New Safety Scheme, Same Old Problems

If you're looking for a silver lining, about the best you could come up with is at least this latest collision took place when there were no passengers on the trains. However, three Metro workers were injured slightly, and, according to Metro, one car won't be able to be fixed in yet another ding to Metro's dwindling supply of rolling stock.

Eight-car trains, at this rate, will be an even rarer sighting..

The Post is reporting the damage at $9 million, another substantial blow to the budget gap.

Apparently, that big safety "shake up" a couple of weeks ago didn't magically solve all the problems. Then again, did anyone really think it was anything but a reshuffling of the deck chairs?

Maybe it's time for another standard trick, the ol' "safety stand down." That'll fool 'em.

Then again, maybe not. Less than 10 days after the last one, a WMATA subcontractor was electrocuted on the job.

Metro often whines about its poor public image, once going so far as to blame passengers.

While we've documented many sucky passengers on this blog, passengers don't collide trains.

Perhaps if Metro made some real changes, like making its management and operators publicly accountable when something goes awry, the "reputation deficit" might start to turn around, but instead Metro appears to persist with the smoke and mirrors routines, and that's just not going over so well these days.

Other items:
Fired? Think again. (Examiner)

Happy Thanksgiving from Metro

From an anonymous reader.

OK, so there's no stuffing yet, but hey, it's probably not rush hour.

Have a great holiday. Back Monday.

Rider Hall of Shame

Other items:
Metro spends $38,000 on lighting pilot (WaPo)

$38,000 seems pretty expensive to light up one small area, but the best part is this: "Metrorail stations have 73,836 lights. Many of them are impossible to reach from the platform. Metro has to stop the trains to allow workers to replace a bulb along the granite platform edge. "
More form over function thinking from Metro

The Basics

So WMATA was poised to enact some major, wrenching changes to SmartBenefits with very little notice to those who would be effected, but in the end, they opted to punt it back a year after giving everyone a good scare. While they're figuring out how to conform to IRS regulations regarding transit benefits, perhaps they could undertake what would seem to be a much more simple task that would actually help customers: enabling anyone to add money to their SmarTrip over the Internet. The issue is on the table, but, like SmartBenefit changes, keeps getting pushed back.

Being able to add fare online would not only provide greater convenience to passengers, but it would also stem situations like this.

From a reader:

I recently started driving to work because Metro-ing was wasting such a ridiculous amount of time. It took an hour to ride the Orange Line then transfer to the Blue Line to get to Braddock Road.

Driving takes 15 minutes, 17 on a bad day.

But the other day, I decided to Metro since I had to go into DC after work.

I took my farecard and swiped it at my home station, Virginia Square. With only 70 cents, I knew I would need to add fare before making a return trip.

When I arrived at the Braddock Road station, I didn't have enough fare to exit the station (duh). Thankfully, "a SmarTrip® card will let you take one trip that results in a negative balance, but value must be added before it can be used again on Metrorail or Metrobus," a quote from the MetroOpensDoors Web site.

To prepare for my trip home, I approached one of the two fare machines at the Braddock station and attempted to add fare. After choosing the amount and swiping my credit card, the machine told me my transaction had been canceled. I proceeded to the other machine, and the machine did the same thing!

So, I went to speak to the station manager:

Me [perky, having had two cups of coffee]: Hi there! Are these fare machines working? I need to add money to my SmarTrip.

Him [Looking irritated - how dare I interrupt the ever-important conversation he's having with the other operator in the booth]: No, they aren't working. None of them are working.

Me: None - as in, this problem is station-wide?

Him: Yep.

Me [irritated, now thinking "Would it be so hard for one of these two able-bodied men to put up a sign so a to inform Metro's waning ridership of this epidemic?"]: Well, how am I supposed to add fare?

Him: Get it somewhere else. Or get cash. Or try later.

Geez. Thanks. Get it somewhere else? The closest CVS to this stupid station is a mile away. And why should I have to get cash? Couldn't Metro enable you to add fare online, like Starbucks?

We're getting cell reception added to the lines, but you can't add fare?!?

Good grief.

Other items:
Dulles project under review (WaPo)
Metro beefing up holiday service (WMATA)

Photo: nevermindtheend

Doors ... Again

Door problems are one of the top reasons trains are taken out of service and offloaded. Many times, according to WMATA, this is caused by customers trying to get into a train just as the doors are closing or by customers holding the doors in order to allow a few more people to get on.

Given the doors' fragility, it seems odd that Metro would initiate anything that could exacerbate the problem, but recently, we've gotten several emails, comments and tweets like the following from Charles, wondering if operators are giving passengers less time to get off and on trains in recent weeks.

Is it me, or did sometime around September Metro send out a memo to its drivers to close the doors ASAP at all their stops? I've been a rider for a few years, but I've noticed in the last few months a lot of doors closing when people haven't had a chance to get on the train yet.

It's really bugging me, because not only is it directly inconveniencing people, particularly the very old, very young or handicapped, but it also indirectly creates a culture of muscling your way onto trains so you don't get screwed over by the doors closing prematurely.

The drivers are clearly not paying attention to whether their trains are empty and the doors can be closed without any problems, or whether people are going to need some time to let everybody off and board in an orderly way.

Have you noticed this trend? We should note that some drivers at least, do maintain an awareness of the situation on the platform. Some don't.

The constant door issues are the reason we riders are often reminded, and sometimes scolded, by the operators to not touch the doors, so it was it was disturbing to see, again, that Metro employees apparently don't follow their own rules.

Take this story from reader Sarah:

On Nov. 20,at about 10 a.m. at the Pentagon City stop, I was waiting for my train. A Blue Line train came and was loading up. As the doors were closing, I looked up and saw a Metro employee on the train stick his hand in the door to stop it from closing to try to help out a pretty girl that was trying to get on.

I cannot count the number of lectures I have received in Metro stations and on trains about not trying to stop the doors from closing, I cannot believe a Metro employee would do that! Ridiculous!

Now we all know that some Metro employees have been known to use the system as their personal singles bar, and while that's absolutely unacceptable, it's even more appalling to see a Metro employee willfully doing something they know could cause a train to go out of service, delaying thousands.

Other items:
Safety concerns over Dulles rail bridge (WaPo)

Photo: sudama

Cleanliness a Point of Pride, Except at Deanwood

Before
After?

One good thing you can consistently say about Metro is that it's pretty clean. That's why we were surprised to hear about the following.

sherrieindc, frustrated by the garbage strewn about the Deanwood station, started taking pictures.

Her photos, of which there are many, were noticed on Twitter by Sylvia C. Brown, ANC7C-04 Commissioner, who was prompted to write the following Ann E. Chisholm, Assistant Government Relations Officer at WMATA:

"Deanwood Station users have commented about its cleanliness and other issues like graffiti-tagged newspaper bins and rider seating, urine odors, and overflowing trash receptacles at ANC7C meetings. I've included my fellow Commissioner, in whose SMD the Deanwood Station lies, on this message. We hope that this communication will be a signal to WMATA to increase monitoring and maintenance of the station and the grounds. Please do not hesitate to let us know how the ANC can be partners with WMATA on this and other matters."

WMATA's response was:

Commissioner Brown,

Thanks you for bringing this issue to our attention. Due to staff vacancies, we have not been able to provide the quality of cleaning that this station demands. This vacancy has been filled effective November 15, 2009 and you should see immediate improvements in the overall cleanliness at the station. We apologize for the maintenance problems and please contact me if you have additional concerns. If you have other concerns about the maintenance at this station, please contact Superintendent Linwood West. He can be reached at 301-618-1076 or lwest@wmata.com. You may also contact me at 202-962-2877 or by email at achisholm@wmata.com.

I am forwarding the pictures to Metro’s maintenance staff.

Again, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Ann Chisholm

Sounds like a reasonable explanation, right? But the rub, as always, would be to see if WMATA actually did anything about it. They gave the problem some good lip service, but in the end, their actions didn't quite back up the words.

sherrieindc said things were slightly better at Deanwood, but still unacceptable. Garbage, she said, was still littering the parking lot, and as the photos show, there was a marginal improvement in the overflow at one of the station's garbage cans. We don't know about the urine.

It should be noted that Deanwood's upkeep is in stark contrast to East Falls Church, our "home" station, which is usually about as spotless as a subway station could be expected to be.

Other items:
Weekend bus and rail delays (WMATA)
Metro Board acts with common sense (WaPo)
SmartBenefits changes delayed (WaPo)
Metro experimenting with "warning signal program" (WMATA)
Jeter: "WMATA is attempting to feed pieces of information to the media suggesting that we are going to strike." (ATU 689)

The Yin and Yang of Metro Employees

Meet "A.M. Haynes."

He's an a**hole.

And just after this pic was snapped, he gave us the finger.

Haynes was the station manager at Clarendon at about 11:30 p.m. on Saturday. As we entered the station, we saw him giving grief to someone whose farecard wasn't working. We didn't interfere and kept walking down to the platform.

After getting there and finding the next train was coming in 20 minutes, we decided to see how Mr. Haynes would react to a simple, friendly question that would require no work from him other than speaking a few words.

The door to his kiosk was open so we approached.

"How often do the trains come?" we asked in a completely pleasant tone.

"It come when it come," he said rudely, and turning his back. Obviously, Haynes was more interested in drinking his ginormous coffee.

"No, seriously, how often do they come at this time of night?" we asked, still being polite.

"Get the f**k out my door!" he barked. Adding a "F**k y'all" for good measure.

Give that man a raise!

Mr. Haynes has no business dealing with customers. None!

When we got back to East Falls Church, good ol' Khalil was kicked back in his fortress of solitude, so we decided to ask him the same question to see how he compared.

"Every 20 minutes," Khalil said matter of factly.

Wow! It's a challenge to make Khalil look good, but you did it, Mr. Haynes.

And then, on the other side of the coin, there's this guy from reader Matthew:

On the morning of Nov. 16 at Gallery Place/Chinatown, I was doing my normal transfer from the Yellow Line to the Red Line. A mass of us were working our way up the escalator trying to make it to the train on the platform. A few people started running when I saw the lights on the door flashing, indicating the doors were about to close.

No one was close to making it. The doors closed, and then the something amazing happened.

The train operator, realizing no one was on the train opened the doors back up and allowed us all to get on.

Not sure if he was a "rogue" operator or someone who finally gets it. Either way, nice job to that guy.

Other items:
Metro to approve $14k trip already underway (Examiner)
New bus stop design taking shape (GGW)
What is the most crowded part of Metro? (GGW)
Streetcars begin journey from Czech Republic (DCist)

Abuse of WMATA Resources?

Two readers informed us yesterday about an interesting "PSA" that was being made at the Farragut West station. According to WMATA, announcements like these are "an inappropriate use of WMATA resources."

As we've read, the union representing Metro bus and rail operators and WMATA are about to head to court over a dispute over pay increases. That tension seems to be manifesting itself in odd ways.

According to one reader, "the [PSA] message started with a pleasing chime sound ... then an apparent Metro worker basically said support and sign a petition to support Metro workers so that they could get a raise ... She said to take some time to care about Metro workers as they care for us ... Catoe got his raise, and we didn't, and we haven't gone on strike yet ... please support ..."

Another reader's account was as follows:

Is there some potential strike in the works by Metro employees? I was on a Blue Line train at 8:23 this morning stopped at Farragut West going toward Metro Center. While we were stopped, there was a Metro employee on the station's public address system asking riders to sign some card in support of Metro employees in a dispute with management.

She said something about the employees not having shut Metro down. Implicit in her statement was a "yet." My impression was that the train spent longer than usual in the station with the doors open, so that all of us on the train could hear it.

Is that an appropriate use of Metro's PA system?

How do we feel about the threat?

According to the collective bargaining agreement between WMATA and the union:

Sec. 107 - No Strike-No Lockout
During the period covered by this contract, the service upon and operation of the lines of this Authority shall not be interrupted or interfered with by either party; provided, however, that this restriction shall not be applicable to the Union in the event of a refusal by the Authority to arbitrate any dispute which is arbitrable under this Agreement, or in the event of a refusal by the Authority to comply with provisions of any arbitration award issued by a Board of Arbitration to which the Authority and the Union have submitted a dispute.

Has anyone else heard anything like this?

Related:
Does one get written up for this?
Jeter to passengers: ________
Is a driver protest brewing?

Teenage Riot in a Public Station

Over the past weeks, we've had a lot of email and a lot of comments from readers complaining about groups of unruly teens making commuting both unpleasant and, in some cases, scary. In one incident, kids were throwing firecrackers at Gallery Place and nothing was done.

When we started digging around the WMATA Web site, we were surprised to find that MTPD Deputy Chief Jeri Lee said he uses "approximately 90 percent of his resources during after-school hours ... to address juvenile misbehavior."

The problem is significant enough that he has daily conference calls with DCPS and the D.C. Department of Social Services "to anticipate and address issues."

He went on to say "that Metro deals with an influx of approximately 10,000 juveniles every afternoon, and MTPD officers try to make their presence known to discourage inappropriate behavior.

He also said that officers cannot necessarily distinguish between horseplay and more serious behavior when it is occurring and that officers need to respond to all unruly behavior. He noted that MTPD officers have taken several guns from juveniles, which underscores the potential for incidents to escalate."

Lee said that MTPD’s average response time is 11-13 minutes, largely because officers on foot patrol have to rely on getting to incidents via train and bus.

During the October Riders' Advisory Council meeting, Lee said MTPD was going to set up a hot line to report juvenile behavior, but we could find no reference to it on the WMATA Web site.

Apparently, they did. The number is 202-962-2118. Read the release here.

Deputy Chief Lee said that he wasn’t aware of any specific issues related to intoxicated individuals riding the Metro.

Have you noticed a problem with rowdy teens? We've heard Rhode Island Ave., Tenleytown and Gallery Place have problems. Where else?

Other items:
Another suicide (WaPo)
NTSB to bring in state oversight officials from around country (Examiner)

Metro, Redskins Have a Lot in Common

You wouldn't think the Redskins and Metro would have much in common, but there are some surprising similarities.

They both perennially underachieve.

The both have widely derided general managers.

They both scour the nation for overpriced "stars" who end up under performing.

They both love to utilize consultants for things they should do themselves.

They both overcharge their customers.

They both have inept, insulated and intractable management that only acts when the ship is sinking.

Even then, that reaction is usually nothing more than to shuffle the deck chairs and pray somehow, some way things will get better.

Take this eerie parallel.

A few weeks back, the Redskins, in a bizarre move, stripped "head" coach Jim Zorn of his play calling duties, leaving him with a very unclear job description and a generous salary.

And now Metro, with questions about its safety swirling around, has Jim Zorned its chief safety officer.

The Washington Post reported Saturday that:

Alexa Dupigny-Samuels [Metro's safety chief] will keep her title and duties but will be supervised by Transit Police Chief Michael Taborn, [Metro Board Chair Jim] Graham said. She would consult with Taborn "before key decisions are made," he said. "If she makes decisions or writes letters or communicates something, she needs to tell the chief, 'Here is what I'm thinking of doing.' "

Why not fire her if she needs this much help? If Metro has no confidence left in her abilities, get rid of her, and use her salary to hire someone who knows what they're doing. Don't create another bureaucratic layer that's not likely to make any difference or might make things worse.

We're starting to think dumb is spelled M-E-T-R-O. Good grief.

With the Skins, all the folly is often laughable, but with Metro, it's tragic.

What is more worrisome about this new management structure is the Metro Police will have more on their plate when they can't seem to handle some of their core duties such as maintaining a sense of safety--more on that in a coming post. They also aren't much better at following their own rules, apparently, and they're buying those ridiculous T3s that actually prompted the wife of a Metro cop to write us out of concern for her husband's safety.

But let's get back to the safety practices at Metro, which are indisputably in need of re-evaluation. Is this "fix" really the best Metro could come up with? Will the still amorphous federal oversight proposed by the Obama administration keep Metro from making these cosmetic changes and bring real reform in how Metro operates?

And Frankly, Dupigny-Samuels only got her job in February, so it seems unlikely she would have had that much effect on Metro's overall safety, no matter how well or poorly she performed.

She not only got Zorned, but she got sort of Schottenheimered as well.

Other items:
Obama administraton proposes federal oversight of transit (WaPo)
Examiner's take
Metro, union rack up legal bills (Examiner)

Mais Wee

View Larger Map
It is a problem that has vexed bus drivers for almost a century: What do you do if you have to go to the bathroom while on duty?

DC-style, apparently, is to reach for an empty Doritos bag or other miscellaneous receptacle, or perhaps hop into a local fast food joint, like KFC. But honestly, those seem like more trouble than they're worth.

Finally, through the power of the Internet, we offer WMATA drivers a convenient option.

When ya gotta go, the French seem to have developed an effective and elegant solution. (H/t Elan)