Kiosks: Yay! Carpets: Boo!

A lot of people are passionate about the no eating/drinking in Metro policy, and now that Metro is yet again* considering opening up food kiosks in and around certain Metro stations--something we applaud, in theory--we think there's naturally going to be an increase in eating and drinking on the trains. If Metro thinks otherwise, they're fooling themselves.
So if the kiosks happen, Metro should get ready for more messes, and the first step should be to GET RID OF THE CARPETING!
According to Metro, on average, the carpet inside a Metrorail car is vacuumed once a week, shampooed every two months and replaced every five years, Metro says. It costs Metro $5,200 to replace carpet in each Metrorail car.
And they STILL look and smell like crap.
To their credit, Metro is starting to field cars without three kinds of "hard" test flooring. Here are some before and after pics.
Since testing of various floorings began in Nov. 2007, Metro has fielded five, count 'em a whopping FIVE, cars with new floors. Why can't Metro ask other transit systems what floorings work for them and go with that? Wouldn't that save time, money and get those carpets outta there?
We think it's time to make a decision and get moving on this, especially if Metro is going to bring food closer to the trains. Nobody likes the carpets anyway, especially on rainy days. The new floorings would certainly be easier to clean, probably with a simple sweeping/hosing down.
You have to wonder who in their right mind ever thought it was a good idea to carpet a mass transit system in the first place, so we asked Metro.
Apparently, it was to make the cars as plush and attractive as possible to help lure people out of their cars and into public transportation, according to a Metro spokesman. Designers were trying to overcome the negative image that existing subway systems such as New York and Philadelphia already had at the time, they continued. This is one of the same reasons escalators were used rather than just steps, they added.
We know how well that is working out!
Metro couldn't estimate the price to refloor a car with the new materials as no contracts have been awarded. Get 'er done, Metro!
*Frankly, the whole resurfacing of the retail in Metro idea was surprising, as it seemed DOA last time we heard about it.

Photo: daquellamanera

We Need More Lines

From "DACUBSRULE"

Trains break down and that sucks. Sometimes people leave garbage on the train. And of course, the work to repair escalators never ends. These aren't a big deal to me though. I mean, if too many people get on a train and the driver makes everyone get off, why cant people at the next station get on? Is it broken at that point and it must go in for repairs? Whatever, it doesn't matter.

To me, the biggest problem by far is that there are not enough lines and the lines do not go far enough out. We have 5 lines. That's it. Hardly any of them go much beyond 10 miles from city center. New York has a lot more lines. If you look at a map of Manhattan's subway system, there are lines and stops everywhere. We should be more like that. There also needs to be a "beltway" line that goes around the city so you can go from one place to another without having to go downtown. It might be a good idea to have trains run on different tracks. For example, could we have an orange train start in Vienna, go to Rosslyn, switch to the blue line, go down to Pentagon, cross the river to L'Enfant Plaza, then continue to New Carrolton? OK, the logistics might be weird since trains make have to switch directions but you get the idea. They do this sort of thing on holidays. Also, could we have more trains at night? If you go to, say, Metro Center at 11PM on a Friday, the train is packed. Think maybe they should have more than 1 train/line every 20 minutes? Seriously though, more lines and lines that go farther out, like to the edge of the suburbs, should be the most important priority

Some things are nice and better than other subways. I like how the seats are nicer, the cars have carpet, and in stations there are signs telling you when the next train will come. I also like the stations that have signs like that as soon as you walk down the first set of stairs from the street. At the same time though, if by eliminating carpet on cars, we could raise enough money to build new lines/stations, then we need to do that. Oh, and why cant I feed multiple metro cards into a machine and have it consolidate the money on those cards into a single ticket?