Unsuck DC Metro: It's the Trains, Stupid

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

It's the Trains, Stupid

Via @aretting: Metro car on fire at the McPherson Square station. Plenty of smoke in here. instagr.am/p/PawiM0P0HW/

From Ron:

I was bored at work, and looked at the latest Vital signs report. I stumbled on what I think is really telling about what's really going on at Metro. I wonder if the board members will ask about this at the upcoming meeting. I kid. I know they won't.

In the report, the pretty pages highlight "better maintenance practices," but if you look closer at all the charts, it's ugly, really ugly.

Metro has a goal of 60,000 miles between breakdowns (delays) for each rail car.

According to the report, here are the average number of miles each series of car in Metro's fleet goes before they break down and cause delays:

1000s (26 percent of fleet): 40,671 miles
2/3000s (32 percent of fleet): 33,559 miles
4000s (9 percent of fleet): 26,581 miles
5000s (17 percent of fleet): 47,640 miles
6000 (16 percent of fleet): 67,421 miles

The fleet average is 40,275 miles!

They're missing their goal by almost 20,000 miles per car in the fleet, and only one series of car meets the goal. The rest are way off.

I would also imagine that since the trains contain different series of cars now (dumb), the bad cars' effects are even more widespread when whole trains are taken out of service because one car has a problem.

I'm starting to think Metro should lay off the track work for a while. It's the trains, stupid.

Comments (28)

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+9 Vote up Vote down

ASk · 654 weeks ago

Wow.

2 replies · active 652 weeks ago

+5 Vote up Vote down

anon · 654 weeks ago

The operator probably had an indication before the brakes caught on fire but ignored that for some reason. Or the supervisor failed to get to the train in time. Metro is hiring people off the street with little to none experience with TRAINS!
Shame on you Metro when you have employees with vast experience but for some reason you continue to discriminate with you employees and groom certain one.

0 Vote up Vote down

anon · 652 weeks ago

anon-

You are right! They need to start being more diverse. How about hedging up an Human Resources Diversity class and introduce the many employees hired of all races to fit the billboard.

I would love to see more Hispanics, Caucasians, Asian and persons of all races driving trains and buses and in the stations.

+14 Vote up Vote down

@davinpet · 654 weeks ago

I think Metro should stop playing "musical" railcars or mixing up the rail cars. I don't like seeing a 1000 connected to a 5000 or 6000 series. That is wrong, as new cars should not be mixed with old cars. Just keep the 1000 series connected to 2/3000 series cars only and keep the 5000/6000 series together, so that all 6 cars are 5/6000 series and not a 1000 series in the middle

1 reply · active 654 weeks ago

+10 Vote up Vote down

jimlcunningham 80p · 654 weeks ago

But Frankenstein's Monster turned out just fine.

+34 Vote up Vote down

Cletus · 654 weeks ago

I must say Ron, when most people get bored at work they usually go to Facebook. Good on ya mate.

+46 Vote up Vote down

Dan Stessel · 654 weeks ago

On Tuesday, one of our rail cars experienced a fire on the electrical components under the car. After a detailed investigation, it has been determined the fire was caused by a customer using a cell phone on an escalator. As a result of this customer's unfortunate actions, there were some minor delays.

2 replies · active 654 weeks ago

+1 Vote up Vote down

Ever n Anon · 654 weeks ago

Wow. I woulda bet it was those raccoons! Who knew...

0 Vote up Vote down

Vienna Bound · 654 weeks ago

or the rats

+8 Vote up Vote down

@FixWMATA · 654 weeks ago

Perhaps these numbers help back this up?
http://fixwmata.com/problems/

3 replies · active 654 weeks ago

+7 Vote up Vote down

NoNo · 654 weeks ago

I would have done the graph in the other direction, starting on the left with "sick customers" (Remember we are the first to blame, according to Metro), and finishing by "Brakes". A graph going down makes you feel things are going better...
It's also emphasized by the fact that the yellow bars are smaller than the blue (due to smaller ridership during summer?)... I guess we can expect big red bars for September... and finishing the graphs with a big red bar is more dramatic.
In that kind of presentation, it's not the data that matter, it's the way they are shown!

0 Vote up Vote down

@VeggieTart · 654 weeks ago

I also would have clustered the months together instead of the problems--so in July 2012, the most problems were caused by brakes, then did not operate (whatever that means), equipment, doors, etc. Then the same problems in August, and then September so far. This would enable people to see where the problems were when.

0 Vote up Vote down

n2deep · 654 weeks ago

The chart is flawed. When they say brakes they are grouping all failures that cause the train to go into a fail safe mode together. This could include ATO failures, Brake logic failures, Air pressure issues etc.

+3 Vote up Vote down

Daily Rider · 654 weeks ago

How come the 1Ks hold up better than the 2/3/4Ks by a significant amount?
More recent rehabs?

Back of the envelope calc is that the overall figure would improve by 8.4 percent if the 2/3/4Ks just ran at the sorry average.

+7 Vote up Vote down

Mark · 654 weeks ago

How many Metro Board Members actually RIDE METRO?????

3 replies · active 652 weeks ago

+3 Vote up Vote down

@VeggieTart · 654 weeks ago

Hmmm, I'm guessing.....probably.....oh. NONE of them.

+2 Vote up Vote down

anon · 654 weeks ago

How about Sarles riding trains and buses. Former GM's did ride trains at least. (Richard White)

0 Vote up Vote down

Alb2non · 652 weeks ago

Sarles stands out in a crowd and he can't blend in well in the stations or with employees since Metro is not a diversity employer.

+4 Vote up Vote down

@WMATARage · 654 weeks ago

Not to mention that we're waaaaay behind schedule for retiring all the deathtraps that are the 1000-series and replacing with 7000s, much less buying even more 7000s so we can run 8-car trains and have NON-SHITTY HEADWAYS.

+2 Vote up Vote down

UnSuck Fan · 654 weeks ago

It’s why they use all of those bright, shiny colors! They hope they wow and daze you with them so you won’t notice the fine print of things such as this.

+3 Vote up Vote down

WMATA · 654 weeks ago

That's not accurate

+6 Vote up Vote down

jimlcunningham 80p · 654 weeks ago

But the tracks are so bumpy they mess the cars up!

I've always wondered how a train ride can be so bumpy. That stretch between Ft. Totten and Takoma is like being on a stagecoach. (It's no wonder the brakes failed. Have you ever tried stopping a car on a rutted road? I bet they never even considered that.)

+1 Vote up Vote down

AB27 · 654 weeks ago

The R32s in NYC, which are 48 years old, have a higher MDBF (mean distance between failures) than these WMATA tin cans.

+3 Vote up Vote down

Tom · 654 weeks ago

re that fire in the underbelly of the train caused by the passenger using a cell phone on an escalator -- well, like duh!
Real easy to fix -- just shut down all the escalators.
I understand that WMATA is already well along in instituting that fix.
... and, just in case that doesn't work, the back-up plan to prohibit passengers.
Making progress on implementing that, as well.
The reason that there was a mix of fleets in a train was, most likely, because they did not have sufficient cars from one fleet to make a full consist, so they played mix-and-match.

+4 Vote up Vote down

New Yorker · 654 weeks ago

Metro should be ashamed

NYC's

+2 Vote up Vote down

Jane · 654 weeks ago

So Metros fleet is less than 1/4 as reliable as NYC's?

WTF?

Our fares are WAY WAY WAY more!

0 Vote up Vote down

former employee · 654 weeks ago

What about the stats on trains that are "defer" during revenue that cause malfuction on mainline. It is required from the top a certain amount of trains be ready to go for revenue. This pushes the supervisor to "defer" and perhaps send unsafe trains out.. because the top need numbers.

Say your prayers before aboarding Metro

0 Vote up Vote down

atlin83 · 653 weeks ago

Anybody think about how maybe the cars aren't easy to compare one-to-one as this post, and the comments, attempt to? Metro uses different cars with different technology. New York doesn't utilize a train control system like Metro's, which can cause all kinds of failures and delays (NYC subway trains are, for the most part, manually operated by a two-person crew - the few lines that do have any kind of automation use a different, radio-based technology than Metro). Not saying that the numbers don't show subpar performance, but there seems to be a rush to criticize based on a comparison that doesn't seem very well supported.

A comparison to other agencies of Metro's vintage and similar technologies - BART in San Francisco, MARTA in Atlanta, possibly MTA in Baltimore or MDT in Miami - may offer a valuable perspective (and perhaps bolster this line of criticism further).