Reaction to Switch Malfunction Led to Derailment

What should have been a story about how things went right for Metro turned instead into a derailment, according to several sources familiar with the incident and subsequent investigation.

As the Washington Post reported, the operator of the train saw a red signal at the switch just inside the tunnel on the western end of Rosslyn station. In technical terms, the switch was "out of correspondence."

Correctly, the operator notified operations control center (OCC) which then ordered the operator to hold the train, perform a visual inspection of the switch and get assistance from "nearby crew."

That crew was was an automatic train control (ATC) technician who installed a clamp to the malfunctioning switch. The clamp, had it been properly installed, was supposed to keep the switch in the correct position and would have allowed trains to proceed without incident.

While the ATC tech may have felt the clamp was installed tightly, they apparently failed to notice a "small obstruction" in between the switch point and main track on the switch which prevented the clamp from "tucking" the point snugly under the main rail, leading to the derailment, said sources.

Here's how Metro's own internal reporting system described the incident:

At 2025hrs ATC Supervisor Craven informed MOC that switch 3 was clamped normal, but the switch was clamped with a 2 inch gap and was not tucked.

One source said it was possible that the gap was initially much less than two inches and may have looked OK. They said it's possible that the train wheels, as they derailed, forced the gap to widen to the reported two inches.

According to two sources, after installing the clamp, the tech was supposed to "check the point" to make sure it was properly tucked under the main rail.

"You have to inspect everything," said an ATC worker. "If anything like this happens, it's ATC's fault. The guy should have checked the point. He was just being lazy."

Other sources said that the obstruction in the switch was a "fluke" or "freak occurrence," but they agreed there is no excuse for the ATC tech or the operator not to notice something was still wrong even after the clamp was installed.

This particular tech, two sources confirm, has been written up once before for falling asleep in a truck.

According to Metro's own handbook, "Cranking and Blocking of Switches":

According to FRA specifications, a switch point must close within 1⁄4’’ of the stock rail. In some cases, the point may have a slight opening, but the tip is still under the head of the stock rail. This is perfectly fine.
If a switch point is not within 1⁄4’’ of the stock rail, it is not safe for the passage of trains. If a switch has been damaged by trailing or other accident, it might not be possible to get the switch point to tuck. In this case, train movement must not be allowed over the switch.

And, as with most Metro problems, things were only made only worse by operations control center's (OCC) disconnect from what actually happens on the tracks, said one source.

At first, said one source, OCC was "was under the impression the train was completely in the tunnel" when the majority of the train was actually still on the platform.

Furthermore, Metro's standard operating procedure for a derailment dictates that power is to be cut for both tracks. It makes sense in most places as the tracks are side by side.

However, at Rosslyn (and Pentagon) the tracks are not side by side, they're on different levels, meaning it would have been safe to single track through the area, causing less of a service disruption.

Since the staff at OCC apparently did not realize Rosslyn's configuration, they issued an order to cut power to both tracks and establish a shuttle bus bridge around Rosslyn.

This led to initial confusion for riders at the scene immediately after the derailment.

After about 30 minutes, with several pleas to single track form those on the scene, OCC realized it could single track safely through Rosslyn and the bus bridge was aborted.

"When sh*t really hits the fan, I have to trust my life to those people [at OCC], said one veteran Metro worker. "The only information is what I'm getting from them. That's a scary proposition.They just had a bunch of new controllers come in off the street. They don't know the system."

Other items:
Silver Line phase II in doubt (WaPo)
Advocates question elimination of peak of the peak (Examiner)

Metro Holds Riders Hostage--Again

Metro had yet another derailment Saturday night, leaving riders stranded yet again for over an hour without any communication. Metro told the Post it was a non-passenger train.

In recent months, Metro has held riders hostage on the Orange Line, Green Line and now on the Red Line.

And of course, a derailment is a pretty serious event, even if no one was hurt. I think it's just a matter of time.

I don't understand why local politicians refuse to see just how bad Metro is. Instead, if the Metro board discusses this event at all, it will most likely be a long back slapping celebration of how no one was injured.

The derailment was not the only incident this weekend.

From Susan:

Was stranded on a disabled metro train underground near Tenleytown from 12:30 a.m. 2 a.mm Sunday with hundreds of others.

I'm not upset that the train broke down-things happen. But we had no communication about what to expect. Police and a supervisor finally boarded the train (after 60+ minutes) after another train attempted to push us and failed.

We had to walk through all the train cars to board another train behind us and then go back to Tenleytown and switch trains again.

You think they'd have a communication and action plan by now on how to deal with disabled trains.

People were crossing between cars and peeing behind the door because we didn't know how long we'd be trapped.

Here are some reports from FixWMATA, who was caught up in the mess.

Communication Breakdown II

From Russ:

I was returning from a business trip, waiting with my boss at Metro Center in the direction of Shady Grove when my partner called to tell me a train had derailed.

We left the station and got a cab, with the intention of dropping my boss off at her home in Dupont, and then continuing in the cab to my home in Kensington.

My partner called again while en route, and said they were running trains on both sides of the derailment, so I decided to reroute to the Dupont Metro, which is two blocks from my boss' house.

As I was on the long Q street escalator down, I began to notice a torrent of people coming UP the escalator. Every one of the 250 people coming up told me the station was CLOSED due to the derailment.

I got to the station manager, or someone I thought was the station manager, and he said "station closed, no trains coming..." which I found to be suspect, and, as if on cue, the "Voice of God" system wide announcer lady comes on and said there was a derailment, but trains were running, and the next train to Shady Grove was at Metro Center. She provided other details.

So I asked station manager, "okay, which is it, what you are telling people, or what she is saying?" At which point he said what you generally don't hear from Metro folks: "I just don't know. I am only repeating what they have told me."

I asked another question: "If a train comes, will it be on the regular Shady Grove side?" He said "yes, definitely." He then stopped counseling people to not come into the station, so lots of people started to accumulate on the Shady Grove side. (There was an empty train to Glenmont on the other platform.)

The lack of communication in the system is ridiculous. Between management and other personnel, and between employees and riders, it's just crazy bad. They always say the key to a good relationship of any kind, business, pleasure, what have you, is communication. This would explain why Metro's relationship with everyone, employees and riders, just plain sucks.

One more item illustrating this: The train I did catch to Shady Grove 5 minutes later kept changing final destination, it was White Flint, then Grosvenor, then Shady Grove, then White Flint.

The operator of the train was getting a kick out of it, saying things like, "welcome aboard folks, well, this is a Red Line train now to White Flint again. We're just playing this by ear guys, sorry for the repeatedly changing destination..."

There is absolutely NO transparency in the Metro system. The whole organization is run like a dictatorship. There are very few who have the information, and they control all the news and communication within the system. This might just be a product of a system that was constructed in the '70s and '80s, and have never had the money to update the communications technology. I dunno, the whole situation is just sad.

As a footnote, I should mention they changed the destination of the train on the other platform and the station manager made an announcement, saying "if you are headed in the direction of Shady Grove, please board the train on the Glenmont side."

So we all wound up scurrying up the escalator and running across and down the other side.

Just poor communication all around.

Another Metro Derailment

Metro sources confirm there was another train derailment in a further safety setback for the the troubled transit agency. The incident occurred Saturday on a non-passenger train at the New Carrollton rail yard and caused major damage.

Three sources confirm a train consisting of an unknown number of cars derailed and was dragged for some distance, causing damage to cars on the derailed train, cars on a train next to the derailed trail, as well as to the rails and wayside track equipment.

One source said the operator, instead of stopping after feeling the increased drag caused by the derailment, sped up making the problem worse.

Another source said that if the train consisted of eight cars, the operator would likely not notice the additional drag.

One source said the damages could be in excess of $7 million and another said "several million."

"As for the amount of damage, who knows for sure," said yet another source. "When you speak of body damage on two cars then that is where the bulk of the cost would be, along with making wayside repairs. That would mean running rails, cross ties, signals, switches, etc. It probably climbed up and over a switch point, so that switch might need replacing as well."  

There were no reported injuries.

In April, a Blue Line train derailed outside of Rosslyn,  and in July,  a Green Line train derailed near West Hyattsville.

D'oh! Orange/Blue Line Delays

UPDATE: Apparently the problem has been fixed. All trains are now running their normal delayed pattern.

Yet another derailment is affecting the Orange and Blue lines this morning. "Major delays" are expected. Maybe they need to get some new "track equipment" or at least hire someone who can drive the current POS.

"Trains will be single-tracking (sharing one track) between the Cheverly and Stadium-Armory Metrorail stations until the repairs are made."

The derailment bug: a chronicle of ineptitude.
First this, then this, and then this.

And to think someone once wrote us complaining that "suck" was too harsh.

Other Metro News:
A nice letter to the editor from WaPo

Another Metro Dancer (Soundtrack NSFW)

Not exactly sure what the last bit's all about, but a pretty funny clip.

Other items:
Heads up Metro: Hot cars and stations are dangerous (NY Post)
Manual mode here for a while (Examiner)
Another red light run, another derailment (Examiner)
CSX tracks stolen, causing derailment (Taunton Daily Gazette)

Yellow Line Hit by Derailment Bug

News Channel 8 is reporting yet another derailment, this time on the Yellow Line.

And we thought, for a moment, that the name of this blog was too harsh! Ha! I'm thinking of replacing the "s" with an "f."

At least the Yellow Line Twitter feed is a little more current.

I wonder if the Orange Line Metro tweeters were out shooting a cool new PSA today!

Bad Radios Strike Again

Metro's dysfunctional radio system contributed to the death of two Metro workers and the derailment of a train, according to National Transportation Safety Board reports released Friday.

In the death of two Automatic Train Control workers on Jan. 26, 2010, the NTSB concluded the following:

Had the Operations Control Center (OCC) operators provided the crew of striking hi-rail vehicle 15802 with the cell phone number of the first automatic train control technician and instructions to coordinate their work, the accident could have been prevented.

The cell phone number the NTSB refers to is a PERSONAL cell phone number, sources said.

Sources within Metro say that in many cases, the PERSONAL cell phones are the primary means of communications because the radio system is so bad.

Metro has a multimillion dollar radio system that doesn't work, and they are depending on personal cell phone coverage, in many cases, for the safety of their employees. That had disastrous results that January night at Rockville.

Screwed up radios also played a role in the Farragut North derailment, according to the NTSB, which concluded "the probable cause of the accident was the train operator's failure to follow proper operating procedures, which resulted in her operating the train past a red signal and over the interconnected derail."

But when you read the details, poor communications surely added significantly to a very stressful situation in which an operator, who'd been out on worker's comp for nine years, had their decisions clouded by spotty communications with OCC.

Here's what the NTSB had to say:

The operator of train 641 stopped the train and called the OCC for permission to proceed, as required. However, the operator experienced difficulty communicating with the OCC; she reportedly was "calling and calling and calling." Moreover, the train operator reported that she heard the OCC controller respond to train 156, but the radio messages were garbled and she could not understand the instructions.

The bottom line:

Radio records show communications between the OCC controllers and various train operators. Radio transmissions from train 156 to the OCC were weak and garbled at times. The operator of train 156 had a train-mounted radio and a portable radio; neither radio was reported to be malfunctioning.

According to several sources within Metro, the radio problems are only getting worse.

Time and time again, EVERY SINGLE Metro worker I talk to says the radios (here, here and here) cause or compound all the delays, accidents--everything. They can't communicate among themselves, which makes it hard to communicate with us.

Several employees have said Metro knows the radios are wired incorrectly yet management does nothing about it. Specifically, the wires don't have the capacity to handle the information passing through them.

"It's like trying to suck a golf ball through a garden hose," said one employee.

Said another, "It doesn't make sense to rely on personal cell phones at critical times. How's your personal cell phone coverage in Metro? I bet it's better than Metro's radios. That's not comforting to me."

There's so much in these reports to latch onto, and I recommend anyone with an interest in Metro read them.

For example, in the $9 million collision at the West Falls Church rail yard, the NTSB concluded "the failure of the train operator to control the movement of his train as it approached the standing train, possibly due to his fatigue" was the cause.

Amazingly, despite two killed and millions of dollars in damage, the NTSB issued no recommendations for Metro despite compelling evidence that the faulty radios contributed to two of the three incidents.

Another little tidbit about the reports that may only be of interest to me as a journalist is the timing of their release. As anyone knows, if you want to release bad news, do it on a Friday afternoon. Why the NTSB would, in essence, help Metro by doing that I couldn't say.

Think about that next time you ride.

As the bodies and wreckage pile up, there's still no one watching Metro. Quite the contrary, by issuing damning reports on a Friday afternoon, the NTSB may actually be enabling Metro by shielding it from the spotlight.

Other items:
Metro blocked, locked emergency exits (Examiner)

Where's the Scorn for Metro?

Is Metro getting a pass on the derailment Friday?

Several sources tell me they think Metro should have had speed restrictions in place long before that train derailed at 4:45.

"The extreme heat has been going on pretty much all month," said one. "Why did it take a derailment to wake someone up?"

Another said "Last year, Metro had all trains slow down during the heat wave. I guess they forgot to this year. Oops."

A scan of past Metro press releases shows it has instituted speed restrictions as a preventative measure during previous extreme heat and did so well before rush hour. (Here. Here.) Metro has even instituted speed restrictions for fallen leaves.

What happened this time around? The temperature has been over 95 for most of the month.

Luckily, no one was injured, and again, Metro dodged a bullet.

Metro will likely keep gambling as long as they're allowed to get away with it by our local politicians and press.

But our local politicians and the press are capable of dishing out strongly worded and deserved scorn for area organizations that continue to fail their customers.

Take Pepco, which was slow to restore power after the big storms that hit June 29.

DC mayor Vincent Gray said he was "fed up" with Pepco. DC councilwoman Mary Cheh called for a probe of Pepco. Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett called Pepco's timetable for restoring power "unacceptable.'

Even the PR man's favorite newspaper, the Washington Post ran an editorial, saying:

We single out Pepco not only because of its sluggish response after the recent storm — and its inexcusably spotty communications — but also because of its woeful record in maintaining and restoring service following earlier storms.

Maryland State Sen. James C. Rosapepe blasted Pepco, saying:

It's no longer an excuse for the utilities to say that we are shocked, shocked, shocked that the wind blew hard, or that it rained a lot or that it snowed for three days. It's unpredictable what weather event will take place on what day, but it is more predictable that we will continue to have them.

Sounds like the Post and Rosapepe could have been talking about another, failing and completely reactive, organization we all know too well.

Ironically, about the only love for Pepco came from, of all places, Metro!

Metro's dysfunction is on a par, if not worse, than Pepco's, but somehow, despite dangerous failure after dangerous failure over a course of years, Metro continues to skate by with little or no criticism from some of the institutions and people that might actually be able to bring about the kind of real change those of us who ride regularly know Metro needs so badly.

Other items:
Dulles rail board spends big on travel (Examiner)

Red Line Delays

ALERT:
Disruption at Bethesda. Trains are sharing the same track between Medical Center and Friendship Heights due to a train experiencing mechanical difficulties outside Bethesda station. Expect delays in both directions. Expected duration is up to 2 1/2 hours.

Apparently, it was yet another derailment.

Fares Raised, Bars Lowered

Yesterday, the Customer Service and Operations Committee of the Metro board signed off on a Metro plan to make 15-minute waits during the peak and 30-minute waits during the off peak acceptable.

The committee seemed very confused, and to be honest, after listening to the discussion, I was, too. Yet the committee unanimously gave it the green light. Crazy.

Here's my take.

I'm not sure the longer wait times are service cuts. Instead, I think they represent lowering the bar so that when there are delays of 15 minutes during the peak and 30 minutes during off peak, Metro can say they're still providing the "service" the board told them to.

In essence, the policy would exonerate Metro even if they provided a "service" no one on the room yesterday seemed to think was acceptable.

And if Metro doesn't meet the lower criteria?

Board member Kathy Porter asked, and what followed was epically revealing.

There was about 10 seconds of extremely awkward silence capped off by a bumbling response from Sarles, who, in essence said, it would go in a report.

Ooooh ... a report! Scary!

Sadly folks, that's pretty much the worst thing that can happen to you if you're part of Metro management.

Could Sarles be docked pay for not meeting standards over, say, three straight months? Could he be fired?

No.

It'd go in a report, and everyone would soon forget about it, and he'd continue to collect his hefty salary of $959 every single day, which comes straight out of your pocket.

I do have to give at least a little credit to Porter who asked Metro staff what adding these criteria would accomplish. She seemed to at least get a whiff of Metro's race to the bottom BS with this whole notion.

Metro staff's answer was mealy-mouthed transitese, culminating with a Sarlesian monologue that defied comprehension. His early energy and dynamism has completely faded behind a thick haze of robotic talking points I'm not sure he even understands.

Porter didn't follow up.

The final say on these new "standards" will come at the July 26 full board meeting.

I really hope the board doesn't let Metro get away with this stealth attempt to cook the numbers without really doing anything to improve the service provided to us. They probably will.

Lower standards, no incentive to meet those standards and no punishment for not meeting them. And we wonder why Metro gets worse and more expensive every day.

Oh, and if that doesn't outrage you, the Safety and Security Committee spent less than an hour talking about the derailment, the "self evacuation" of a train and the continued problems with brakes falling off trains. Board members seemed eager to move onto other business.

Later, the Customer Service and Operations Committee spent roughly the same amount of time talking about naming stations. They talked at length about whether Smithsonian should also include "National Mall" and if so, how big the lettering should be.

I don't think Kafka could have imagined anything quite so absurd and maddening.

Happy Friday, and remember, track work on all lines this weekend.

Related: WMATA board shuts out riders on policy issues (GGW)

Other items:
DC picks firm to run streetcars (Examiner)
Metro continues to say passengers self evacuated (WaPo)

Repair and/or Twitter Fail

No, not yesterday's massive Twitter outage.

On Wednesday, @metroopensdoors fired off the following three tweets, which we found rather funny.

@metroopensdoors Blue Line: Expect delays in both directions due to scheduled track maintenance outside Franconia-Springfield station.*
@metroopensdoors Blue Line: Disruption cleared. *
@metroopensdoors Blue Line: Expect delays in both directions due to a switch malfunction outside Franconia-Springfield station.*

Honestly, the maintenance and malfunction may not be related, but if you think back to February, when a piece of track repair equipment derailed on the Orange Line causing major delays, it's not out of the question that "repair" work made things worse.

H/t to @nevermindtheend for pointing this out.

While trying to remember the details of the February derailment (there was more than one), we came across this article in the Examiner in which Metro spokesman Steve Taubenkibel said “We have to take a very close look at our practices internally. ... We have to take a very introspective look.”

Other items:

Is Metro getting better at getting information out? (WaPo)

This weekend's maintenance delays (WMATA)

Big time Blue/Yellow line maintenance delays (WMATA)

Questions remain on Purple Line (Examiner)

The latest on Google Transit (GGW)

Secret Gunn Memo Revealed

David L. Gunn, a so-called transit guru, issued his secret (ooohhhhh), oral report to WMATA’s Board of Directors in a flailing attempt to rerail Metro.

Gunn’s top recommendations, according to Metro?

• Resolve safety issues;
• Recruit a new premanent [sic] general manager;
• Deal with deteriorating financial trends; and
• Control escalating MetroAccess subsidies.

According to the Washington Post, another critical insight provided by Gunn was that Metro has nearly double the absentee rate among its workers compared to other transit agencies. Way to keep it real ATU 689. What was it their president once said about coming to work "every day"...

So yeah, Gunn got 20 grand to come up with that stuff. As @NOVA_Dad said, "I could have done an assessment for $100 bucks and a case of imported beer, and the results would have been the same."

The rest of Gunn’s report was filled with common sense pretty much anyone who rode Metro or read an article about Metro in the past year could have come up with. To be fair, common sense is a rare commodity at WMATA, so perhaps it was worth it.

Unsuck DC Metro has obtained a leaked, written copy (Word) of the “Gunn Paper,” which was given orally to the WMATA Board of Directors. At a price of $20K, we riders were given the report another way.

Another 200,000 dimes flushed.

Related:
More advice for Metro (at least it was free)

Other items:

• Transit police address increased robberies (WMATA)
• Another derailment! (WaPo)/Examiner
• Examiner take on Gunn report

Metro Probing Rash of Derailments

According to the DC Examiner, Metro is "taking a closer look at recent train derailments."
Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said it was only the seventh derailment in the system's 33-year history in which passengers were aboard.
“We have to take a very close look at our practices internally,” Taubenkibel said. “We have to take a very introspective look.”
What does that even mean? Why didn't he speak clearly and say Metro was going to fix the problem and that riders shouldn't be worried?
Maybe it's because he knows that years of mismanagement and neglect may finally be coming home to roost.
We found the last sentence amusing: Next year, the transit system will get a special vehicle that can evaluate the track for flaws. Let's hope the new vehicle doesn't derail because recently Metro's track equipment doesn't have a very good record!

Photo: Julesmarie

Snowmageddon IX: The First Commute

UPDATE: Report of Red Line Derailment. no 3 minor injuries reported.

Excellent coverage here (WaPo)

There were a few positive reviews of Metro's performance today, but for the most part, the impressions were decidedly negative. For those readers not on Twitter, here's a sampling. This list could have taken up page after page.

How was your commute this morning?

@Silvio_Marcacci getting on a metro train this morning is like getting on a helicopter during the fall of saigon #wmata #fail
@mccanner 10 minutes from union Station to metro center. Had a seat. Metro center is fine. #wmata
@samerfarha RT @volcanojw: Can't even get *on* the platform at Pentagon City http://twitpic.com/12roja #wmata
@wendilott 1 hour from union station to federal triangle #WMATA
@pbaxter #wmata trip was surprising pleasant this morning. Go Metro!
@dan_munz Reporting live from Metro Center: If you can stay off #WMATA, do. It's a fustercluck.
@timothyoconnell #WMATA reports of Red Line Metro service, it seems, have been _greatly_ exaggerated.
@jakemcintyre Metro may be useless today, but buses seem reasonable, at least for an NW-Downtown trip. #wmata
@alykat Ballston platform so full they've closed the gates, only letting ppl in after train comes. 'Next train' board is useless. #wmata
@RusynHokie Federal government open + 20 minuter interval on metro = wmata epic failure.
@trying_brevity All told, about two hour for the commute (ride on + metro). I guess that's not too bad. #wmata #rideon
@dan_munz 25% of feds at work. 10% working from home. Remaining 65% trapped together in same #WMATA car b/w Farragut West & Foggy Bottom.
@welovedc: Reading reports from Metro riders & wondering if Director of OPM is proud of himself for opening govt before WMATA was ready.
@TallPaulDC Eastern Market Metro platforms packed similar to a Nats game finishing. Waited for 4 trains and gave up.
@markalves Can't even get into Ballston station on Orange Line. Crowd is packed to bottom of outside escalator
@Bri_Cooley

West Hyattsville parkjing lot is only 30% plowed!! #wmata

Via email:

From MP:
Ride in this morning was relatively smooth, arrived at East Falls Church with 10 minutes before the next train, platform was packed. Trains were single tracking from EFC to Court House because they were storing trains on the opposite track between Virginia Square and Clarendon.

Took about an hour, 15 minutes longer than normal. I give Metro an A- for the effort.

From Steven:
Arrived at Potomac Ave. station at 7:45 - no trains til 8:25--and then one car was shut off, and a Metro staffer was sleeping on a seat - there were chemicals in that car- the platform is packed and so are the trains!!!

Another train arrived packed to the gills at 8:35.

The train arrival board has been off--when I arrived at 7:45, it said next train 15 minutes: No train arrived til 8:25. Trains are sitting here for at least 5 minutes. And trains keep changing arrival times or disappearing completely.

The next train was due to be in the station in 4 minutes. That was 10 minutes ago, and the train from 8:35 is still sitting here.

Taking Jeter's Cue

ATU 689's president, Jackie Jeter, often speaks using highly charged words, and it appears her attitude trickles down to some front-line employees.

From Robert:

I wanted to share this email I sent to Metro this morning about my morning commute:

Dear Metro-

So, I’m wondering if any of your employees get customer service training?

I ask this because I am a follower of the blog unsuckdcMetro.blogspot.com, and it is replete with stories of ridiculously rude employees, and I had my own face to face with this ridiculous rudeness last Friday morning at the Dupont Station.

The employee had his name written in red marker across his yellow vest. I think it read “Wilkie” as his last name.

At 8:21:36 a.m., I used my SmartTrip card to enter the station.

I guess I was too close to the woman in front of me because Mr. Wilkie stopped me to ask to see my card.

Your cards are so ridiculously fragile (I’m on my third one.), that I have it in a credit card sleeve inside a taped/stapled name badge attached to a retractable string along with my office credentials.

He wanted me to unstaple and remove the card from the sleeve to show him the card, and I asked him whether he could just swipe it on the reader in the kiosk like I have had done on other occasions. A simple card swipe would satisfy any reasonable person’s inquiry as to whether I had just committed the crime of ‘fare evasion’ as he began accusing me of.

Well, this employee went into a tirade about how he was "not my slave," and that I should not take a condescending tone with him.

He went on for what seemed several minutes about my tone and using a slave analogy. Was he saying this because I happened to be white and he happened to be black?

I kid you not. He kept saying to me, "stop using that tone. I'm not your slave. Stop treating me like your slave." It was really mystifying that he was using that word.

All I was trying to convey to him was that to take my SmartTrip card out of the sleeve would take a few minutes and would force me to put it back into my wallet and risk be demagnetized again, and that I knew the kiosk had a reader.

And you can see that it is in fact a SmarTrip card in there because it peaks through the sleeve (which you can see in the pic I attached for you [above].) It was a really odd exchange.

Perplexed, I replied to him, "I have had other Metro employees pass my card over a reader without taking it out of this sleeve. Why can’t you?"

He grabbed my card and pulled it as far as the string would go, which didn’t quite make it to the reader from where I was standing.

I took one step closer to the manager’s kiosk, and the card reached the reader and swiped just fine.

The guy then said “OK- you're good.”

So, after all that there was no fare evasion.

So my question is what kind of professionalism training do your employees get?

When I call Verizon about issues with my wireless plan, no one has ever told me to stop treating them like their slave. So odd.

All I want is to ride Metro and make it to and from Dupont and Rockville in the posted 26 minutes. I didn’t need the extra four minutes of attitude from your employee.

All he needed to say to me was "I didn’t see your card register, sir, may I swipe it to make sure our machines are reading your card properly?"

Seriously, please continue to work to UnsuckDC Metro. You have a LONG way to go to MetroForward from where you are.

Other items:

• Human error suspected in derailment (WaPo)
  
• Train derailed near recently "fixed" switch (Examiner)
  
• Some Metro riders try to stop fare hikes (Examiner)

The Metro Board Does Not Have Your Back

From CS:

Regular readers will recall that Unsuck has been working for nearly three years to pry vital safety and rider information out of WMATA via a series of public record requests (covering railcar doors, automatic train control, and the practice of “bellying” older and more dangerous cars in the middle of trains).

After agency staff utterly stonewalled our requests, violating their own policy and asking that we pay tens of thousands of dollars in costs for what should be public information, we recently turned to the supposed ultimate bosses, WMATA directors, for help.

We asked each of them (less one for whom we did not have an address), in their capacity as a board member with oversight responsibility for the transit system, to request from WMATA staff the same information we have sought in our requests, and then share the information with us, so that we could distribute it publicly right here.

We thought that new, highly trumpeted, reform-minded directors might seize a chance to liberate information important to riders and the capital region.

We thought at least some directors would understand that in the end, transparency really is a good thing for all concerned, and see that leveling with riders is the best course.

We hoped that among the bunch of them, at least one would be committed enough to stick their neck out and put riders first.

We were wrong.

And wrong.

And wrong.

Not a single one responded.

Never mind that no one said they’d help. We didn’t even get a single acknowledgment. Not even the pablum of, “Thank you for your concerns. We want to assure you that safety is our highest priority…” or some such thing. And keep in mind these folks are politicians – they ordinarily leap at the chance to blather about their commitment to public concerns.

Thus, it appears that the capture of the would-be reformers is now complete. Recall that after the preventable, fatal Red Line accident, a new slate of “tough” directors was supposed to keep more attentive watch over transit system operations.

But today, the WMATA echo chamber is working better than ever before. The staff tells the directors what a great job the staff is doing, and the directors chime in to sing the staff’s praises. Everyone is pleased.

During recent meetings, for example, the directors have been atwitter with praise about the new “safety culture” they say has taken hold, and the success of the rebuilding program.

Then, like clockwork, comes something like the latest derailment (an out-of-service Red Line train, as it was leaving a rail yard Saturday) or another in the series of track problems, power problems, and all manner of other problems that seem to be increasing, not decreasing, in frequency, judging by the daily service alerts.

A full discussion is for another day, but I’ve reluctantly come to believe that the only solution left is for Metro directors to be directly elected by voters in the member jurisdictions.

Otherwise, no one’s ever accountable. And the assortment of pols and other hacks, often on their way to somewhere else, that pose as “leaders” is just not up to the job of staring down Metro managers. WMATA management may not be able to run a safe, reliable transit system, but they certainly know how to take care of themselves. And management will continue to win as long as the best Metro directors can do is lay back, paws in the air, and ask for a belly rub from the staff they're supposed to command.

Other items: 
New Twinbrook garage has cracks (Examiner)

Riders Trapped Yet Again in Another Derailment Close Call

From Chris:

I enjoyed being trapped on Metro's Red Line last night (April 22) for over 35 minutes on a broken down train just outside Van Ness station.

We were told by operator, we were single tracking but that wasn't the case. We were finally off-loaded through one of the last cars, apparently there was a track issue or a wheel had derailed. But of course Metro never told us what was going on.

Plus the rude Metro workers just made the evening/morning so much fun.

According to a Metro source, the train ran a red light at the Van Ness-UDC interlocking at around 11:30 p.m.

"They had to let people out of the back of the train, then back the train up," the source said. "The train stopped before hitting the 3 switch, which was laying for a reverse move, which would have derailed the train."

'Lack of Confidence in the Equipment and People'

A very reliable Metro source calls Metro's reasoning for extending the Silver Line from Stadium Armory to Largo "total bullsh*t."

Metro gave three basic reasons why the Silver Line has to be extended rather than turning around at the D&G junction (Stadium Armory) as originally planned:

• The pocket track uses #6 switches and due to an aerial construction design, #8 switches cannot be installed.
• The entire pocket track is on an aerial structure and will require a high level of maintenance to maintain a high level of operational performance.
• The length of the pocket track is not adequate for reliable 8-car train operation.

Yesterday, during the board meeting, Metro's number two, Dave Kubicek said a failure at the D&G could be "catastrophic."

This all sounded rather strange to me, so I asked very reliable source about Metro's reasoning. Here's what the source said.

They turn trains there all the time. They store trains there during football games, and for large events downtown that require a lot of trains in a short period of time to alleviate crowds. They have been doing it for 30 years. The 8-car train thing is ridiculous.

If these switches are that dangerous then why are they using them at all?

Also, did they balance the maintenance costs versus the extension cost? I haven't seen anything about that.

According to another source, before Rush"+," Metro routinely turned Orange Line trains around at the D&G. The same source said Metro should have upgraded the switches there with guards (ostensibly to prevent derailments) as recommended by the NTSB after a 2007 derailment.

"There are several places Metro turns trains around that are the same length as the D&G," the source said. "They turn them around at Mt. Vernon Sq. at about the same pace they're talking about with the Silver Line, too."

In a Washington Post article, Metro officials said "turning trains [at D&G]  would require a level of precision difficult for all but the most skilled operators."

One source's reaction:

Ridiculous!

I also thought it very ironic how just last week Sarles was bragging about the new hires stepping up to the plate. Then, this week, the operators are not competent enough to pull up to a signal, key down the train and go to the opposite end, key up and go. Most people could be trained to do that in 4 hours. It's first day operator stuff.

Here is what this all comes down to. They do not trust the new operators. PERIOD.

The source went on to explain the mistrust stems from the fact that Silver Line operators will likely be the newest in Metro's fleet.

There are several reasons why, they said. First, they will likely have to report to West Falls Church, considered by many one of the worst places to work because it is far from where most operators live, and many hate working for the West Falls Church Division superintendent.

Furthermore, operators at West Falls are assigned "awful" days off, and the runs blocks (shifts) are "awful."

"A lot of runs start at 6 a.m., make one round trip, and then the operator goes off duty for 4 or 5 hours only to come back on duty around 2 p.m. and make two round trips," a source said. "No one with any seniority would pick runs like that." 

Another source said they thought the change of plans for the Silver Line was "brought about by a lack of confidence in the equipment, even the upgraded equipment, and the people. That's why it's going to be extended, and that's why it's going to cost more."

The extension could cost as much as $4.5 million to the operating costs of the new line, according to reports.

Other items:
Silver Line could be delayed because of rail yard problem (Examiner)
Another brake part falls off moving train (Examiner)

Is Paying to Enter Fair?

I've gotten a lot of very irate, one-line emails about this Metro policy.

I've never been on another subway where I've entered only to want to leave immediately upon finding delays, crowding, etc. I've definitely paid Metro for several trips not taken.

Perhaps other readers have experienced what other systems do in a situation like the below.

From Lauren:

Last Tuesday, I entered Farragut West only to find the Orange Line completely FUBAR. I promptly left to take a cab because I needed to get someplace in a hurry.

I wasn't happy to pay $10 bucks to the cabbie, but what really steamed me was having to pay Metro almost $2 just to enter and leave in less than a minute.

What a ripoff!

I had no idea what mess I was getting into. There were no alerts, and I saw nothing on the Metro website before I left the office. The signs at the station didn't indicate anything was awry. So I swiped and went in.

I've asked several friends about this charging to enter policy only to find out it's standard practice.

I have another word for this: stealing.

Where do they get the nerve to charge their customers for that?

I should add that the platform was dangerously overcrowded. I guess that was a bonus.

If Metro can come up with a fare scheme that only an astronaut can understand, it can figure out a way to not charge people who, like I did, turn around and leave after finding Metro broken again.

That was the last cent I've given Metro. I've been walking, biking, cabbing and hitching rides with friends ever since.

Other items:

• Metro's "report" to the Board about Rosslyn derailment consists of 4 pictures (WMATA)
• Metro misses goals, pats self on back with high marks (WMATA)
• Metro says "mechanical fatigue" cause of brakes falling off (WMATA)
• Riders nab iPhone thief (NBC4)
• How to use your SmarTrip card (BradKanus.com)