Fleecing or 'Fraud Prevention?'

Photo via Flickr

From anonymous:

Attempted to get a refund for three defective Metro train cards totaling around $17, which can only be done at the Metro sales office at Metro Center.

The sales person told me they can only refund one defective card per person per day.

I stated that I don't live near Metro Center, rarely come through and had to make a special trip to get my money today.

TOO BAD she said. So now I have to pay to ride to Metro center to get a refund for bad cards, two more days. So ridiculous.

Metro says the reason for the policy is:

Note that to prevent fraud, customers may exchange only one farecard per day.

What do you think? Is this a way for Metro to keep their money or to prevent fraud?

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Setting the Tone?

Click for larger

The above was posted on the ATU Local 689 Facebook page and has been there for days. No one, including union president Jackie Jeter, who is active on the page, has flagged it.

I hope it's not representative of the tone the union is bringing to the negotiating table as it attempts to iron out a new contract with Metro.

Other items:
Fairfax OKs Columbia Pike streetcar (Examiner)

Pathological

This fishy brakes thing has gotten ridiculous.

Why can't Metro just level with us?

First, in an effort to refute an article here, Stessel said they hadn't use the brakes in years.

Then, unbelievably, he went with the Big Lie, saying the smell was "sewer gas."

Now, when the press comes knocking, Metro won't even respond.

Yesterday, the Examiner reported:

The problem is that Metro doesn't seem to know what is causing it -- or doesn't want to tell the public. Agency officials declined to answer repeated questions about the smell last week. In the past, the agency has blamed sewer gas and the trains' brake pads.

Remember the new transparency that was supposed to be ushered in by Sarles, Stessel, et al?

Now Metro can't even cop to a problem they already copped to (and apologized for) in 2006!

This regime is even more secretive and opaque than ones before it.

I asked one of my sources about the brakes.

"If it smells like rotten fish, that's the organic brake pads, period," said the source who is knowledgeable about the brake issue.

Another source at Metro calls any other story about the odor "BS," adding "they didn't use [the pads] for a period of time but started again. They never ran out of what they had to begin with."

Why Metro continues to obfuscate is really beyond me. My Metro sources don't think there's any potential health risk to the smell. It just really, really stinks.

The incompetence of the PR staff at Metro is mind blowing. Here's what appears to be a relatively simple issue to get past, but instead they've let it stew for almost a year, the whole while undermining whatever tiny bit of credibility they might have left.

It's really not that hard, Metro.

Interesting footnote: Apparently, when the brakes gets wet, they also smell like rotten fish, even if they're still in the box. A source tells me this happened once at Greenbelt, and and entire pallet had to be moved to a more aerated place because of the horrible smell.

Bye Metro

Via West Falls Steve:

My wife and I have been living about a mile from the West Falls Church Metro for about a year. At first, I was the only Metro commuter, but she got a job in the District this spring, and we started Metro-ing together.

Sometimes we'd walk to the Metro, sometimes we'd bike, sometimes we'd park'n'ride.

If we parked, the total cost was about $18 a day prior to the fare increases, now it's a whopping $19.75 with two rush hour round trips and parking.

So, in June, we started to get fed up with hot cars, delays, offloads, you know, all the standard Metro operating procedures.

I'm a big supporter of mass transit, so I deal with these problems begrudgingly. My wife is too, but she has less of a tolerance for jerky rides and being late to work (luckily my hours are flexible). So she started saying "let's drive."

I agreed to experiment, thinking I'd prove her wrong, and even though Metro is unreliable, I thought driving would be worse.

So, for the past few weeks we've driven in on 66, sailing gloriously along as we legally meet the HOV-2 requirement.

Today, for example, we left the house at 8:10 a.m. and were in the parking garage at 8:26. 8:26!

Traffic is lighter on Fridays, but Monday-Thursday, add seven to 10 minutes to that time.

Metro takes a bare minimum of 20 minutes from West Falls Church to Farragut West, and that ignores getting to the station and train, and getting out of the station.

Her walk is no further to work from the garage, and mine is a bit further than from Metro, but I still get to work early.

In fact, we have time to hang out and get a coffee and actually talk and enjoy each others' company, rather than having our mornings ruined by Metro!

I guess we are a bit lucky, because our jobs our on the west side of downtown, so its easy to just hop on and off the E Street Expressway to get home.

Now, on a cost basis, the garage is $14 a day (and this is straight cash, we're paying for daily parking and aren't using federal parking benefits), valet service. The round trip is 22 miles, which, in our car, is probably about $2.50 worth of gas at current prices.

So, cheaper than parking at the Metro, and faster to boot.

If you want to be technical and say that I should be using the IRS depreciation measure for driving (includes gas and maintenance), $0.55 per mile or whatever it is this year, sure, it's a bit more expensive than Metro, but still faster. Also, we're making payments on the car - I'd rather put the damn thing to use than fork my money over to Metro.

So, I feel like a horrible person for polluting and reducing the region's air quality and giving everyone's children asthma. But I feel like my sanity, time and money can override that. Metro just doesn't offer me the level of service and reliability to pay them just about the same amount of money to take up more of my time.

So, Metro, say goodbye to our 230 working days per year, at $19.75 per day (assuming we park and ride every day).

Say goodbye to that delicious $4,542.50 (holy sh*t).

Other items:
Lying comes so naturally (Examiner)

Hot Air

When Richard Sarles took over Metro, he famously said "I don't want to hide problems. That's the worst thing you can do,"

Yesterday, Sarles told the Metro board, his bosses, the following:

The extreme temperatures have also presented a challenge to the cooling system on some of our rail cars. This month, July, about 2.5 percent of our cars dispatched into service experienced a temperature control issue after they entered service. We have been aggressively pursuing preventative maintenance, including component change outs, particularly on the 5000-series fleet. It is too early in the summer season to draw conclusions about performance.

Not one board member questioned the number. No one asked a follow up.

I think if board members actually rode Metro on a regular basis, they'd call Sarles out on this. Even if you chopped the anecdotal evidence of hot cars by 75 percent, you'd still have a number roughly four times higher than Sarles' number.

The board's silence when told a bald faced lie is indicative of their total failure to provide any kind of meaningful oversight.

Oh, and track work will render Metro basically useless this weekend.

Other items:
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Metro's tuition reimbursement program pays for questionable courses (Wash. Times)
Mikulski demands "safety audit" (WaPo)

Is Metro Bleeding Millions from Parking?

Photo via thisisbossi

Yes, says a tipster:

Metro has quietly eliminated dozens of parking attendant jobs without notice. The first 20 or so jobs located at Green Line stations, attendants were dismissed in early June. The second wave of 20 or more attendants were dismissed on the Red Line, in late June. The Orange and Blue lines are next.

The attendants are being replaced by electronic “parking attendant” machines, which are video/credit card machines. Gates can be opened and closed remotely, at an understaffed “command center” located on the basement floor of their headquarters building. The center is currently staffed with four employees, working two shifts to answer customer’s issues.

The system is unable to handle multiple calls. From just one station customers can call multiple times during the day. The parking attendant machines are in 35 stations resulting in thousands of calls.

Also the machines are not designed to collect revenue. For example, when a customer comes to the gate without a SmarTrip card, it was the attendant that directed the customer back to the station to purchase one, or directed the customer to pay with a credit card, or issued an NPIR (Non-Payer Identification Report) commonly know as a “promise to pay” where the customer sends the payment on a later date. (Hundreds of these are issued every day. Metro only receives two to three percent of the payments, as they have no staff to follow-up.).

Now, at the command center for the electronic parking attendants, someone simply pushes a button and allows the customer to go free, because they have no way to collect revenue. They cannot send the customer back because they cannot conduct traffic control from the command center as there may be customers lined up to exit, so the customers are allowed to leave without paying.

Thus the real attendant was instrumental in assisting in revenue collection efforts for Metro. In addition the attendant also alerted Metro when gates were broken (allowing customers to park free) or systems were down. The parking attendant machines have no video capabilities beyond seeing the driver in the car.

To add the electronic parking attendants, Metro has spent a whopping $150,000.00-$200,000.00 per station using two contractors. They plan to recoup this money by increasing the parking rate (which was done July 1) and lowering operational budget projections.

The newly appointed director of operations has ordered this change. By the way, he was also overseeing parking during the mismanagement in 2003 that allowed millions of dollars to be stolen from parking revenue.

Metro also allows millions to go uncollected by allowing vehicles to be parked in the facilities for days and only paying the daily current rate. Metro has no ability to determine how long you have been there and charges you a flat rate even if you’ve been parked for days. Many customers are aware of this and use Metro facilities as storage for their vehicles. Simply leave before 10:30 a.m. or after midnight, and it’s free! Go to any station at 11:45 p.m., and you will find cars lines up waiting for the gates to go up.

Other items:
Officials urge Metro to improve late-night bus service (WaPo)
VRE ridership continues to soar (Examiner)

Honey Manager Don't Care

From anonymous:

Metro has annoying issues, hot cars, delays, malfunctions, off-boarding, buses not showing up, etc., but in general, I am grateful to have public transit since I do not own a car. Metro is how I get to and from work, as well as participate in other activities.

As of late, there has been a serious uptick in crime in the Mount Vernon Triangle/Chinatown neighborhood and at the Chinatown Metro.

I have felt very unsafe and have contacted the general police - who never show when I call.

The other night, I witnessed a particularly disturbing incident at the Chinatown Metro after the Nationals game.

It was around 10:30 p.m. There were a lot of people (since this is a major transfer point), and as I came off the train, I saw an altercation taking place on one of the escalators.

People were screaming for Metro police, and a few gentleman were trying to hold two juveniles who appeared to have attempted to rob somebody. The two juveniles were throwing punches, but the good citizens were not standing down.

People continued to scream for police, but none showed up.

So I ran to the other side - also screaming for help and prompting others to try and get help - and went to the vestibule at the 7th and H St. exit.

There were two gentleman there, and what happened next cannot be expressed through a message.

I conveyed what happened (other people were there, too) and asked why these things keep happening. I asked what they were doing about it?

One of the gentleman began to chastise me, tried to intimidate me, and belittled me. The other followed suit.

I was upset and conveyed how I felt unsafe.

To say they were unkind would be an understatement.

I exited through the gates and went to the front of the vestibule. A name plate said "Station Manager on Duty" with the name "A. Harris" listed.

I asked one of the gentleman who A. Harris was, and he asked why I needed to know.

I told him it was because that was who was listed as the station manager on duty, and I wanted to know who was responsible.

He told me I didn't need to know that information and then proceeded to call transit police on me - to scare me off.

The transit police did not show up, and I left realizing how futile this all was.

I submitted a formal complaint through Metro and called Transit Police myself the next morning to relay the incident and ask why there weren't several transit police visibly present when they knew there was a large sporting event. Chinatown is a problem station and a busy transfer point, particularly after games.

The response I got was "Just like you can't be all places at all time neither can our people."

That is unacceptable.

Other items:
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Mayor Gray blasts Metro (Foreign Policy)

Tell the Board No to Lower Standards

UPDATE: We won--for now.

Board item re: rail service criteria will be deferred until September to allow opportunity for further discussion and comment.

— @wmata (@wmata) July 24, 2012

On Thursday, the Metro board will likely vote to allow Metro to lower its standards in yet another way. Here's the language from the proposal:

RESOLVED, That the Board of Directors approves headway as a Metrorail service criterion, and sets thresholds such that normal schedule headways will not exceed 15 minutes during peak service, 20 minutes during off-peak service, and 25 minutes during late night service after 10:00PM; and be it further
.
.
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RESOLVED, That responsibility for defining all other Metrorail service criteria and thresholds be delegated to the General Manager/CEO; and be it further

RESOLVED, That minor service changes may be implemented by the General Manager/CEO to achieve service criteria thresholds provided that the service change does not result in an increase in jurisdictional funding requirements beyond amounts provided for in the then currently adopted fiscal year budget; and be it finally

I've written about this scheme before, here and here.

One thing that really strikes me is that nowhere in the proposal does it mention track work, which was THE MAIN REASON Metro staff told the board's Customer Service and Operations Committee they were proposing these criteria in the first place.

That seems rather underhanded to me, but then again, this whole thing is very strange.

This proposal is unacceptable and, I think, represents a huge abdication of responsibility by the board that is supposed to oversee Metro, ostensibly for US! It's a power grab by Metro GM Richard Sarles, and I can't figure out what it does to improve Metro in any way.

I urge you to write the board members expressing your displeasure with this proposal.

Here are the email addresses I have. If you have others, please leave them as a comment or email me, and I'll add them to this list for easier copy and paste.

william.euille@alexandriava.gov, mhynes@arlingtonva.us, jdyke@mcguirewoods.com, mbowser@dccouncil.us, marcel.acosta@ncpc.gov, mortdowney@verizon.net, mbarnes@ciponline.org, ahampshire-cowan@howard.edu, info@nicholscreativedevelopment.com, boardofdirectors@wmata.com, catherine.hudgins@fairfaxcounty.gov, terry.bellamy@dc.gov

Missing: Tom Downs, Tom Bulger, Anthony Giancola and Kathy Porter

Here's some suggested language for your email to the board.

Dear sir or madam,

I'm a regular Metro rider, and I'm fed up with Metro's increasing price and decreasing service.

I feel the proposed "rail service criteria" serve no purpose other than to excuse future poor performance and you, as a board member, need to stand up for the riders in your capacity as a member of Metro's governing body.

These extreme proposed headways are unacceptable. A mass transit that allows headways like this will likely continue to lose riders.

Additionally, if these headways are allowed, the hardest hit will be those who have no alternative to Metro.

I want Metro to succeed. The region depends on it. Instead of allowing Metro to build in excuses for performance that should never be acceptable, you should be pressing Metro to raise the bar in every aspect of its service.

Please do the right thing for area riders and taxpayers by rejecting this proposal.

Sincerely,

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)

Going Out of the Way for Safety

From Colin:

Friday evening, some friends and I, along with thousands of other people, attended the monthly Truckeroo outside Nationals Park to enjoy fantastic food and mediocre beer, unbeknownst to us that our trip home would take us nearly three hours.

I had no troubles getting to the Navy Yard stop from Van Dorn Street, thanks to the abundance of Rush+ Yellow Line trains, but when we headed into the Metro station shortly before 10 p.m. that night, I had a Skywalker-esque "bad feeling about this" moment.

After waiting 20 minutes for our first train to take us to L'Enfant Plaza, I checked my phone to discover that not only would we be waiting another 20 minutes for our second train towards Huntington, but that we would also have to take a shuttle bus from Pentagon City to Braddock Road due to scheduled track maintenance.

While I would like to point out that closing down essential stations on two lines starting at 10 p.m. on a Friday night is borderline moronic, that, my friends is not the end of the story, nor the most major of inconveniences we experienced that night.

At this point in our travels, we were on track to make our trip from Navy Yard to Van Dorn Street in just about an hour and a half. At Pentagon City, we were ushered without incident onto a waiting shuttle bus and made good time to Crystal City and Reagan National Airport.

However, after leaving Reagan, things went truly pear-shaped.

As it was dark and very difficult to see out of the bus windows, nobody on the full bus realized that our driver had accidentally gotten onto the George Washington Parkway in the northbound direction.

Only after the trip to Braddock Road seemed to be taking way too long did any questions arise, and only after seeing the Potomac and the Lincoln Memorial on our right did we begin consulting our smartphones' GPS programs.

Sure enough, we were on our way toward McLean where perhaps we would get a glimpse of the CIA campus before making our way back home.

After spending a few seconds in disbelief at the blue dot on my Google maps, I yelled up to the bus drive, "Where the hell are we going?" In the following minutes, the rest of the bus came to accept the fact that we had gone more than a half an hour out of the way and plenty of angry comments and some yelling ensued.

Our driver finally turned us around just outside of McLean and brought us circuitously back toward Alexandria where we arrived at the Braddock Road station more than an hour later than we should have.

And here's the icing on the cake. Expecting some comment or apology from the driver, I hovered near the bus (bus number B356) for a second only to hear him quip sarcastically to an offloading passenger, "Hey, safety first, right? That's what's most important."

I'm not exactly sure what his point was and yes, he did avoid crashing the bus, but a simple, "My bad" would have sufficed.

Luckily, our friends who had parked at Braddock Road offered us a ride home rather than allowing us to enter the turnstiles once again, most likely to wait 20 additional minutes for a Blue Line train home.

Other items:
More track work this weekend (WMATA)