Unsuck DC Metro: Safety Winning!

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Safety Winning!

Via @esamek Hey @unsuckdcmetro, @fixwmata & @wmata fix your piece of crap trains- The walls are caving in! http://t.co/5OItovK

Via @mikepetrucci Hey #wmata, won't the train hit this? Yellow Line: Eisenhower, direction of Mount Vernon Convention Center. http://twitpic.com/45i4bv

Other items:
Washington Post favors bag checks
Rider sues Metro for elevator free falls (Examiner)
DC area has fourth worst traffic in nation (WTOP)

Comments (36)

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+6 Vote up Vote down

John · 733 weeks ago

Duh, WINNING!

2 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

-2 Vote up Vote down

Kara · 733 weeks ago

Drat! Someone else got to that comment first! :)

+1 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 733 weeks ago

Have you asked metro for the number of employees who get hurt from unsafe equiptment, faulty brakes, snow/ice left on walks to work for days, intentional harrasment by supervisors, failure to provide proper safety equiptment?

-1 Vote up Vote down

F'n JD · 733 weeks ago

Fire Sarles

5 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

+7 Vote up Vote down

#teamsheen · 733 weeks ago

Metro needs to #planbetter... and hire a #WarlockVaticanAssassin

+4 Vote up Vote down

Matt G · 733 weeks ago

And who will take his job? I hear John Catoe is looking for work.

+1 Vote up Vote down

anon · 733 weeks ago

He's too busy protecting the Green Hornet.

+1 Vote up Vote down

@AnnapolisRob · 733 weeks ago

Heaven help the Green Hornet, then.

0 Vote up Vote down

anon · 733 weeks ago

He can apply to drive a bus,

+19 Vote up Vote down

· 733 weeks ago

While these seem like small issues, they reflect a general lack of attention to detail that is like a cancer among many Metro workers. You see this, but think of what you can't see.

I'm former Metro, and I won't ride their death trap.

2 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

+3 Vote up Vote down

guest · 733 weeks ago

I agree. This is minor of what really what goes on. It appears in the first photo --the door pocket door was closed with a handy coin. The proper tool--simple screwdriver was not handy.

Riders: watch your legs, clothes and especially children on the seats that are enclosed. You are taking big chances if you think a mechanic gave a shit that the seats were latched. Seats tend to latch with weight and jerking of train. If clothing or fingers get caught, it will require mechanic with special key to unlatch seat-- if he has one handy.

+6 Vote up Vote down

Matt G · 733 weeks ago

See something? Say something to the nearest metro employee. I'm Janet Napolitano...

+3 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 733 weeks ago

This is from a few years back, but rest assured, very little of this has been addressed, and it's only gotten worse.

3 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

+3 Vote up Vote down

Catoe · 733 weeks ago

Looks like not enough money has been thrown at those problems... raise fares!

+2 Vote up Vote down

@marilynluvher88 · 733 weeks ago

this video was scary and sad to watch. i cannot tell you how much physical damage i encounter on my daily commute on metro bus and train. right now at addison rd station, the tiles are coming up and "tripping" passengers on entry and exit- what makes it worse is that almost everyday on my way out and back, i see a "wet floor" cone on top of the most highly damaged areas SMH.

0 Vote up Vote down

anonymous · 733 weeks ago

Blame the smart engineers for the tile selection.

+4 Vote up Vote down

anonny · 733 weeks ago

The post and this are interesting. It's a crime--nothing less--that Metro has been allowed to fall into such a state.

In the "new normal" I don't see how it's going to turn things around.

0 Vote up Vote down

Mike · 733 weeks ago

Just give Metro management a boatload of money and they will let it trickle down to the ever ready to serve metro employees and things will be better tomorrow. (wait we already do that). And in case you are wondering add /sarc/ to the end of the comment. ;-)

+9 Vote up Vote down

Anonerly Ever · 733 weeks ago

So, the truth is out. Charlie Sheen is running Metro. Who'da thunk? ;-D

+2 Vote up Vote down

phan · 733 weeks ago

Arlington Cemetary, Virginia-bound side looks like it was bombed. There are broken tiles, safety cones blocking who knows what and just a general unkemptness. I don't think they are going to get that fixed by the Touron Invasion.

2 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

-2 Vote up Vote down

Kara · 733 weeks ago

Umm .... I thought the next stop either way after Arlington Cemetary were both in Virginia? Or do you mean the southern direction from there?

0 Vote up Vote down

phan · 733 weeks ago

I mean the Blue Line heading into Virginia. South, I guess. The DC bound side goes to Rosslyn and then the next stop is DC, so I see it as DC bound vs VA bound.

+11 Vote up Vote down

One take · 733 weeks ago

Current METRO Attitude of Opening Winning Doors:

-“Give me my paycheck”;
-While I talk on my cell phone because “Listen, it’s 5:01, I’m off duty and I’m putting in for overtime for having to yell at you for asking me to do my job”.
-While escalators disintegrate under the feet of riders (or at least the ones that are actually operating);
-While violent gangs of “Jeter’s Finest Youth” assault riders and commuters who actually have an non-government subsidized education, job, future, responsibilities, etc…;
-While cones are left on the tracks;
-While signs are hung upside down (not as big and issue as the first ones, but still kind of funny);
-Oh, and “Give me my paycheck”

+9 Vote up Vote down

Bit T · 733 weeks ago

You can't write complaint emails if your fingers are lopped off in an exposed door mechanism.

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

+2 Vote up Vote down

WMATA cust. serv. · 733 weeks ago

What type of finger was it? Pinky? Ring?
What category? Important? Meh?
Did you like the finger? Was it prone to papercuts?
How did you manage to misuse the METRO when your finger freed itself from your body?
What's your first name?
Last name?
Email?
Address?
I SAID ADDRESS!
ADDRESS DAMMMNITT!!!
WHAT YOU THINK I'M HERE TO SERVE YOU?
I'M NO SLAVE, ADDRESS NOWWW!!!
PHONE?
Bra size?
Favorite color?
Feeling on the misuse of the words then and than?
When did you place your finger where it wasn't to be?
What time was it?
Bus route no?
Bus no?
Rail line?
Car no (If you answer this we know you're just looking to get paid, nobody knows the car number, it's a secret!)
Station?
Destination?
Incident address?
Incident city? (didn't we just ask this?)
Incident state? (see, we're trying to bore you to death and make you angry by repeating what we've already asked so you stop filling this out!)
Comments? (Here is where we stop reading and pass this on to someone else who puts it into a loop to be sent a reply email apologizing for the length in time we'll take to not read your comment.)

If you filled this out we know you're lying. Nobody who lost a finger would bother with all this filling out of forms for something that could be stated in five words or less. Thank you for riding on METRO, and tanks for the digit!

+6 Vote up Vote down

Logic Escapes Metro · 733 weeks ago

Does anyone use the Shady Grove station? Have you noticed, or tripped over, the 3/4" pieces of plywood nailed to the ground to cover the gaps in the floor that are right along the edge of the platform? They put down these 1' x 2' x 3/4" plywood pieces like every 30' because the recent redo of the platform was done so poorly that there are gaps. Since the planners of the station were too stupid to realize a single exit wasn't going to be enough for Shady Grove, we're all forced to exit the platform like cattle off to slaughter, and people keep tripping over the wood because you can't see it laying on the ground when you're huddled like that trying to exit. A friend of mine emailed metro, but I don't think they replied except to apologize for the delay in reply. They haven't worked on the platform in over a month, probably two at this point, so I guess we should expect the plywood to be a permanent fixture until someone trips over it as an oncoming train approaches and falls onto the tracks.

Who lays down planks of plywood on a walkway? Seriously. Then again, when your incompetence only means more lawsuits to which you raise fares to throw more money at the problem, well, I guess your priorities are different from most.

5 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

+4 Vote up Vote down

@DC_Chickie · 733 weeks ago

Call OSHA -- that's a safety violation (trip hazard)

0 Vote up Vote down

bet · 733 weeks ago

Call OSHA on the asbestos found inside the Station this month too!

+2 Vote up Vote down

anon · 733 weeks ago

Is that why those are there? The redo of the platform - the bumpy edges, anyway - was just completely crappily done, on both sides. At the far end, there's an incline from that part to the main part of the platform, but a few feet farther up it's almost flat. Like they couldn't be bothered to level the damn thing off before getting all masonry on it.

It looks unfinished.

-4 Vote up Vote down

@kara_h · 733 weeks ago

I wonder if that is related to the plywood along the walkway at dupont?

+2 Vote up Vote down

thedofc · 733 weeks ago

The yellow plywoods are placed on the platforms while the bumps are being installed. No, there's nothing wrong with the platform, they're just being upgraded.

+3 Vote up Vote down

Joolz · 733 weeks ago

It's a progression: letting trash lie around, leaving small things unrepaired as in the pictures above, ignoring acts of vandalism, allowing major things such as escalators to stay broken indefinitely, turning a blind eye to violent crimes, and finally, mass chaos and disintegration of the infrastructure. I think I'll walk.

+1 Vote up Vote down

Rory · 733 weeks ago

I'm driving in for 9 weeks now, and not seeing a downside yet.

2 replies · active less than 1 minute ago

+2 Vote up Vote down

Matt G · 733 weeks ago

Wait till gas hits $5/gallon

0 Vote up Vote down

Meredith · 733 weeks ago

I dunno. I'm with Rory. When the escalator fell apart at Foggy Bottom and I realized I'm not even safe climbing the out-of-service escalators anymore, I decided to figure out a way to get into the city in my car. I recently started picking up slugs and my commute time was cut in half and it's cheaper. It would take gas at about $8 or $9 per gallon for it to cost less than driving to Springfield, parking and taking the Metro. And even though slugs don't pay for gas, I'm still reducing gasoline consumption by only driving my car instead of me, plus the three people I pick up all driving in. I don't think I'll be going back to Metro anytime soon, but I will continue to be a part of any efforts by riders to improve the system. It's criminal neglect, corruption, and serious danger and it's important that it end.