Metro Greeter gets Mixed Reviews

We heard from several people about the Metro employee greeting riders at Farragut West. It drew mixed reviews.

According to Metro, "The expectation is that all station managers greet and communicate with customers during their shifts."

From Colin:

What is this Walmart? Yesterday morning at the Farragut West station, a Metro employee was standing on the other side of the turnstiles wishing everyone a "good morning" or a "happy Tuesday" in much the same way that the greeter at a big box store might welcome you.

As nice as this is, my first reaction was to say, as I passed by, "Good morning, make the trains run on time."

A fellow Metro prisoner in front of me heartily agreed in a heavy German accent, expressing his outrage with the system which stranded us between Arlington Cemetery and Rosslyn for about 10 minutes this morning.

"The system sucks and what do they do?," he asked. "They make the effort not to fix anything but to have someone wish us good morning."

The question posed to us in the Express yesterday was "What can Metro do to make the system better without spending additional money?" I've got a few suggestions and putting greeters in the stations is not one of them.

I realize that putting the trains back on automatic control may be too much to ask, but it would be nice if they tried to figure out where the trains are in relation to one another. That would make my mornings much more enjoyable.

Matt had a different take:

Yesterday morning, at Farragut West, the manager was greeting every customer at the faregates saying good morning. It was really nice to see.

JW was mixed:

1) around 7:10pm last Wednesday I arrived at Clarendon. Of course, when I tried to leave, my Smartrip card had the "see station manager" error. After not being able to find a station manager or any other Metro employee for several minutes, I just went through the exit gate.

2) There was a Metro employee at Farragut West yesterday morning greeting all the passengers almost like a Walmart greeter. "Good morning everyone," "smile," etc. It may be a nice thought, but it seems like there are plenty of other things that the station employees should be doing. See 1 above.

Other items:
Va. bid for more Metro board seats appears likely to be defeated (WaPo) Examiner
Metro ridership declining fast (TBD Video)