Metro rider has had enough
By Robert Thomson, Published: March 31
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/metro-rider-has-had-enough/2012/03/31/gIQAFaTcnS_story.html

Dear Dr. Gridlock:

As someone who must rely on Metro, I find it expensive, exhausting and down right irritating. A day doesn’t pass without some form of Metro headache.

It can be any of the following unacceptable occurrences: train delays, track work, elevator/escalator down, no information postings regarding train arrivals, broken fare gates, trains that stop for no reason, trains that can’t seem to brake without tossing riders into each other, overcrowded weekend trains, the 20-minute wait for a train outside rush hours and the nonstop fare increases.

This is Washington, D.C., and the public transportation is flat out embarrassing. I spend more money, waste more time and am super miserable riding Metro.

Metro: Wake up!

— Andrew Holtz

The District

I can tell you what Metro says about the conditions Holtz describes: The experiences you have now are the product of years of failure to maintain the transit system. Now the transit authority and the governments that support it have identified the condition, boosted their investment and aggressively attacked the problem.

But you’re in a treatment phase: You’re still experiencing the pain, and the medicine prescribed to cure it is having strong side effects. This will get better, Metro leaders say, but they can’t say exactly when.

When they describe the condition, treatment and prognosis, it all sounds logical enough. But sometimes the patients just want to scream.

Closing doors

I hear from the next letter writer when he thinks I’ve messed up. For some reason, I hear from him frequently. This was his reaction to my Thursday column in the Local Living section, in which I wrote about crowding on Metro cars and theories on how to solve it, such as keeping the doors open longer to allow more people to get off and on.

The writer says Metro is not over capacity, and holding doors open longer would be counterproductive.

Dear Dr. Gridlock:

If crowding were a problem, asking Metro to hold the doors open longer will just make crowding worse. It cannot be otherwise. No one can repeal the laws of physics.

Holding doors open adds almost four people per second, increasing crowding. Late trains foul up the best laid plans. If a train is delayed 48 seconds, it throws a red signal on the following train, making it stop in the tunnel.

Each stop adds more delay and further reduces capacity. That is why Japanese subways use white gloved “loaders” to push people onto the trains to get the doors shut quickly.

I do not advocate pushing people, but in the newer cars with no handholds near doors, people need to get close to the doors before they open. If passengers stay back to hold onto a seat frame, people start to board before passengers get off, further delaying the train. Gridlock, just like your name.

— Ed Tennyson, Vienna

Where to grab?

This writer focused on the car design issue.

Dear Dr. Gridlock:

Removing the poles near the doors on Metro cars may possibly induce people to move to the middle, but during rush hour, when the middle is filled, many riders are forced to stand unassisted near the doors.

Not all seniors are tall enough to reach the overhead bars, and the absence of poles leaves them with nothing to hang on to except other standees, who don’t necessarily welcome such attention.

— Stanley Falk,

Fairfax County

Riders often complain about the removal of the poles near the doors in the newest cars, but we haven’t talked about them in relation to how long the train doors should stay open. Does the car configuration create gridlock at doors?

Dr. Gridlock also appears Thursday in Local Living. Comments and questions are welcome and may be used in a column, along with the writer’s name and home community. Write Dr. Gridlock at The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071 or
e-mail drgridlock@washpost.com.

Feel free to wait in traffic sucking in exhaust and getting cancer. No one makes you ride metro.

I have been curious for years why does Metro slam on the brakes when approaching the next station. Seems easier just to ease into the stop rather than make the passengers fall down.

I once heard that the DC metro costs more to run and operate than the New York system subway. Is that true and how could that be?

For some, great savings--that could translate into a sizable "raise in take-home pay"--can be the result of getting a job in the burbs and moving to within a few short miles of the work location. For most tied to the "downtown gov't" structure this won't work, but depending on what you do for a living, it might just be possible to vote with your feet on this situation and get the H--- out of Dodge (DC)"!!

Metro used to be the premiere method of public transportation in the U.S. The key words are "used to"

According to the Washington Times, 98.5% of Metro workers are non-white. And that 1.5% is probably Jews at the top, sucking the money.

Metro what a concept Wrote:
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> I once heard that the DC metro costs more to run
> and operate than the New York system subway. Is
> that true and how could that be?


cause in NYC, ppl just expect to use the train to get from point A to B

here in DC, we expect to be taken there on Wings of Gossamer.

for example, NYC Subway system has 169 escalators, ok?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/01/2012 06:12PM by Gordon Blvd.

I dont think it is too much to ask, considering the high price to ride Metro, that the escalators work and the trains dont crash into each other.

Andrew Holtz, I fucking hate riding the Metro with you. Why don't you just relax and lie down on the tracks?

mr sluggo Wrote:
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> I dont think it is too much to ask, considering
> the high price to ride Metro, that the escalators
> work and the trains dont crash into each other.

I completely agree!

The system was allowed to fall apart due to lack of funding because the money was going to union emploees with 4th grade educations making more than the people riding it.

Hey Metro, TRY HARDER!!!

Am I the only one who feels that WashPo's Dr. Gridlock has become Metro's Chief Apologist? Metrorail's performance has tanked over the past few years to the point where delays, broken excalators and elevators, diry cars and out of service trains have become normal ane expected features. The attitude of just about everyone in the Metro organization, bottom to top, seems to be "Pay your damn higher fare, STFU and get used to it". We know that MetroRail isn't the system it once was, and many of us are even willing to accept that it may take some inconvenience for it to return to its former status. HOWEVER it would be nice if Metro would act like it gave a crap about the declines in customer service.

There are a great many things that Metro management and employees could do which would leave riders feeling better about what should be considered an unacceptable experience. I doubt for revenue reasons that Metro would ever consider comping people who were unreasonably delayed, although it is something that they could do with their machinery. However there are some human things that could be done. For starters when something is going wrong the person should come out of that damn kiosk and actually start passing on real information and providing actual assistance. Board members and senior management could be on hand not for the photo ops but actually doing something. And they could pick up the trash on the platform and in the cars. There are probably 100 logistical reasons why Metro doesn't do these sorts of things, but when the perception is that the system is going town the toilet and nobody cares customer relations should trump logistics.

Metro is operated by lazy, overpaid union thugs, about 1% of whom ever made it past the sixth grade.

What do you expect Wrote:
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> Metro is operated by lazy, overpaid union thugs,
> about 1% of whom ever made it past the sixth
> grade.
Attachments:

There are far too many jigaboos on the Metro. Those seats behind glass at the end of the car? That's where the criminals sit. And if it's empty it's where I drink my Budweiser in peace.

Riding Metro is just like riding an elevator with all of the buttons pushed--every damned day. Nice if it was like NY having express lines that bypassed some stations.

Metro used to be the best. Now its among the worst, with regards to overall cost(check NYC/Boston), and obviously the lack of escalators working, train wrecks, and other issues show what government as usual is "capable" of.

Its a fine example of another government failure, and although necessary in this area, perhaps it should be privatized. I have a feeling that a large company, could run this much better than WMATA, a council of governments. Talk about a "cluster fuck."

I only set foot on Metro as a last resort. I read http://unsuckdcmetro.blogspot.com/ periodically, and sad to say, I am not surprised of anything that happens on Metro.

Express trains would be nice, but they don't have the track for it. If they removed the majority of the seats, like they do in NYC, they would increase capacity and alleviate some of these problems. But DC Metro riders would get their panties in a wad if they did that.

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http://bible.cc/1_corinthians/13-11.htm

They have the track for express trains. What Metro doesn't have is the brains to plan and coordinate such a system. There are 2 crossovers at every station and enough unused track at any given time to accommodate expresses. But as spread out as they are, those idiots can't keep trains from crashing or breaking down now and blocking track. Imagine the death and destruction if Metro tried to optimize track usage and get that concept through to its operators. Even though the trains could slow through stations, the other problem would be moron riders walking into moving express trains at the platforms to get in the door first.

Party's over. *sad fais*

http://www.fergusonpropertygroup.com/wmata-launches-anti-sexual-harassment-campaign

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It seems to me, at the end of the day, with all that being said, that's not necessary.
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