Photo by the author.

When you keep track, it’s funny what patterns appear in Metro trips. I’ve been doing it for 2 years. During that time, I have ridden 75% of the WMATA fleet, and been delayed about 2% of the time, but more so far in 2014.

In February 2012, I decided to start keeping track of a few attributes of my trips on Metro. The primary motivation was to track the cars I’d ridden on, but I also log delays, hotcars, and other information about every trip. It’s important to point out, though, that this is anecdotal information. It’s not a statistical sample, but rather just my experience.

My commute regularly takes me on the Green and Red lines. On a normal day, I ride 4 trains, two in the morning and two in the evening. Of course, I also make non-commute trips, to go downtown for dinner or out on the weekends. However, I don’t actually keep track of “trips,” per se. I log rides. So my normal commute involves 2 trips, which I log as 4 rides.

On average, I ride Metro 18.25 days each month. December (15.5 days/month) is always the lowest, since I spend time in Georgia during the holidays. August is the highest, at 21.5 days per month. On average, I ride 3.99 trains each day.

Over the past 24 months, I’ve ridden a Metro train 1,758 times.

Delays

I log any delay in excess of 3 minutes. On average, generally less than 2% of my rides were delayed.

In terms of counting delays, if I’m aboard a train that stops mid-journey, the clock starts immediately, but I only log the delay if it exceeds 3 minutes. When waiting for a train, I start the clock as soon as the scheduled headway has elapsed. For example, during rush hours, the Green Line is supposed to come every 6 minutes, so I start counting delay after 9 minutes waiting.

In 2012 (March through December), I took 758 rides and experienced 15 delays, which means that 1.98% of my rides were delayed. Since most of my trips comprise 2 rides, that’s roughly equivalent to having 3.96% of my trips delayed, though that’s not an exact number, since I don’t record “trips.”

In 2013, I took 866 rides and experienced 15 delays, which means that 1.73% of my rides were delayed. In 2014, so far, I’ve taken 134 rides and experienced 11 delays, which means that 8.21% of my rides were delayed. That’s a significant increase.

Most of the delays I encounter are relatively minor. 75.6% of the delays I’ve experienced since February 27, 2012 are less than 12 minutes. Delays of 12 to 19 minutes make up 12.2% of my delays. Only 12.2% are 20 minutes or longer.

Coverage

Since I started recording car numbers, my commute patterns have not changed. I ride between Greenbelt and Silver Spring, changing from the Green Line to the Red Line at Fort Totten.

In overall numbers, 48.9% of my rides were on the Red Line. 43.0% were on the Green, and 7.6% were on the Yellow. I have rarely ridden the Orange or Blue lines. Those numbers don’t move much between years.

However, we can see a difference if we divide the data set into before and after June 18, 2012, the date that Rush Plus started. With Rush Plus, three Yellow Line trains per hour continued north from Mount Vernon Square to Greenbelt during rush hour, in addition to the existing 12 Green Line trains per hour. As a result, my commute used to be almost exclusively on the Green and Red lines, and now there’s a better chance of getting a Yellow Line train.

Before Rush Plus, my rides were almost evenly split between the Red and Green lines, with 48.7% of rides on the Red and 49.5% on the Green. The Yellow was at a paltry 1.5%. After Rush Plus started, the numbers have changed a bit. The Red Line still makes up about the same amount at 48.9%. But the Green has dropped to 41.7% and the Yellow has risen to 8.8%.

Cars

Since i started logging car numbers, I’ve ridden 74.1% of the WMATA rail fleet. I’ve ridden 91.3% of the 6000 series cars, 82% of the 4000 series, 78.7% of the 3000 series, 74.5% of the 5000 series, 69.7% of the 2000 series, and 56.1% of the 1000 series.

Of the 818 unique cars I’ve ridden, I’ve ridden 323 only once. The remaining 495 I’ve ridden more than once. I’ve ridden one car, #6058, 9 times. Two more, #4005 and #4086, I’ve ridden 8 times.

One question I’ve been asked several times is whether the cars move between lines very often. Surprisingly, they seem to. Of the 495 cars I’ve ridden more than once, 60.4% have been on different lines.

However, since the Yellow and Green lines share a rail yard at Greenbelt, it wouldn’t be surprising to see those cars on Green one day and Yellow the next (in fact, sometimes a Green Line train from Branch Avenue becomes a Yellow Line train to Huntington when it leaves Greenbelt). So, I looked at the numbers counting the Green and Yellow as one line. Even counting them the same, I’ve ridden 54.4% of cars on more than one line. I’ve ridden three cars on 3 lines, the Red, the Green/Yellow, and one other line.

I’ll continue to keep track of my Metro trips. I’ve found that having the data available makes it easier to note trends. For example, so far in 2014, I’ve found myself much more frustrated with Metro. Since I actually record my delays, I can go back and look. That’s how I can say for certain that my delay rate has quadrupled.

But it’s also really interesting to know that I’ve ridden on just under 75% of the cars Metro owns. Since the 1000 series is going to be retired starting in the next few years, it will be interesting to see whether I’ll manage to ride them all before they disappear.

Matt Johnson has lived in the Washington area since 2007. He has a Master’s in Planning from the University of Maryland and a BS in Public Policy from Georgia Tech. He lives in Dupont Circle. He’s a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, and is an employee of the Montgomery County Department of Transportation. His views are his own and do not represent those of his employer.