Unsuck DC Metro: Is Metro Lying (Again)?

Friday, July 6, 2012

Is Metro Lying (Again)?

via @GenWeSolve: Refund @wmata? http://t.co/aJWHJ77X

So ol' Dan "the stesseler" Stessel told the Post the "self evacuation" (Please. Isn't there a better term?) was the riders' call.

According to @nataliedell, who was on the train, that isn't the case:

I know that sometimes a power line is going to fail, or Metro riders are going to be stranded for a while, and that most people are working very hard to make sure that people get where they're going on time.

Most of the riders on my car had a good attitude about the inconvenience on Tuesday, and only a few seemed irate. I looked at it as an adventure and a story I'd be able to tell my friends.

The thing that burns me up is that the story that's being put out there isn't true, and that riders (who were charged at the Metro fare gates when we finally got out) are being blamed for part of the inconvenience.

The Washington Post story implies that the rescue train was shut down deliberately because people started getting off the train and walking on the tracks, but that's not what actually happened.

Rather, people started leaving the train and walking on the tracks AFTER the rescue train lost power and after the conductor told us we could leave. There was very poor communication from Metro - only three or so announcements in the 30 or so minutes that we waited on the train. I was tweeting and following #wmata on Twitter during that time, and the only way I learned that the rescue train had failed was from other folks on Twitter.

Here's what I posted in the comments on today's Washington Post story - many other commentators on the train that day tell a similar story:

I was on the train about mid-way back, and had to learn via Twitter rather than from the conductor, that the rescue train had also lost power. Lost power - not had it shut off.

There was very, very little communication coming from the conductor at all during those hot 30 or so minutes.

The conductor eventually told us that we could leave "if we wanted to" because the third rail had no power, not the opposite way around, as WMATA is claiming in the article.

Here are @nataliedell's tweets from the scene:

Comments (28)

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+19 Vote up Vote down

@TheHornGuy · 663 weeks ago

I hope there were no special needs passengers on that train. A wheelchair can't be pushed nor pulled down a gravelly track bed.

2 replies · active 663 weeks ago

+25 Vote up Vote down

@Hell_on_wheelz · 663 weeks ago

I said it at the time and I'll post it here - I am so thankful I was working at home on Tuesday. That is the time I am on the Green Line and College Park is my home station. I would probably have been on that train.

Even a powerchair cannot traverse a track bed.

Metro is using "demand management" to force people with disabilities off of Metro Access and onto bus and rail service - knowing that it is not safe. Knowing that there is no way to evacuate us out of harms way IN TIME. Eventually we'll be "recovered" but how long does smoke inhalation or heat prostration take?

I commute daily with the knowledge that should anything happen that requires a train evacuation I am probably dead.

+9 Vote up Vote down

Anony · 663 weeks ago

Given the high probability of an incident with WMATA, this is important. If the transit system were actually functional, I don't think this decision to move people onto rail/buses would be as important. As is often the case with WMATA, one problem compounds another.

+27 Vote up Vote down

John · 663 weeks ago

Dr. Gridlock's piss poor "journalism" strikes again! Just takes the word of Dan Stessel and leaves it at that! We need to start sending a massive amount of letters to his editor demanding he and his entire team be replaced. Its obvious he just doesn't give a crap about Metro or its riders.

2 replies · active 663 weeks ago

+11 Vote up Vote down

guest · 663 weeks ago

One can't help but wonder why the Post doesn't just let Metro's PR department submit copy directly to the editors. I'm sure it would be cheaper, and if they're just going to uncritically reprint anything that Metro tells them anyway, why both paying these "reporters"?

-3 Vote up Vote down

@VeggieTart · 663 weeks ago

Gasp! Maybe Dr. Gridlock is a part-timer in the Metro PR department and got a gig with the Post with the agreement to tout Metro.

+24 Vote up Vote down

horseydeucey · 663 weeks ago

The reason this blog needs to exist encapsulated perfectly.
When WMATA flacks have a near monopoly on a complicit media, misinformation will rule.
WMATA is a frighteningly horrible organization.

6 replies · active 663 weeks ago

+11 Vote up Vote down

Anony · 663 weeks ago

THIS is why Loudoun County should have rejected WMATA. Or at least they should have said: "Here is money set aside for Metrorail. Call us when you have your &%$# together.

-7 Vote up Vote down

John · 663 weeks ago

Dumb.

+4 Vote up Vote down

jkuchen · 663 weeks ago

This raises an interesting point. Shouldn't Loudoun County have held out for a seat on the board? They'll be the only municipality with track in their territory that won't have a seat.

In all honesty, I didn't follow that aspect of the debate closely, so if that was part of the deal, mea culpa.

+6 Vote up Vote down

horseydeucey · 663 weeks ago

I think I tend to agree with you. I'm no policy or transit wonk, but it seems an easy call to me that one of Metro's biggest failings is lack of oversight. At some point I think this will have to change if Metro is to survive. Really. I think things are becoming that dire.
I don't live in Loudon, but was getting dismayed they appeared to be balking on the SL. But shit, when does some municipality or government agency say "enough is enough?"

+4 Vote up Vote down

John · 663 weeks ago

As much as I don't like the way Metro is being run at the moment... you do realize it spurs a ton of economic development, right? I mean just look at real estate prices near a metro station, and look at how much commercial development takes place near metro stations.

It won't be completed out there for like 5 years. Lets hope by then, Unsuck's efforts will command REAL change at Metro...

0 Vote up Vote down

Anon · 663 weeks ago

Loudoun county know Metro managers and the union want the whites money but do not want to hire whites and put them on their payroll;

do not vote for a system that discriminates at the bones.

+22 Vote up Vote down

Kevin · 663 weeks ago

Somebody should ask the Ombudsman at the Washington Post how many FOIA requests Dr. Gridlock has submitted to WMATA. I have to imagine it is zero.

I would be willing to bet that if you did a Lexis/Nexus search of every Dr. Gridlock column ever published you would never encounter the phrase "in documents obtained by the Washington Post." Dr. Gridlock is not a reporter, he's a conduit for WMATA.

2 replies · active 663 weeks ago

+2 Vote up Vote down

John · 663 weeks ago

how do we get in contact with him?

+10 Vote up Vote down

Kara · 663 weeks ago

via Dan Stessel

+7 Vote up Vote down

jkuchen · 663 weeks ago

And sorry to Unsuck for having to come back early from vacation to cover this, but you knew that Metro couldn't go a week without something going terribly wrong, especially if you were away for that week :-)

I did see that NBC4 had some news story on Wednesday about the event, and they were interviewing passengers, but unfortunately the volume was down and I can't read lips. Surely some traditional media stream will come through for us. (I know--they won't come through, and don't call me Shirley.)

1 reply · active 663 weeks ago

+5 Vote up Vote down

@Hell_on_wheelz · 663 weeks ago

WUSA 9 had a full piece on the incident with interviews of the passengers and information from the first responders. Interestingly, THEY skipped the Damn Stessel lies. http://collegepark.wusa9.com/news/news/113017-pow...

+34 Vote up Vote down

Stan Dessel · 663 weeks ago

The average weight loss per passenger that day was over three pounds.

You're welcome!

1 reply · active 663 weeks ago

+9 Vote up Vote down

Anon5 · 663 weeks ago

Dear WMATA:

You stole three pounds from me, and I want them back.

+28 Vote up Vote down

@GenWeSolve · 663 weeks ago

Just sent this email to Dan Stessel (Chief Spokesperson & Director of Communications at WMATA CC'ed the author of the WaPo Article Miranda S. Spivack.

Dear Mr. Stessel,

I was very disturbed after reading the WaPo article (http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/rebellion-on-the-green-line-as-passengers-flee-stalled-metro-train/2012/07/04/gJQA7rk7NW_story.html) about the July 3 metro rail power loss that occurred on the Greenline to Greenbelt. As someone who was on the train that scorching afternoon for 30 min or so (you can see my pictures on Twitter: @GenWeSolve), it was very disheartening to read that it was a "self-evacuation" and that somehow the passengers were at fault for WMATA's failures. One of the passengers on my train actually called Metro Police, while simultaneously pressing the emergency button on the train, after we were told 10 min or so prior another train was on the way to help us, which of course never happened. We were then told the reason why it wasn't coming was because it had also lost power on the tracks. That is when folks begin to get very irritated and asked the operator if there was a way folks could exit the train and/or at least communicate with us like human beings. After even more time went by the operator said the third rail was off and that we could exit the train, she even came by and helped open the doors. I just don't understand how WMATA can blame passengers for the lack of training, communication, etc from staff. It was really a horrible experience and the fact that fares continue to increase doesn't help the situation. No one was refunded, no one got water, no one got anything except blame and that is just wrong from a customer service standpoint especially when the system depends on customers coming back and being comfortable with the safety/integrity of the system. It would be great if folks could at least get an apology instead of blame.

Best,

Joshua A. Murphy

+10 Vote up Vote down

@nataliedell · 663 weeks ago

Thanks for posting this! Here's hoping that we'll get a correction and an apology. Like I said, I was looking at it as an adventure until the article came out!

+16 Vote up Vote down

Ryan · 663 weeks ago

I sent a letter to Dr. Gridlock mentioning his overuse of Dan Stessel as a source and he defended himself by sending a link of all his articles. He is not particularly good at this "journalism" thing.

1 reply · active 663 weeks ago

+4 Vote up Vote down

John · 663 weeks ago

can you copy+paste what he said?

-11 Vote up Vote down

Simpson H · 663 weeks ago

I know people like to complain about people who walk and tweet at the same time, but at least they're usually on the sidewalk. Walking and tweeting on train tracks sounds like a particularly bad idea

+3 Vote up Vote down

Kathryn · 663 weeks ago

I channel surfed through the evening news programs, and the times I saw Dan Stessel making statements, he didn't say anything about the passengers 'self evacuating'. I have noticed, however, that the tv news anchors don't give Dan Stessel a lot of room to make commentary. They ask direct questions and move on quickly.

I also wonder if Stessel even follows Twitter feeds like the journalists do. He never seems to know what is being talked about on Twitter.

+2 Vote up Vote down

Anon · 663 weeks ago

I am waiting to see if Metro and Stessel blame the Green Line derailment on the passengers too.

1 reply · active 663 weeks ago

+3 Vote up Vote down

Kara · 663 weeks ago

Looks like they leaning towards the heat this time.

Have to love all of the phenomena that metro encounters:

*gasp* it gets hot in DC in the summer

*gasp* it snows in DC in the winter

*gasp* it rains in DC when there is a storm

*gasp* there are crowds when there is a major event in the nation's capitol