https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/2016/03/30/fba8ae0a-f688-11e5-9804-537defcc3cf6_story.html?hpid=hp_rhp-top-table-main_metro-310pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory


Metro’s top officials warned Wednesday that the transit system is in such need of repair that they might shut down entire rail lines for as long as six months for maintenance, potentially snarling thousands of daily commutes and worsening congestion in the already traffic-clogged region.

Board Chairman Jack Evans and General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld put rail riders on notice about possible extended closures at a high-level conference of local leaders. The discussion also revealed strong resistance to what Evans said was a “dire” need for more than $1 billion a year in additional funding for Metro.

Another successful lib operation!
Lol!

Disaster was a foregone conclusion when Metro made it official policy to hire only lazy, dumbass niggers.

At least those stupid lib fucks got their $250 MILLION streetcar working.

Lol! A FUCKING STREETCAR! SO PROGRESSIVE!

LOL@LIBS!

How much you want to bet those lazy kiosk apes making $100,000/yr get full salary while doing fuck all nothing for 6 months? Oh wait, they do fuck all nothing right now and get $100,000/yr. Never mind!

People like Gerry ruining the country.

Good lord. I hope the orange line isn't impacted! What will losers who live in Falls Church and work in downtown DC do? :-)

All lines will be impacted except maybe the one that just opened last year. Everything else is a fucking mess.

They're not shutting anything down.

He's just trying to get more funding.

Even Bulova wasn't buying it.

You know it's bad when even she doesn't want to spend money.

The 'L' should be capitalized in the expression "Good Lord."

The 'O' and 'L' in "Orange Line" should be, too. "Orange Line" is a proper noun.



Kilton Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Good lord. I hope the orange line isn't impacted!
> What will losers who live in Falls Church and work
> in downtown DC do? :-)

Kilton Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Good lord. I hope the orange line isn't impacted!
> What will losers who live in Falls Church and work
> in downtown DC do? :-)


They will all ride motorcycles or bicycles to work - your two favorite modes of transportation.

Nah, Kilty likes the trolley since he's stuck in the past.

The discussion also revealed strong resistance to what Evans said was a “dire” need for more than $1 billion a year in additional funding for Metro.

No kidding, Sherlock. It's obvious the billions raised so far haven't been well spent.

Loud pipes Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Kilton Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Good lord. I hope the orange line isn't
> impacted!
> > What will losers who live in Falls Church and
> work
> > in downtown DC do? :-)
>
>
> They will all ride motorcycles or bicycles to work
> - your two favorite modes of transportation.

While wearing a Redskins helmet, open carrying and eating a hot dog

kiltons pet peeves Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Loud pipes Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Kilton Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Good lord. I hope the orange line isn't
> > impacted!
> > > What will losers who live in Falls Church and
> > work
> > > in downtown DC do? :-)
> >
> >
> > They will all ride motorcycles or bicycles to
> work
> > - your two favorite modes of transportation.
>
> While wearing a Redskins helmet, open carrying and
> eating a hot dog

While Kilton eats his quinoa burger in his Prius fuming.

Loud pipes Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They will all ride motorcycles or bicycles to work
> - your two favorite modes of transportation.

Don't be ridiculous. "Riders" ride to work whenever they possibly can. It's the only thing that gets them out of bed in the morning. :-)

And metro fatties riding a bicycle? LOL. In what universe?

Susan Finklestorm Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The 'L' should be capitalized in the expression
> "Good Lord."
>
> The 'O' and 'L' in "Orange Line" should be, too.
> "Orange Line" is a proper noun.

Fake Suze post!

Man, those were good times though. Wonder what ever happened to her.

There will be lots of telecommuting/work from home during the downtime.

Just as with FCPS, the dumbfucks thought their persistent underfunding would never come to this. Shows you how much dumbfucks know.

Metro is not run by liberals or DC.

The Silver Line goes from Reston to just east of West Falls Church.

Maybe time to revisit the Columbia Pike street car line? Or even one for Vienna.

Decades of neglect comes with a price - Thanks for the memories Metro.

Metro was so clean, and a pleasure to ride, but is has become a petri dish on rails.

Spot the dumbfucks Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just as with FCPS, the dumbfucks thought their
> persistent underfunding would never come to this.
> Shows you how much dumbfucks know.


Just like FCPS it will always be "underfunded" because they'll always blow through whatever they have with no regard to efficiency or effectiveness and then cry that they need more.

The conservatives are loud, but they ain't smart.

Try to follow: Tea party ethos over the past decade of no spending pay off the debt is the exact opposite of a successful recession strategy. One of the benefits a government has is the ability to borrow when smaller groups cannot which allows a government to take advantage of extremely low interest to invest in infrastructure when labor and interest is cheap.

We pulled out of the recession despite your best efforts but that same philosophy is the biggest contributor to our slow crawl above solvency.
This only doesn't work if you bet on America to fail.

So dumb and un American. Trump or Cruz? idiots.

cH4e9 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just like FCPS it will always be "underfunded" because they'll
> always blow through whatever they have with no regard to efficiency
> or effectiveness and then cry that they need more.

Sounds a lot like what you babble to your boss each year. FACT: You can't drive a Cadillac for the price of a Yugo. FACT: It's ridiculous that Metro has no dedicated source of funding and has to go begging from jurisdiction to jurisdiction every year. FACT: Despite long and criminal neglect by asswipe "fiscal conservatives", Metro is still the top-rated system in the country in terms of overall service provided to its metropolitan area. Metro particularly kicks but on such metrics as average commute time in minutes and the percentage difference in commute time between public transportation users and drivers. After DC by the way come San Francisco, Boston, Chicago and New York City in that order.

When has that shit hole city not been a fucking joke? Except for a few museums and music venues, that place sucks.

Riding Metro Since 1976 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> Metro was so clean, and a pleasure to ride, but is
> has become a petri dish on rails.

This is mainly because the employees and management are 95% NEGRO. It was only a matter of time before Metro was turned into the ghetto.

KCLbx Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Riding Metro Since 1976 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >
> >
> > Metro was so clean, and a pleasure to ride, but
> is
> > has become a petri dish on rails.
>
> This is mainly because the employees and
> management are 95% NEGRO. It was only a matter of
> time before Metro was turned into the ghetto.


By shutting down portions of the line, the workers will be able to do maintenance DURING THE DAY when we can all see them wasting time.

It is not ridiculous that Metro does not have a dedicated funding source. We are talking about a single transit system that serves three entirely different and independent jurisdictions. Unlike in NYC you don't have one jurisdiction which is clearly dominant. Two of those independent jurisdictions themselves have separate sub-jurisdictions that are involved in Metro, plus you have the Federal government which would be independent of any such funding mechanism. Relative benefits of having Metro differ from one jurisdiction or sub-jurisdiction to another, there is little likelihood that an independent dedicated funding source would reasonably reflect the benefits each jurisdiction derives from Metro, plus you are still going to have the Feds kicking in whatever they feel like. The current system is more likely to reflect the relative benefits of Metro than whatever independent funding source is used. Plus it gives each jurisdiction the flexibility to decide for itself which specific revenue raising method would be used to raise that jurisdiction's share.

Metro was a poorly conceived system from the beginning. It then fell under the control of local politicians who were more interested in short term political benefits than developing and maintaining a strong transit system for the long term. Then at the time the stresses on the system started hitting hard, Metro, Maryland and Virginia embarked on an expansion that the rail system was not in a position to undertake. When the Silver Line was opened, Metro had to cut service on other lines because they didn't have the cars or the Potomac Tunnel capacity to handle Silver Line service in addition to existing service on other Virginia lines.

I was not a fan of the current choice for Metro GM when it was announced. To his credit though he seems to understand his job isn't making politicians happy. It is to insure that Metro is able to provide safe, reliable and efficient transportation to its riders.

Spot the dumbfucks Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> cH4e9 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Just like FCPS it will always be "underfunded"
> because they'll
> > always blow through whatever they have with no
> regard to efficiency
> > or effectiveness and then cry that they need
> more.
>
> Sounds a lot like what you babble to your boss
> each year. FACT: You can't drive a Cadillac for
> the price of a Yugo. FACT: It's ridiculous that
> Metro has no dedicated source of funding and has
> to go begging from jurisdiction to jurisdiction
> every year. FACT: Despite long and criminal
> neglect by asswipe "fiscal conservatives", Metro
> is still the top-rated system in the country in
> terms of overall service provided to its
> metropolitan area. Metro particularly kicks but
> on such metrics as average commute time in minutes
> and the percentage difference in commute time
> between public transportation users and drivers.
> After DC by the way come San Francisco, Boston,
> Chicago and New York City in that order.


My boss is me. Unlike Metro and its management, I'm directly on the hook to make sure that things are done right and efficiently; otherwise, I directly suffer the consequences.

When has Metro ever been under the control of "fiscal conservatives?" Certainly not from those involved from DC and MD. Not in any recent years for VA. As Bill notes, there is no realistic alternative to going jurisdiction-to-jurisdiction given the service area and where the money is around here.

None of your metrics, as suspect as they are on any number of bases depending on what you want to count and how, relate to how efficiently and effectively it's run. It's also #1 among the larger metro systems in operating cost and in losing money per passenger.

Pretty typical right wing reaction. Cut budgets, cut, cut,cut (while cutting taxes for the wealthy), then say "look how incompetent liberal government is at doing anything". Applies to metro. Applies especially to education.

Frank S. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Pretty typical right wing reaction. Cut budgets,
> cut, cut,cut (while cutting taxes for the
> wealthy), then say "look how incompetent liberal
> government is at doing anything". Applies to
> metro. Applies especially to education.

I agree. I just hope that the bridge collapses when they are driving over it.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/minneapolis-marks-5-years-since-bridge-collapse/

Frank S. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Pretty typical right wing reaction. Cut budgets,
> cut, cut,cut (while cutting taxes for the
> wealthy), then say "look how incompetent liberal
> government is at doing anything". Applies to
> metro. Applies especially to education.


When was Metro's budget cut?

What happened to the $3 b-b-b-billion that they got for capital improvements under the stimulus program in 2011 (plus about another $2 billion in other money)?

"If current trends continue, WMATA's costs will grow 6% a year while revenues only grow 1% a year, creating a larger and larger need for local governments to pay more, according to a presentation the WMATA Board will discuss Thursday...



According to the presentation, WMATA would either need to get cost growth down to about 2% while keeping revenues the same, or increase revenue growth to about 8% a year, or some combination, in order to keep the local subsidies growing at 3% a year total.

"About 70% of the forecast growth comes from adding staff or raises for staff; MetroAccess, the regional paratransit service, makes up 10% of the growth, and opening the Silver Line's Phase 2 accounts for 8%. Fuel, contracted services, and other things comprise the rest. There are also unfunded benefits and pension liabilities of $2.5 billion."




Capital budgets and "maintenance" aren't the problem here.

,
Attachments:

97X Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcom
> muting/2016/03/30/fba8ae0a-f688-11e5-9804-537defcc
> 3cf6_story.html?hpid=hp_rhp-top-table-main_metro-3
> 10pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
>
>
> Metro’s top officials warned Wednesday that
> the transit system is in such need of repair that
> they might shut down entire rail lines for as long
> as six months for maintenance, potentially
> snarling thousands of daily commutes and worsening
> congestion in the already traffic-clogged region.
>
> Board Chairman Jack Evans and General Manager Paul
> J. Wiedefeld put rail riders on notice about
> possible extended closures at a high-level
> conference of local leaders. The discussion also
> revealed strong resistance to what Evans said was
> a “dire” need for more than $1 billion a year
> in additional funding for Metro.


They need to start prosecuting first.

Ruthtruth Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The conservatives are loud, but they ain't smart.
>
> Try to follow: Tea party ethos over the past
> decade of no spending pay off the debt is the
> exact opposite of a successful recession strategy.
> One of the benefits a government has is the
> ability to borrow when smaller groups cannot which
> allows a government to take advantage of extremely
> low interest to invest in infrastructure when
> labor and interest is cheap.
>
> We pulled out of the recession despite your best
> efforts but that same philosophy is the biggest
> contributor to our slow crawl above solvency.
> This only doesn't work if you bet on America to
> fail.
>
> So dumb and un American. Trump or Cruz? idiots.

The government can keep their hands out of my pockets. Lower taxes, less spending, smaller government, less restrictions on small local businesses, more tax incentives to help the small businesses succeed, ordinances and policies to encourage growth not hinder it. The cost of insurance alone, along with its restrictions and requirements is putting people out of business and causing more and more employers to only hire part time employees to avoid paying y them insurance.

I call bs on metro's presentation. What they need is accountability. They waste so much money. I'm a strong proponent of improved public transit but metro is a money pit and us riders never see the benefits of the money.

Here is a case study:
The former 3 bus on metro. ART is now running the same bus route at twice the frequency (every 15 minutes) that metro was (every 30 minutes). And they are doing it at the same cost (I think maybe even at less cost).

Or you could also point to public transit systems in almost any major European capital city that do not run with the level of incompetence that is metro and provide far better service at prices that are either the same or less.

You can't throw money and the friends and family program and expect any results. That is the sad truth about metro. With metro at the end of six months the system will be the same or worse than before.

LPVhu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Frank S. Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Pretty typical right wing reaction. Cut
> budgets,
> > cut, cut,cut (while cutting taxes for the
> > wealthy), then say "look how incompetent
> liberal
> > government is at doing anything". Applies to
> > metro. Applies especially to education.
>
>
> When was Metro's budget cut?
>
> What happened to the $3 b-b-b-billion that they
> got for capital improvements under the stimulus
> program in 2011 (plus about another $2 billion in
> other money)?
>
> "If current trends continue, WMATA's costs will
> grow 6% a year while revenues only grow 1% a year,
> creating a larger and larger need for local
> governments to pay more, according to a
> presentation the WMATA Board will discuss
> Thursday...
>
> src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/im
> ages/201509/wmatabudget.png">
>
> According to the presentation, WMATA would either
> need to get cost growth down to about 2% while
> keeping revenues the same, or increase revenue
> growth to about 8% a year, or some combination, in
> order to keep the local subsidies growing at 3% a
> year total.
>
> "About 70% of the forecast growth comes from
> adding staff or raises for staff; MetroAccess,
> the regional paratransit service, makes up 10% of
> the growth, and opening the Silver Line's Phase 2
> accounts for 8%. Fuel, contracted services, and
> other things comprise the rest. There are also
> unfunded benefits and pension liabilities of $2.5
> billion."
>
> src="http://images.greatergreaterwashington.org/im
> ages/201509/wmatagrowth.png">
>
>
> Capital budgets and "maintenance" aren't the
> problem here.

I strongly support better public transit and completely agree with you. I've ridden on many subway and light rail systems around the world and country and when you look at value (cost for a ticket vs quality of service) DC is one of the worst if not the worst. (For example you could say Houston's system is worse, but it costs far less.). When you look at systems in first world countries it is an even bigger joke. If you don't think you can have a great system at a fraction of the cost spend a week in Budapest. About 25 US dollars for a one week pass for unlimited rides on a system that worked like a dream. Metro truly has become a friends and family job program and is full of corruption. If it shuts down for six months I expect to see it running just a poorly when it reopens unless there are massive changes in management, staff, and contractors; regardless of how much money that attention whore Evans manages to get.

EkyXT Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Spot the dumbfucks Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > cH4e9 Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Just like FCPS it will always be
> "underfunded"
> > because they'll
> > > always blow through whatever they have with
> no
> > regard to efficiency
> > > or effectiveness and then cry that they need
> > more.
> >
> > Sounds a lot like what you babble to your boss
> > each year. FACT: You can't drive a Cadillac
> for
> > the price of a Yugo. FACT: It's ridiculous
> that
> > Metro has no dedicated source of funding and
> has
> > to go begging from jurisdiction to jurisdiction
> > every year. FACT: Despite long and criminal
> > neglect by asswipe "fiscal conservatives", Metro
>
> > is still the top-rated system in the country in
>
> > terms of overall service provided to its
> > metropolitan area. Metro particularly kicks
> but
> > on such metrics as average commute time in
> minutes
> > and the percentage difference in commute time
> > between public transportation users and drivers.
>
> > After DC by the way come San Francisco, Boston,
> > Chicago and New York City in that order.
>
>
> My boss is me. Unlike Metro and its management,
> I'm directly on the hook to make sure that things
> are done right and efficiently; otherwise, I
> directly suffer the consequences.
>
> When has Metro ever been under the control of
> "fiscal conservatives?" Certainly not from those
> involved from DC and MD. Not in any recent years
> for VA. As Bill notes, there is no realistic
> alternative to going jurisdiction-to-jurisdiction
> given the service area and where the money is
> around here.
>
> None of your metrics, as suspect as they are on
> any number of bases depending on what you want to
> count and how, relate to how efficiently and
> effectively it's run. It's also #1 among the
> larger metro systems in operating cost and in
> losing money per passenger.

>Capital budgets and "maintenance" aren't the problem here.

Yes, maintenance is a problem. I don't see anything in that graph that I would call maintenance costs. So it seems metro must think personnel are maintenance. But that can't be possible since maintenance would require material and that's down in the 3% somewhere.

So it seems metro simply doesn't do maintenance. I wonder why the system is falling apart?

Of course, I suspect metro employees are on 3 year vehicle leases. Ergo, nothing needs fixed. You should just get a new metro system every three years.

accountabilityfirst Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I strongly support better public transit and
> completely agree with you. I've ridden on many
> subway and light rail systems around the world and
> country and when you look at value (cost for a
> ticket vs quality of service) DC is one of the
> worst if not the worst. (For example you could
> say Houston's system is worse, but it costs far
> less.).


Smaller systems like Houston's are even worse as far as losing money on a per passenger basis. They don't have enough ridership to even come close to offsetting all of their costs. Last count that I saw the Hampton Roads HRT system had the honor of the greatest loss per ride at an impressive $6.63.

Larger systems like Metro, NYC, LA, etc., don't lose nearly as much per ride but they 'make it up in volume.' The loses end up being huge numbers and huge numbers increasing at 6%/year as above just aren't sustainable. Beyond a point there are no more economies of scale and, as above, even with increased revenue/ride you'll never increase ridership or realistically raise fares enough to keep up with costs that are greatly outpace them. Just end up deeper and deeper in a bigger hole.

The violence doesn't help ridership.

U34XD Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> >Capital budgets and "maintenance" aren't the
> problem here.
>
> Yes, maintenance is a problem. I don't see
> anything in that graph that I would call
> maintenance costs. So it seems metro must think
> personnel are maintenance. But that can't be
> possible since maintenance would require material
> and that's down in the 3% somewhere.
>
> So it seems metro simply doesn't do maintenance.
> I wonder why the system is falling apart?
>
> Of course, I suspect metro employees are on 3 year
> vehicle leases. Ergo, nothing needs fixed. You
> should just get a new metro system every three
> years.


It's showing growth in costs on a relative basis. i.e., For every dollar increase in costs, 70 cents will go to personnel costs. They still get and spend spend billions on CIP/maintenance/etc. But that's not what's driving the larger part of the increases in operating costs.


"Metro is proposing to invest $1.1 billion in the safety and reliability of the system next year [2017] through the Capital Improvement Program (CIP). The CIP budget is focused on safety improvements, the rebuilding of the Metro system, and improving the effectiveness of the current rail and bus networks.

Significant investments planned for the coming year include:

Vehicles/Vehicle Parts ($497.7 million), including bus replacement and rehabilitation; rail car replacement and rehabilitation, rail car safety and reliability enhancements, MetroAccess vehicle replacement, replacement parts, and preventive maintenance;
Rail System Infrastructure Rehabilitation ($86.7 million), including rail line segment rehabilitation;
Maintenance Facilities ($120.4 million), including bus garage rehabilitation and replacement, and rail yard rehabilitation and capacity improvements, and maintenance facility rehabilitation;
Systems and Technology ($139.2 million), including power system upgrades, operations support software, business support software and equipment, and rail fare equipment;
Track and Structures ($77.6 million), including track rehabilitation, station and tunnel leak mitigation;
Passenger Facilities ($124.8 million), including elevator and escalator facilities, station rehabilitation and other improvements such as station capacity project development, bus priority corridors, and bicycle and pedestrian facility improvements;
Maintenance Equipment ($55.0 million), including rail and bus maintenance, and business facility equipment;
Other Facilities ($5.6 million), including business and transit police support facilities; and
Project Management and Support ($21.2 million)
In addition to these investments, Metro will continue to make investments in Metro 2025 capital projects. Investments to prepare for increased 8-car train operations include 220 expansion rail cars, continued upgrades to traction power systems, installing new power cables and activities to add capacity at rail yards."

Assuming the competence and commitment of the workforce is a big part of the problem at Metro, what can be done about it? With union protection, I would imagine that it's just as hard to fire an incompetent employee in Metro as it is someone in the Federal Government. And if Metro is overstaffed as some have contended, how can that be addressed?

Abolish the union. Make it illegal to be a member. There are good metro employees, I know some and any good metro employee will tell you the union only hurts them. Plus, metro needs to listen to customer comments, not hand out pointless surveys-I've filled out there pointless surveys, they don't address anything important. Ask riders if the driver on the bus is driving safely or not. For that matter ask other drivers on the road, pedestrians and cyclists. If an employee is putting the lives of others at risk, fire them before they kill someone.

What Can Be Done? Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Assuming the competence and commitment of the
> workforce is a big part of the problem at Metro,
> what can be done about it? With union protection,
> I would imagine that it's just as hard to fire an
> incompetent employee in Metro as it is someone in
> the Federal Government. And if Metro is
> overstaffed as some have contended, how can that
> be addressed?

FDLkm Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How much you want to bet those lazy kiosk apes
> making $100,000/yr get full salary while doing
> fuck all nothing for 6 months? Oh wait, they do
> fuck all nothing right now and get $100,000/yr.
> Never mind!

Do a bunch of bottom-rung Barry Farm and PGC niggers still work there? Yeah, they do? Well, that right there might be the problem.

By the way... Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Metro is not run by liberals or DC.
>
> The Silver Line goes from Reston to just east of
> West Falls Church.


Nah, dummy. It currently goes from Reston to Large in PG County. You're welcome!

LOL you idiots ranting about this being liberals faults are just too damn stupid. This is all the fault of one man; Ronald Reagan. You know I'm right. Deal with it.

^^^^^

That's stupid

Frank S. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Pretty typical right wing reaction. Cut budgets,
> cut, cut,cut (while cutting taxes for the
> wealthy), then say "look how incompetent liberal
> government is at doing anything". Applies to
> metro. Applies especially to education.

It's more of the same old song from these low-brows. Right-wingers are just incredibly dull and dense across the board. They basically don't understand anything at all, yet they chatter on like magpies.