12 Vote up Vote down

Ever and Anon · 757 weeks ago

ok. I live a logical kind of life. And I just don't get it...

The card problem - sounds just like the train replacement problem. No foresight.

The bus situation - How about... taking the keys outa the dang bus when not in use?!

How does adoping a sentence create a new framework? Can I use that to build an addition to my house? Ain't got the cash; metro's taking it all.

And ditto, oh so ditto on the Graham comment, F'n JD!

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

+2 Vote up Vote down

anon · 757 weeks ago

Transit buses don't have a set of keys. There is a master switch with the positions of "off", "day run", "night run" and "park". Put the selector in day or night run, push the starter button, and you're off.

+8 Vote up Vote down

anon · 757 weeks ago

I actually listened to part of the meeting yesterday. I was at first impressed by Zimmerman's apparent knowledge, but then he went on and on and on into compete minutiae about some proposed bus changes. Doesn't he have bigger fish to fry? At the end of his "Grahamstanding," I almost felt like he was just bullying the Metro staffer.

The board is a place for pols to appear as if they're doing something, but then shirk all responsibility if something goes wrong.

New start needed.

-4 Vote up Vote down

dan · 757 weeks ago

If they're so worried about people "cheating" with SmartTrip cards, then disable the feaure that allows you to leave the station with a negative balance (I've seen this suggestion made before on this site and I think it's reasonable - you can't do it with paper cards, so what's the big deal about SmartTrip?).

Now, the real problem is that if Metro tried to enact this change, the change to the software that governs the kiosks would probably shut the entire SmartTrip system down for about a week.

4 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

-2 Vote up Vote down

@kara_h · 757 weeks ago

I thought they already did remove that feature?

+1 Vote up Vote down

Anony · 757 weeks ago

I forgot: Are they phasing out paper cards? If not, and a SmartTrip balance goes to zero before someone exits via a turnstile, couldn't that person just buy a paper card for the amount they need before exiting? Or do those machines inside the turnstile area only add value to cards, but not sell new cards?

+3 Vote up Vote down

Ever and Anon · 757 weeks ago

I think the problem is they do not have addfare machines that would work for SmartTrip cards.

+1 Vote up Vote down

anon · 757 weeks ago

You're joking, right? With the current structure in place?

The "big deal about SmarTrip" is that you can't add to the value without going through those very gates you want people to not pass through with a negative balance.

+4 Vote up Vote down

Corresponding Toads · 757 weeks ago

I hate DC. I hate Virginia. I hate Maryland. I hate Metro. I hate my life. :'(

But don't worry guys, I won't be jumping in front of any trains. Thanks to the $250,000 suicide prevention plan, I imagine it'll be pretty much IMPOSSIBLE to kill yourself on Metro.

I wonder if they'll hire a full-time suicide preventer guy. He goes all over the system, yelling, "Don't do it!" into a megaphone.

+7 Vote up Vote down

king friday 13 · 757 weeks ago

Fire them all. Disband the Union.

+3 Vote up Vote down

SoBar · 757 weeks ago

WTOP's Adam Tuss is tweeting from the meeting. Read the tweets and weep: http://twitter.com/atuss

+7 Vote up Vote down

John · 757 weeks ago

So who tops your list of people who need to be fired?
Mine are:
1) David Lacosse (Escalator guy... UNSUCK can you PLEASE do a story on this a-hole?)
2) Jackie Jeter

+4 Vote up Vote down

GlenmontGirl · 757 weeks ago

Speaking of fires in the Metro system...Riding home on the Red Line today on the second car. The train stops between Brookland and Fort Totten. I notice smoke drifting by the windows. A minute later, passengers from the first car start streaming onto our car through the emergency door, along with some smoke. Five minutes pass. No announcement from the train operator, not even a "this train will be moving momentarily." The woman sitting in front of me calls 911. Five more minutes pass. The train suddenly starts to move, and the operator comes on and announces that the train will be out of service when we get to Fort Totten. Everyone on my car laughs/grumbles. The woman on the phone with 911 has to apologize and explain that she only called because she thought something had happened to the train operator, since there had been absolutely no announcement about what was going on.

Gotta love Metro, especially the Red Line.

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

+2 Vote up Vote down

@kara_h · 757 weeks ago

No yelling at them for using the emergency door? Wow!