How 'bout some iPotties Instead?

There was a lot of Metro news over the holidays.

Metro started random bag screening, they paid a communications firm $1.2 million to help market themselves through "guerrilla marketing," they managed to get the government to give them $150 million with no apparent additional oversight, and they doled out cash and iPads to executives on the finance team.

You really have to wonder if Metro cares about its public image at all any more.

Maybe instead of fancy iPads, Metro should invest a little bit of that $150 million something that will actually benefit riders and employees: iPotties.

The following excerpt is from a recent inspector general report that was passed along by an anonymous tipster:

I.4 Use of pocket tracks as a lavatory presents safety and health risks.
Participants voiced concerns that employees use the pocket tracks (an area where the train can park and permit the train operator to reverse ends and travel in the opposite direction) as a lavatory at Mount Vernon Square, Southern Avenue, and Grosvenor. This safety and health hazard is the result of inadequate time being allowed at the end of the line for train operators to have bathroom breaks. This practice causes delays in performing maintenance inspections on some ATC equipment.

So next time you get a whiff of what you think is sewage or some other malodorous affront, don't be so quick to blame your fellow rider.

Other items:
Metro adds position to escalator/elevator department (Examiner)