I'm assuming the bus fire in Silver Spring was a natural gas bus. I love them, but man, when they go they really go....

by charlie on Sep 10, 2010 9:06 am  

I think the writer that wrote what work will be done in the McPherson Square interlocking may have gotten his numbers wrong. There are 5 turnouts in the interlocking not 4. The 5th turnout is the D route end the D&G connector.

by Sand Box John on Sep 10, 2010 9:10 am  

RE Driver in Wednesday night crash charged
It's too bad that this is as far as this story will go. Nobody will address all drinking and driving that goes on in this city, whether it's the bridge and tunnel crowd or drivers who live in DC. Nobody will address the incredible amount of hard core consumption of alcohol that businesses encourage or look the other way of. I live one neighborhood over from Adams Morgan and will go there for Happy Hour, but I'll be gone by 9 pm at the latest because of the drunk drivers and beligerant drunks that start coming. I'm surprised that something like this doesn't happen more often.
Sad, those women had just come here from abroad and were starting their studies at SAIS. Now what? One of them might die and the other probably has years of rehabilitation ahead of them.

by dc denizen on Sep 10, 2010 9:11 am  

@charlie:
The bus that caught fire in Silver Spring was not one of WMATA's buses.

by Sand Box John on Sep 10, 2010 9:16 am  

@Sand Box John: I was aware it was a ride-on bus; I don't see management of the bus relevant to my question of whether it was fueled by natural gas.

"Bridge and Tunnel" people? Remember, that drunk driver came from Maryland.

by charlie on Sep 10, 2010 9:23 am  

@charlie: From the looks of the TBD picture, the Ride On bus that caught fire was either one of two models of truck-on-chassis bus. One dates back nearly a decade and were problems from day one, the other is newer but is a maintenance nightmare and was kept out of service for 8 months.

The problem with #2 is why #1 still is in service. Either way, it isn't like either is a big loss since Ride On has started to replace them with 30' heavy duty buses and older 35' buses.

by Jason on Sep 10, 2010 9:26 am  

Addendum to the last post: The bus that burned was fueled by diesel, not natural gas. Ride On's CNG buses don't service any routes near Silver Spring and the only CNG buses to run in Silver Spring are the ones on Metrobus' 79 route.

by Jason on Sep 10, 2010 9:29 am  

@charlie Sorry, maybe "from the Counties" or "from MD/VA" is better. Trying to make a distinction from those who live in DC and those who live outside of DC but come into DC on nights and weekends.

by dc denizen on Sep 10, 2010 9:31 am  

Thanks Sand Box John, I updated the link & teaser to eliminate confusion

by Erik W on Sep 10, 2010 9:35 am  

Why is it that buses have a penchant for bursting into flames? Given the NTSB's trigger-happy tendency to regulate, I'm surprised there's never been some sort of inquiry into this.

(Also, this seems like a good reason to standardize, standardize, standardize. It seems like every city's bought a fleet of lemons at some point. It'd be easier to determine maintenance and safety issues if each city didn't have their buses custom-built. Ditto for railcars.)

by andrew on Sep 10, 2010 9:41 am  

Columbus Day weekend will have the further disruption of the World Bank/IMF annual meeting, with its extensive street closures. If they can't hold their meeting without closing down a sizable portion of the capital of the United States, shouldn't they think about holding it somewhere else?

by Herschel on Sep 10, 2010 9:45 am  

Although the new consolidated NYC signs are definitely a vast improvement over the old ones, the old ones had a pretty good design, and made great use of color, without actually requiring color printing (which meant that they could be produced quickly and inexpensively)

by andrew on Sep 10, 2010 9:47 am  

@Sand Box John:
I'm not challenging your assertion that there are 5 switches between McPherson Square and Farragut West (including one for the A&C Connector), however, Metro doesn't consider it to be one interlocking. At least not their PR department.

From their press release:

During the Columbus Day weekend, Metro will replace four track switches, which comprise the entire rail interlocking at the McPherson Square Metrorail station which was an NTSB recommendation. In addition, Metro will conduct several additional projects in the area of the closure to maximize the amount of work to be done while there are no trains in the area.

[Emphasis mine]
http://www.wmata.com/about_metro/news/PressReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=4636

by Matt Johnson on Sep 10, 2010 10:00 am  

I'm all for a little parochialism once in a while, and I hate VA and MD drivers who treat out city like a bumper car game, but I really don't like the use of the bridge and tunnel term for DC. It's inaccurate, and it's just lame to copy New York like that. How about we agree to call them Voters, or something more regionally appropriate?

by Reid on Sep 10, 2010 10:09 am  

@Jason; thanks for the clarification re: CNG.

From what I've read about bus fires, they seem pretty slow, actually like a lot of auto fires. Unless you are trapped, you can probably get away. Several minutes to start a complete burn. Scary, but low fatalities.

@DC denizen; I just hate it when people use New York terms to describe things here. Loose language.

by charlie on Sep 10, 2010 10:13 am  

@charlie:
The point I was making, that are Breakfast Links editor corrected is the bus that caught fire in Silver Spring was not related to WMATAÂ’s parking of their Orion VI.

by Sand Box John on Sep 10, 2010 10:17 am  

This is what happens when MacGruber takes the bus.

Oh, and about the ICC about to close to pedestrians forever? Doesn't the ICC have a bike path/trail running along its entire length? I mean, I'm sure that there are those who prefer to get on their bikes or take a walk mingled in with the 60+ mph cars and trucks, but I sure like a dedicated path myself.

by Cyclone3 on Sep 10, 2010 10:17 am  

@Reid @charlie
That's why I suggested another term, because we don't seem to have an equivalent term for B&T. I'm not sure what a Voter is, unless you mean someone who votes. And I bring it up because that crowd doesn't have a vested interest in DC like those who live there. Adams Morgan is a great example. Some of these "Voters" come here, drink to excess, drive drunk, piss in the allies, fight on the street, then turn around (when they're sober) and talk down on DC.

by dc denizen on Sep 10, 2010 10:22 am  

Call them the 'literate', or the 'ones w/o a 5% AIDS rate'.

by MPC on Sep 10, 2010 10:31 am  

@ dc denizen; and I get tired of District parochialism. We all have a vested interest in seeing the District success. We also have an interest in seeing every part of Greater Washington succeed -- and yes, even PG county. And if you are dumb enough to move into Adams Morgan and not notice it is turned into Disney land for drunk white kids, well, where have you been for 20 years?

Sorry, that was baiting. This was a horrible accident and I think the driver should be prosecuted for attempted murder.

Not to hijack the thread, but did you check the cross tab on the city paper poll. Gray has a massive support from all the Cowboys fans, which are much larger than you might imagine. And Fenty has solid bases in the "Ravens" and "other teams" columns.

by charlie on Sep 10, 2010 10:32 am  

Didn't metro implement rush hour service on Columbus Day a few years ago because they realized there was still high demand? Isn't DC a huge tourist destination that weekend? Honestly, they probably would have inconvenienced fewer riders if they had just closed on a Friday and an accompanying weekend during the summer.

by Max D. on Sep 10, 2010 10:44 am  

Call them the 'literate', or the 'ones w/o a 5% AIDS rate'.

Douché!....erm, of course I meant "Touché!". Darned fumble-fingers.

Anyway, why not call them "The Enfranchised"?

by oboe on Sep 10, 2010 10:46 am  

Whatever happened to the work that needed to be done between Foggy Bottom and Rosslyn last winter? It was canceled due to the snow... and never rescheduled...

Anyone know whats up? They just shelved it?

Trains move so slow through the tunnel -- even offpeak.

by Janet on Sep 10, 2010 10:46 am  

@Cyclone3

If memory serves, they scuttled plans to build an adjacent ped/bike path because - I sh*t you not - environmental concerns.

by JTS on Sep 10, 2010 10:48 am  

As of right now, it looks like the bike path is back, but for how long in this financial climate, who can say? Fairly typical of the car and road advocates to promise the moon to get the project rammed through and then immediately renege. And they wonder why no one trusts them?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryland_Route_200#Bicycle_trail

by Dave J on Sep 10, 2010 11:10 am  

"The Enfranchised" +1

by jj on Sep 10, 2010 11:36 am  

MPD regularly runs driver sobriety checkpoints around Adams Morgan. Usually they do not take the form of the full checkpoint where everyone is stopped (although this does happen every so often); instead officers conduct targeted checks at major intersections.

In fact, I recall seeing one such checkpoint on Connecticut Avenue the very night of the accident. Unfortunately in this case it was on the wrong side of Adams Morgan..

by Phil on Sep 10, 2010 11:38 am  

These World Bank/IMF street closures, as extensive as they are, really aren't that big of a deal. On weekends, that portion of northwest is not as heavily traveled as, say, Constitution Avenue along the mall, Connecticut Avenue or 18th Street through Adams Morgan. The news outlets make a huge deal out of them, mainly in hopes that they'll have a mega-protest to cover, but really, there are almost zero traffic complaints. And although the accompanying Metro station closures will be a nuisance, certainly, the overall inconvenience doesn't rise to the same level as the closures around the Convention Center for that nuclear summit.

Herschel wrote: Columbus Day weekend will have the further disruption of the World Bank/IMF annual meeting, with its extensive street closures. If they can't hold their meeting without closing down a sizable portion of the capital of the United States, shouldn't they think about holding it somewhere else?

by Joey C on Sep 10, 2010 11:45 am  

@JTS

Thank you for the reply. I pretty much just spit my Caffeine all over the kb. I did double check the ICC page, and it says 11 miles of bike trails and connectivity to 7 other trails. But of course those sites get out of date regularly.

Shame if the bike path is still off the table.

by Cyclone3 on Sep 10, 2010 12:00 pm  

"These World Bank/IMF street closures, as extensive as they are, really aren't that big of a deal. On weekends, that portion of northwest is not as heavily traveled as, say, Constitution Avenue along the mall, Connecticut Avenue or 18th Street through Adams Morgan."

Agreed. I went to GW and that area is basically a ghost town on the weekends.

by Phil on Sep 10, 2010 12:11 pm  

@Cyclone3 and @Phil, I assume the ghost town would not continue on Columbus Day Monday, though. Would assume lots of private sector folks would not get the day off,

by Adam F on Sep 10, 2010 12:14 pm  

Although that areas may be a ghost town on the weekends, George Washington University (largest private employer in DC) is not closed for Columbus Day. Should be fun.

by Garrett on Sep 10, 2010 1:56 pm  

@ Matt Johnson:
The key phrase in you response is "At least not their PR department." Below you will see a track schematic of the McPherson Square interlocking the 5th turnout is in fact part of the interlocking.

(Schematic ripped from an official WMATA document.)

From at track and signal maintainers prospective the 5th turnout is part of the interlocking. I don't know if the work being done on this particular interlocking will also involve replacing the 5th turnout. It would make sense to me to do it now instead of doing it at some latter date.

by Sand Box John on Sep 10, 2010 10:35 pm  

And if you are dumb enough to move into Adams Morgan and not notice it is turned into Disney land for drunk white kids, well, where have you been for 20 years?

Haven't been to Adams Morgan on weekend nights in ten years, have you? (Or, apparently, seen a picture of the perp in this case.)

by Strom Thurmond on Sep 13, 2010 2:03 am