Unsuck DC Metro: Is Rush+ Over on the Orange Line?

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Is Rush+ Over on the Orange Line?

In the mornings in particular, riders are noticing longer headways and a lack of 8-car trains on the Orange Line.

Yesterday, during rush, there was at least a 15-minute headway heading into town from Virginia. The train arrived at East Falls Church with Japan-level crowding. A minute later, another, completely empty train arrived.

From Scott:

What happened to morning rush hour service on the Orange Line (New Carrollton direction) over the past month of so? Now trains are regularly 7-8 minutes apart and are extremely crowded (passengers unable to board) at the Clarendon and Courthouse stations. Also, 8-car trains have basically disappeared in the morning. I notice this during the 8:45-9:15 am period.

Has metro changed the Orange Line schedule, trains used to be 3-4 minutes apart. Also, did they abandon 8 car trains?

@unsuckdcmetro I've noticed OR headways into DC the last 2 wks have been averaging 8-10 min at Vienna during a.m. rush.
— dcmetrosucks (@dcmetrosucks) March 11, 2013

Other items:
Ridership down 6 percent after fare hikes (Examiner)
Metro botches Spring Forward, overcharges riders (WaPo)

Comments (31)

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+8 Vote up Vote down

AJS · 626 weeks ago

I have noticed this as well on the Blue/Yellow. I board around 6:30am and no rush plus trains in sight. The next BL is 8 minutes out so theoretically there should be a replacement YL 2 minutes out but its not there and I'm waiting 4 minutes for a regular yellow and I know its a regular because the next yellow is 6 minutes behind. I don't think they bother replacing the missed blue trains that early.

+14 Vote up Vote down

Stevey Jones · 626 weeks ago

I wouldn't be surprised if they were:

1) sneakily cutting trains due to maintenance issues (literally not enough working railcars to make enough trains)

2) some sort of labor/operator issue - not enough people to run the trains? After all, if they're cutting back on the 100 hours per week these people are supposedly working, maybe they don't have enough workers at a given time.

However, I have not noticed any similar issues on the red line recently. In past experience, "rush hour" on the orange line (rode it for 1.5 years) in VA starts ending at about 830 AM - after that, the promised train frequencies are definitely not met.

+15 Vote up Vote down

JDC · 626 weeks ago

For the evening rush, I seem to be seeing a lot less 8 car Orange trains, too.

2 replies · active 626 weeks ago

+7 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 626 weeks ago

A definite thumbs up on that. Very few 8 cars OL in the AM & PM. I've noticed in the morning at Vienna that the trains are leaving fairly full. A couple of occasions I've noticed a train operator coming down the escalator and it turns out--that's who we were waiting for. Train without an operator.

+4 Vote up Vote down

Ever n Anon · 626 weeks ago

Agreed. And VERY long delays between trains. 10-15 minutes posed on the marquee, often with wrong destinations no less. Total cluster...

+11 Vote up Vote down

NoNo · 626 weeks ago

I have to say that I wondered the same concerning the red line after 6pm. It used to be one train every 3 minutes, but now it is usual to wait up to 6 minutes at rush hour. And for the 2 last weeks, we don't have sign anymore in the Medical Center metro station indicating the arrivals...
However, it may be only in my mind...

I would not be surprised to see metro increasing the waiting line between 2 trains, even at rush hour. They did that for the "normal weekend service": 2 years ago, it used to be one train every 6 minutes.
Then they started track maintenance with additional trains in downtown every 10 minutes.
Now, on the very few weekends without maintenance, one train every 10 minutes is announced as "normal weekend service".

I guess Metro is just saving money on operating costs... and unfortunately that makes sense: Metro is so bad that less and less people are using the metro on the weekend. Even after 24 minutes wait, there is still space and seats available in the weekend trains.
But Metro is fixing the problem in the wrong direction... It's a vicious circle:
Less passengers --> Less trains scheduled --> crappier service --> less passengers --> etc.

1 reply · active 626 weeks ago

+3 Vote up Vote down

Hal · 626 weeks ago

I've been experiencing the same thing on the Red Line - If I get stuck at work and don't make it to Metro Center until 5:55, 6:00, I'll wait at least 6 mins for a red line train to Silver Spring/Glenmont.

+15 Vote up Vote down

BMK · 626 weeks ago

We are coming up with a way to blame riders for this. Stand by. -Danny

+3 Vote up Vote down

Matt G · 626 weeks ago

I haven't seen an 8 car (Or PIDS-style 2 car) train on the OL in well over a week. Usually the 714am train @ EFC is 8 cars.

+1 Vote up Vote down

guest · 626 weeks ago

The silver line will require a major service reduction along the blue and orange lines to accommodate the limitations of the Rosslyn tunnel; probably one train every 12 minutes from Franconia during rush. Maybe they are trying to step service down gradually rather than hit riders with it all at once. Less noticeable, less outrage, etc.

4 replies · active 626 weeks ago

+10 Vote up Vote down

BMK · 626 weeks ago

hahhaha .. you think WMATA plans anything in advance. LOLZ.

+2 Vote up Vote down

Will · 626 weeks ago

A major reduction along those two lines, yes, but not necessarily fewer actual trains. Silver and Orange will run along the same track from Ballston to Stadium-Armory, so if you're going inside DC or to Arlington, it wouldn't mean much.

Admittedly people riding the BL to Franconia are pretty SOL.

+1 Vote up Vote down

karah 81p · 626 weeks ago

Also the OL beyond where it meets the silver (Vienna, etc).

+4 Vote up Vote down

Jason · 626 weeks ago

Last time I looked, Blue Line will go from "up to every 12 minutes" to "every 12 minutes". Meanwhile a lot of Orange trains will of course turn Silver. IIRC, the stated plan worked out basically such that if your Orange Line journeys take you no farther west than East Falls Church, and no farther east than Stadium-Armory, you won't notice a difference; but of course the people west of the Orange/Silver split and east of the Orange/Blue split on the Orange Line get hosed by this.

+8 Vote up Vote down

@JimLCunningham · 626 weeks ago

An 8-car train spotting on any line is a rare thing. Like an endangered species.

4 replies · active 626 weeks ago

+7 Vote up Vote down

Stevey Jones · 626 weeks ago

Disagree for the red line. I pretty regularly get on the back car of an 8 car train between 530-6 going towards glenmont or silver spring.

+4 Vote up Vote down

Marshall · 626 weeks ago

Same here. I only ride the red line between Union Station and Dupont Circle and I see them all the time.

+4 Vote up Vote down

nhunter344 · 626 weeks ago

Not true. The 8-car trains are on the red line right now. When enough people complain about lack of service on other lines, they will remove them from the red line. Of course, they will say they will be expanding service on line x, but what they dont say is that it is at the expense of lines a, b and c.

Another metro shell game.

+2 Vote up Vote down

Matt · 626 weeks ago

My experience is roughly every other train on the RL is an 8 car train, which goes to Shady Grove. 6 car trains terminate and turn around at Grovesnor. Same deal in the morning towards SS and Glenmont. I always wait for a 8 car train since the last car dumps me right at the elevator at Grovesnor and can avoid the mess of people at the fare-gate.

+6 Vote up Vote down

Frank · 626 weeks ago

It got so bad for my commute into DC once they instituted rush plus, I simply stopped using metro to commute and started using my car again.

The time is equivalent and in fact I probably get to work faster 50% of the time than I used to, I am a lot less cranky and my commute is nearly 100% predictable now unlike before. My office subsidizes parking so the cost is minimally more.

So congrats metro for running off another customer.

Signed -

Former metro commuter.

-8 Vote up Vote down

Driver · 626 weeks ago

Have you thought about asking Metro this question? You know, to see if they might answer?

3 replies · active 626 weeks ago

+8 Vote up Vote down

govtminion 62p · 626 weeks ago

I can't imagine they'd give an answer that didn't involve the same tired excuses and outright lies. Why bother?

+6 Vote up Vote down

Bitter Brew · 626 weeks ago

Hahahahahaha

+7 Vote up Vote down

Not Likely · 626 weeks ago

So you're not a regular reader of this blog, are you?

+1 Vote up Vote down

@sleeplessinva · 626 weeks ago

I got home last night on the orange line around 7:30ish from Federal Center SW and it was an 8 car train. I thought it was kind of unusual because usually around that time there aren't too many people getting on the train. As suspected I rode the train all the way into Vienna by myself as well as the other folks on the train were sitting by themselves. Kind of a waste.

1 reply · active 626 weeks ago

+1 Vote up Vote down

Not All Bad · 626 weeks ago

Not necessarily a waste if you figure that the 8 car train you caught at 730 at Fed Ctr SW probably had left Vienna (for New Carrollton) around 600, meaning it had left from Metro Center to Vienna around 530. You probably caught it on its way out of service at the end of its rush hour service. Metro has its problems but they are not completely incapable of running their trains.

+10 Vote up Vote down

Stan Dessel · 626 weeks ago

The longer wait times are so that you can enjoy the new tiling that took us years to install at a handful of stations.

You're welcome!

4 replies · active 626 weeks ago

+3 Vote up Vote down

Jin · 626 weeks ago

There's new tiling?????

+2 Vote up Vote down

DCDuck · 626 weeks ago

At a whopping five stations! Break out the champagne!

+2 Vote up Vote down

Jin · 626 weeks ago

Which ones? I gotta see this!

Wait...new tiling? I saw a piece of the 3rd rail on the ground, next to the track this morning at Shady Grove. This new tiling better be replacing something broken, rather than something new for newness sake!

+1 Vote up Vote down

Matt · 626 weeks ago

Not really tiles but concrete pavers. Rockville Has it, I THINK Twinbrook has the pavers, Brookland is in the process of getting it....can't think of anymore on the RL. Perhaps stations I don't frequent have them.