Unsuck DC Metro: How was Weekend-plus?

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

How was Weekend-plus?

Via @Sparticus11:@wmata Farragut north is a hot hot mess. Guess I'll catch the next one. 25 minutes on the platform now. pic.twitter.com/SRcRVWvs

From anonymous:

Right now at 4 p.m. on Oct. 7, the WMATA webpage trip planner says that a train is leaving every 7 or 8 minutes from Shady Grove toward Metro Center.

In real life there is a train leaving Shady Grove every half hour this weekend.

You can go watch the web PIDS predictions and see this. It's not easy to see because PIDS works so poorly on weekends.

Note that the promulgated standard (which everyone objected to) says that the max wait for a train should be 20 minutes off peak.

So not only has the standard from the base weekend schedule of every 7 minutes been lowered, it's been lowered way below the threshold of 20 minutes, all the way to 30 minutes between Red Line trains from Shady Grove.

Also note the WMATA twitter account says the trip planner takes into account this weekend's special schedules. No, not really, it still claims a train every 7 or 8 minutes from Shady.

@kurtraschke we encourage use of our web & trip planner, adjusted for wknd work. metroforward.posterous.com provides wknd work progress
— @wmata (@wmata) October 7, 2012
These look like dead-obvious observations that anyone standing at Rockville platform would see.

I know WMATA management isn't standing on the platform there waiting for a train.

From JK:

Am I the only one who notice Metro's advertised time between trains was a total lie? 26 minutes would have been great this weekend, but they never approached that frequency.

I guess that might have been excusable on Saturday and Sunday, but on Monday, the time between trains approached 40 minutes.

During rush hour, the platforms were dangerously over crowded.

I understand Metro has a lot of work to get done, but leaving so many DC riders screwed is just unacceptable.

For once, I wish Metro would be honest so I could make an informed choice about an alternate way to work.

From Adam:

Please don't torture us with PIDs that aren't accurate. I actually make decisions based on what they say. If they're not going to work accurately during track work, tell us. Just FREAKING tell us!! Or just turn them off!

I dream of a day when every person at @wmata, top to bottom, takes pride in their work, and strives to actually make the system great again.
— say 'Eye Em Gōph' (@IMGoph) October 8, 2012

Other items:
Controversial Metro ads get makeover (Examiner)

Comments (20)

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+16 Vote up Vote down

anon · 650 weeks ago

This is the weekend I bought a scooter--bye bye Metro forever.

+25 Vote up Vote down

Dan Stessel · 650 weeks ago

Be thankful that we even let you on our world-class transit system on a Federal holiday.

You're welcome.

+11 Vote up Vote down

Sizzle · 650 weeks ago

Ugh. I'm one of the "lucky" bastards who doesn't get off work for government holidays. Yesterday was an absolute nightmare on the Metro.

During rush hour, my normal Silver Spring - Navy Yard commute takes about 45 min. Yesterday it took nearly an hour and a half both ways. Red line PIDs at Ft. Totten were blank the entire time, so I didn't even know if a Glenmont-bound train was even on its way. Then the PID said 4 minutes. Then 7 minutes...then 11 minutes? This does not bode well...

Of course, no communication from any Metro employees and incredibly irate customers on the packed platforms and trains made for a dangerous situation. Just absolutely disgraceful. They gladly took our money, though.

In retrospect, it would've been totally worth the $30 cab ride from my office back to Silver Spring just to avoid the barely-functioning Metro.

2 replies · active 650 weeks ago

+5 Vote up Vote down

@VeggieTart · 650 weeks ago

I bet it would have been faster to take the P6 to Metro Center and switch to the S2 or S4 to Silver Spring. If Metro is ever screwed up like this, that may be an option to get home from Navy Yard. It's also an option to get home from a Nationals game. The bus is a lot cheaper and marginally more reliable than Metro, especially on holiday weekends or when they're doing track work.

+6 Vote up Vote down

@perkinsms · 650 weeks ago

Does anyone know whether they were charging normal or reduced fares yesterday?

1 reply · active 650 weeks ago

+4 Vote up Vote down

@FixWMATA · 650 weeks ago

They were not charging "rush hour fares" (Peak, rush, whatever).

+12 Vote up Vote down

NoNo · 650 weeks ago

Yes, it is necessary to do the track maintenance, and definitively on the weekend rather than during the week... OK... I got it...
But the metro politics about train service during the track maintenance is scandalous:

- Why additional trains only from 9 to 9? (BTW, great improvement, during many months this year, it was only from 9:30am to 6:30pm).

- Why only 1 additional train for each train leaving the terminus? When 1 train is leaving Shading Grove every 16 minutes, we have additional trains every 16 minutes too, so the waiting time is 8 minutes in the system core. But when a train leaves the terminus every 30 minutes, why not setting up 2 additional trains between each, reducing the waiting time from 15 to 10 minutes?!

- Why additional trains only between the track maintenance area and downtown? If you have track maintenance between Dupont and Van Ness, 40% of the red line (Van ness to Shady grove) run with 1 train every 32 minutes (cf January and February 2012 for 3-4 week ends in a row)! I feel like Marylanders are second-zone citizens for Metro...

- Just think about how much METRO is saving on operating costs when one train runs every 24-30 minutes instead of 6-7... 75% savings !!!!
Track maintenance is not about fixing the system (not only), it's about cutting service to the customers to save money.

I told it, I repeat it: Metro is experimentating how far they can go in cutting the service while keeping enough customers to make extra money...
We need to find a way to tell them we disagree with this politics...
We need to demand more additional trains, on both side of the track maintenance...
We have to demand discounted fares on the weekend, particularly for those having to cross the track maintenance areas.
Metro has to canceled this outrageous peak fare after midnight on the weekend: Why should we have to pay more when we have less metros?

And to come back to this weekend problems, the guys in charge of the single tracking areas were stupid morons. I was in Gallery Place on monday, 2pm... and from the platform you could see train staying 15 minutes in gallery Place and Metro Center, waiting for the single tracking area to be clear (I have pictures if you want). This guys have one job to do: Manage one metro departure every 6-8 minutes... and they are not able to do it properly? What are they doing the rest of the time but seating there lazy asses in their chairs! Incredibly pathetic...

I'm done with that shit... We are all paying for decades of mismanagement and employees incompetency...

4 replies · active 650 weeks ago

+6 Vote up Vote down

Anon · 650 weeks ago

You made too much sense...

0 Vote up Vote down

Cletus · 650 weeks ago

and no sense at the same time.

+3 Vote up Vote down

unsuckdcmetro 92p · 650 weeks ago

A guy named Cletus was one of the "founding fathers" of Metro. No joke. Look it up.

0 Vote up Vote down

NoNo · 650 weeks ago

THAT would make sense... I guess part of the missing fundings is actually used to pay his big fat retirement checks...

+3 Vote up Vote down

Jason · 650 weeks ago

I wound up working at home yesterday, not because I wanted to, but purely because I didn't feel like having an hour-long commute each way.

Sad thing is, I'm only a 4 mile drive to work, but with the ART buses running only once every hour and the Metro running a weekend schedule, I had no reasonable means by which to get to work. I could have biked but yesterday was not anything close to biking weather.

(I moved from NYC a few months ago, and yes I should have known better considering I've previously spent summers in DC interning yada yada, but I got very used to leading a pedestrian/public-transit lifestyle.)

+7 Vote up Vote down

Jack · 650 weeks ago

I have spent the past 8 weeks playing a glorious shuffle game with vacationing coworker parking passes. I've taken metro maybe 3 times and boy do people notice what a better mood I am in.

+3 Vote up Vote down

John · 650 weeks ago

Whenever I have to work on Federal Holidays I drive to work. I feel bad for people who don't have that option. Must be brutal these days. it was bad enough when I said to hell with it a few years back...

+5 Vote up Vote down

Kara · 650 weeks ago

Ugh, the red line at 'rush' hour yesterday morning!

Fortunately now you can be ridiculously late for work, mumble 'metro' and few people will doubt it.

+6 Vote up Vote down

Kaia · 650 weeks ago

I dumped Metro. I can't be late for life anymore.

0 Vote up Vote down

dhdf · 650 weeks ago

I made the mistake of taking metro yesterday with my four year old to do some museuming. My son was tired so I was carrying him, of course the fine people of DC had to push/rush in front of us to get on the train even though we were in front of them. We couldn't get on so I left (after paying to stand there for 25 minutes) and walked up to Chinatown. We waited about thirty-five minutes before a train showed up, we squeezed on, nobody felt like giving up a seat to a sleeping kid so I had to hold him in one arm while holding onto the overhead rail. After much jerking and slow travel we reached Bethesda and my kid needed to pee. The station attendant told me the bathroom was out of service, so I had to pay to exit and walk up to Chipotle to use their restroom, then walk back to the station and pay again to continue home. Never again. I spent like $11 and two hours just to ride from Chinatown to Rockville.

0 Vote up Vote down

Ex-RedlineRider · 650 weeks ago

There are alternatives to riding Metro on the weekends and putting up with the lousy service. If you are driving consider looking for a paid parking lot or garage. There is a good website that can help you find a lot or garage in the DC area at http://washintondc.bestparking.com that has rates and hours of operations for these locations. True it will cost more than riding Metro, but its worth it for the convience of having your car nearby and without the frustration of weekend metro delays. If you don't have a car consider riding a bus or if the weather is nice, renting a bike from Capital Bikeshare.

1 reply · active 650 weeks ago

0 Vote up Vote down

Ex-RedLineRider · 650 weeks ago

Correction to the website I mean http://washingtondc.bestparking.com sorry for the wrong spelling.