Thanks for the Great *cough* Commute

@metroopensdoors Red Line: Trains sharing same track btwn Farragut N. & Judiciary Sq. Smoke on tracks at Gallery Place-Chinatown. Delays in both directions.

From Matthew:

I got to experience the fun at Gallery Place this morning.

When I got there on the Yellow Line, there were about 12 DC firemen on the scene on the Glenmont side of the platform.

A Metro Police officer told everyone who was coming upstairs to go to the other side of the platform.

When I got over there, it became pretty apparent that no one knew what was going on. Several Metro officials kept assuring us that a train was coming despite announcements that there was no train service to Metro Center or Gallery Place, and shuttle bus service had been requested.

After about fifteen minutes of waiting for the trains that were never going to show and the shuttle bus service that was still being requested, several of us, decided it was bus time.

After asking the station managers if they knew what buses would run from Gallery Place to Union Station, it became apparent it was time to walk it.

Then, there is a entirely different problem with DC sidewalks not being shoveled, ever.

I understand these issues happen but there has to be a better response, especially during rush hour.

And reader Chris adds the following experience:

I just wanted to relay my horrid experience from this morning's Red Line debacle.

I was on an inbound Red Line train and had reached Rhode Island Avenue when the reports of the smoking train began to filter through the system.

We held at the station for quite some time before the driver came over the speakers and said that due to the issue at Gallery Place, the train would be offloading, and Metro would be forming a "bus bridge" to connect us.

We dutifully shuffled off the train and out into the snowy parking lot assuming that Metro employees were hard at work to direct us to the "bus bridge."

However, no busses nor employees were anywhere to be found. No station manager was in the booth, no one was there to answer our questions, just a couple hundred cold and angry people waiting in a cold parking lot.

After 15 to 20 minutes one of the riders, NOT a metro employee, came out and announced that the trains were running. Again, we shuffled back up the stairs and into an already crowded train. Then we moved on as if nothing had happened.

Great coordination Metro!

Metro's Underground Economy

Metro has, from time to time, considered putting retail outlets in some of the stations in an effort to make money. So far, the plans have all been shot down, but there is still an economy, of sorts, centered around Metro.

There are the flower guys, the souvenir guys, the hot dog stands, the buskers, the panhandlers, the drug dealing bus operators, the "free" newspapers, the newspaper machines, and who knows what else?

One reader commented that someone tried to sell them a toothbrush on a bus, and @richdevans made the following tweet recently: "Dude just tried to sell me a Hot Pocket* on the Green Line."

Wonder how they warmed it up.

Anyway, that takes the cake so far. Have you had any interesting dealings with Metro's underground economy? What are some of the scams you've encountered?

*Unsuck DC Metro does not endorse the consumption of Hot Pockets under any circumstances.

Other items:
Man jumps from Shady Grove Metro garage (Examiner)
Metro notification process under review because they screwed up (Examiner)
Metro defends not reporting accident (WTOP)

First Gen Purple Line Sighted

Red ... er ... Blue Line to National Airport! (Click for larger)

We love this poster for many reasons, but had never noticed the most hilarious part of it until several readers pointed it out.

Hope the union folks are a little more observant when repairing trains.

Thanks to Brittany for getting the detail shot.

Does Metro Really Need to Create Fake Terror?

So Metro held this costly (They're getting the money through a grant.) anti terrorism drill this morning at Union Station. We suppose it's good to be prepared, but perhaps they should focus a little bit more on every day policing so that near riots, as seen in this video, don't happen. We think it's much more likely riders will find themselves in this kind of terror as opposed to a Madrid or London style bombing.

We have no more information about this video other than what is posted on Youtube, which is: "Trap Boys vs. Fly Money at Morgan Blvd station 1-23-2010 after the LaPearl GoGo event. Welcome to Prince George's County, MD. "

Strong language/violence warning. (h/t Byron)




Other items:
Another near miss for Metro's culture of safety (Examiner)

Metro Unveils Delay Alert Rainbow

Metro delays are so ... what's the word ... omnipresent now, and the way WMATA communicates about them so often makes the "situations" end up sounding so similar that it's hard to tell the major "incidents" from the minor "disruptions."

Maybe this little rainbow chart will do for delays what it did for terrorism.

Thanks to reader "K" for the idea and most of the words.

Other items:
Finding a way to put Metro back on track (Baltimore Sun)

Blue-to-Orange Switcheroo

From CS:

We tag Metrorail pretty good about its many shortcomings these days, so when they get it right, fairness -- plus the desire to reinforce unsucky behavior -- says we should note that, too.

Yesterday, as I descended into the bowels of Metro Center, for reasons not clear, there was some bad gapping between Vienna-bound Orange Line trains. (Unfortunately, nothing new there these days.)

With the next Orange Line many agonizing minutes away, with the Red Line hordes pouring down the stairs like water into the hold, and with rush hour (excuse me, "regular" hour, as Metro likes to put it.) still having another half hour to go, conditions were brewing for a good fail. Maybe not an epic fail, but one Metro could nevertheless be proud of.

Except it didn't happen. As a Blue Line train sat in Federal Triangle station, preparing to make its final assault on Metro Center, it magically transformed, at the direction of Central Control, from Blue to Orange.

This made perfect sense. For every Orange Line train that limps out of Metro Center jammed to the rafters, Blue Line trains often offer the spacious accommodations of a bygone era.

By switching the train from Blue to Orange, Metro could immediately sweep lots of people off the Metro Center platform, and stem the growing tide. And while a few Blue Line riders had to get off and transfer trains, there was another Blue Line train not far behind. Minutes lost for these passengers: probably about three.

So, somebody at Metro was on the ball, seeing that an easy switch could serve the needs of the many, while not doing serious harm to the needs of the few(er). Like Peyton Manning, Central Control called an audible, dodged the blitz, and the play went for a big gain.

It'd be nice to see more of this kind of thinking in action.

In talking later with the Ms. (also a daily rider), it turns out Metro pulled the same Blue-to-Orange switch at least once before my ride, about 15-20 minutes earlier. So, while not the first instance the technique was employed yesterday, my experience was still pretty slick.

More by CS:

• Metro hosts blogger round table
• Catoe: Show us you get it
• Rules don't apply
• Vienna's creepy tower
• Doors Closing
• Moving ... Backwards

Other items:

• "Worst NTSB record in the nation" (Delmarvanow.com)
• 2011 budget WARNING WMATA PDFs often crash Firefox Poss. fare increases of "25 cents per Metrobus trip and an approximately 15 percent increase in Metrorail fares during the peak and off-peak hours" (WMATA) Check out the proposed cuts (flickr)
  
• Metro taking safety steps (AP)
• Hey Graham, WMATA sucked before 6/22. That was just when it started getting the scrutiny [skroot-n-ee] it deserved. (WMATA)

Just Catching Up on the Latest Metro Deaths

@brachphotos http://twitpic.com/zzr2y - Apparently not all #wmata employees got the memo about reading on the job. J9 to Bethesda. Bus 6209

From Will:

Photo was taken yesterday at 7:30 a.m. at a red light at the intersection of MD Route 124 (at the park & ride lot) and I-270 on ramp. Route was J9 Express to Bethesda. (bus # 6209) I did not see the newspaper come back out for the remainder of the trip.

According to Metro,"bus operators should not be reading newspapers at any time while they are operating a bus."

Makes sense.

An Amazing Display

Metro doesn't have a room big enough to accommodate the hundreds of people who wanted to give the Board a little friendly advice regarding service cuts, fare increases or raiding the capital fund to bridge this year's budget gap.

That led to an awkward, three-roomed circus, which might have been hard to follow had the message from the crowd not been so overwhelmingly loud and clear: Get your act together. We're fed up!

It was amazing to see most people haven't been suckered by WMATA's false choice of four sucky options. Yes, they're probably the only realistic options this year, but years of mismanagement, degrading customer service and underfunding have led us to this choice of four piles of poop, some bigger, some smaller, depending on your perspective.

People of all races, colors, income levels and creeds, and impressively, some with severe disabilities came out tonight to vent, not just about the immediate situation, but at what a husk of its former self WMATA has become.

To put it into a little perspective, last year, we attended one of the budget cut hearings in Arlington. It was so sleepy you could hear other people breathing.

Tonight was punctuated by applause and vocal praise for some of the more colorful speakers. There was even a little drama.

Some speakers suggested WMATA employees give up their free ride perk. "When I worked at Foot Locker, I didn't get free shoes," said one.

Another woman, frustrated by the poor choices before the Board, tore up a piece of paper with the four options on them and tried to deliver them to a very puffy and red looking Jim Graham who seemed unable to pronounce even the simplest of names.

Many speakers hearkened back to a long-gone era when Metro ran smoothly and efficiently. One such speaker asked the Board to "resign, retire or leave." Amen, good sir.

Yet these cuts are probably nothing compared to what's down the rails. We'll be right back here in a short while, with even bigger problems as Metro takes on the very ugly 2011 budget.

Other items:
Metro's fate now lies in the hope a superhero will take over as GM (WaPo)
WaPo's take on last night's hearing
Examiner's take
Examiner cartoon

How Many Metro Workers Does it Take to ...

Paint the depressing-as-hell gates at the East Falls Church Station?

From Steve:

Why are Metro workers seldom seen in groups of less than three?

East Falls Church has been getting a painting makeover. Honestly, I'd never noticed that the old paint looked bad, but for whatever it's worth, they're painting over everything: lamp poles, staircase handrails, the bus shelter, and even these hideous gates.

They've been at it for the past several days. When I walked by on Tuesday morning, they were talking for the most part, not painting.

Sure enough, in the evening when I came home, they appeared to have only done half.

On Wednesday, they were back it it with the light posts. They even painted over the lighting hoods on the staircase that either don't work or have long since been smashed and never repaired.

With some motivated people, everything in that station that "needed" painting in Metro brown could have been done in one day, maybe a day and a half.

The Mythical Escalator Repairman

@slaterusa Check it out: http://twitpic.com/x4oug the mythical escalator maintenance guy actually working at Bethesda! #wmata

It seems like the Bethesda escalators are among the most problematic in Metro.

From reader Tim:

In early January, the escalators (all of them) at the Bethesda station were offline. The escalators from the mezzanine to the ground level are some of the tallest in the Metro system.

I asked the station manager when he expected the escalators to be fixed, and after he was rude to me (I suspect he’d been catching a lot of flak from riders for something he, ultimately, couldn’t do much about.), he calmed down pretty quickly and said he wasn't sure.

Awesome.

You know, the thing that bugs me the most about Metro is that it seems to act like it's some kind of necessary utility. It's certainly a great resource, but it's not an electric or a water company. Many of us have reasonable alternatives for commuting.

But it's this attitude that leads to a sense that, while they aim to be fair, there's no real effort to satisfy customers.

In this instance, my commute was pretty inconvenient. So, why not program the gates at Bethesda to knock 50 cents off the price of each fare as you go through the gate? Put up a sign that reads, "our apologies for the inconvenience. To make it up to you, enjoy a discounted rate while exiting this station."

Boom. People see you're at least trying.

It's just such a terrible business model: Ridership is down, so they increase fares and decrease quality of service. This, in turn, directly decreases ridership, so they again increase fares and decrease quality of service, resulting in lower ridership. And so on, and so on.

How long will it take them to understand they'll need an outside-the-box solution to escape that downward spiral? They can blame the economy all they want, but in the end, I fault Metro.


Related:
Escalator improvement: No we can't
System bottlenecks
Escalators-to-stairs idea shot down in flames
What is wrong with the escalators?
Escalator forecast: Heavy sucking with intermittent unsucking
Metro's failin'est escalator

Other items:
Human error blamed in latest Metro deaths (Examiner)
Fallen Metro employees remembered (WaPo)
NTSB back again (WaPo)
MTA fining "seat hogs" (Daily News)