Unsuck DC Metro: Safety First?

Monday, July 23, 2012

Safety First?

Via Brian on the Unsuck DC Metro Facebook:

Here's a new one.

On July 20 at 8:20 a.m., I was on the Yellow Line at Pentagon City.

The doors on the last two cars failed to open, so people started walking forward through the emergency doors and exiting through the third car from the end.

Did the operator know? Yes he did, since he asked "are the doors still not open?"

But that didn't stop him from closing the doors (in the cars where they would open) and driving the train out of the station WHILE people were still walking between cars to exit the train.

Other items:
MTA vs. WMATA (Bloomberg)
Metro fails late night rush, too (WaPo)

Comments (17)

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+5 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 661 weeks ago

The icing on the metro cake would be if those people who had to get off a stop late then had to wait 15 minutes for a train to take them back.

+4 Vote up Vote down

jkuchen · 661 weeks ago

Did the operator know that people were using the emergency doors for such a reason? Better yet, is there any way for the operator to know that one of those doors is open? (not being snarky--this is a serious question for those who help us out with such questions)

We had a similar situation on an Orange Line car downtown a couple of months ago. I got on the call box at the end of the car (thankfully a working one) and we eventually got the doors open. Then again, the operator communicated with me through the box and not the overhead speakers, so maybe the operator is to blame on this one.

+4 Vote up Vote down

knows metro · 661 weeks ago

Excellent example of operators not standing up to OCCs demands to service "safely" and move on.

Operator should have told OCC there was a problem and that he was going to check it.

+8 Vote up Vote down

@Hell_on_wheelz · 661 weeks ago

It is definitely unsafe to have passengers between cars on a moving train!

This is also yet another "procedure" where I would've been stuck in a car with non-working doors until some Metro employee deigned to let me out.

Metro advertizes "Metro is accessible" - but that is at the best of times and, even then, if you don't look closely. At the worst of times: I am not joking when I say that if something goes wrong on a train I am dead - not figuratively, LITERALLY.

3 replies · active 660 weeks ago

+4 Vote up Vote down

Jason · 661 weeks ago

At Rosslyn, the handicapped faregate at the bottom of the elevator has been broken for at LEAST two weeks. Except it's stuck in an open position...

0 Vote up Vote down

Simpson H · 660 weeks ago

Every so often I see kids packs of kids running through the doors between cars when the train is in motion. It's a little scary, but the amount of sympathy I would have if one of them were to injure themself is zero.

+1 Vote up Vote down

Simpson H · 660 weeks ago

Oops, delete that first "kids"

+10 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 661 weeks ago

Metro is like Pepco - little regard for the customers' safety, repeated demands for rate increases with an implied threat that without it service will decline, followed by worse service.

It's frustrating because we rely on them, we need them, and yet we're powerless to get them to provide even the minimal service they've declared to be their standard.

2 replies · active 661 weeks ago

+2 Vote up Vote down

Anony · 661 weeks ago

You aren't powerless. Barbara Mikulski is on it. Don't worry. She will take on the management and the union.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcom...

+5 Vote up Vote down

The Anti-TB Guy · 661 weeks ago

Good for Senator Barb going all Napoleonic on Metro! She may be short, but she's got the requisite chutzpah:

From the article:
"Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski lashed out at Metro on Monday, decrying the recent run of safety problems, even as the transit agency said it still could not explain what caused a computer glitch that forced the shutdown of the system twice over the weekend."

"'Many of my constituents are really disturbed,' Mikulski (D-Md.) said at a previously scheduled media event to talk about new safety standards for Metro and other systems. 'The airwaves are hopping today. They’ve been hopping over the weekend. E-mails have been coming in. Some volcanic, some even more so.'"

Marylanders, let your senator know how you feel about Metro safety at (202) 224-4654 or http://www.mikulski.senate.gov/contact/shareyouro...

+4 Vote up Vote down

UnSuck Fan · 661 weeks ago

In Metro’s eyes, operating “on time” trains is so much more important than safety’ it’s why they’ve lowered their standards.

As far as safety goes, it IS first. It’s the first item to go at the BOTTOM of their list of things to address!

+7 Vote up Vote down

SLG · 661 weeks ago

I was on the yellow line train this morning (car #5174 I believe) and saw the Emergency door at the front of the car open while the train was in motion. Gotta love the doors on the Metro: closed when you want them open and open when you want them closed.