Metro - Greater Greater Washington

A parody website makes Metro "hot cars" into a dating service. Very funny, but as it passes itself off as an official WMATA site, it probably violates trademark law, and the agency may need to put a stop to it. (DCist)

Long-term closures: A solution to single-tracking?

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:36:00 EDT

by Matt Johnson

Yesterday morning, the Chicago Transit Authority closed the southern end of the Red Line for 5 months of reconstruction. Should WMATA consider a similar approach? There are advantages, but also big dangers as well.

Photo by cta web on Flickr.

WMATA's rebuilding problem, which it dubs Metro Forward, has been going on for over 2 years with no end in sight. Almost every weekend brings at least one major closure, like on the Green Line last weekend. When it's over, Metro will be more reliable and passengers will experience fewer problems. But in the meantime, riders face service delays and other disruptions almost every weekend. Could a different approach work?

The CTA thinks so. Its Red Line South reconstruction project will close a portion of Chicago's busiest line for 5 months. According to the CTA, the project would have taken 4 years to finish if it restricted the work to weekends only.

The agency chose to give both weekday commuters and weekend riders a lot of pain over a short time, rather than stretch it out over a long time. When finished, the reconstruction project will reduce travel times between 95th Street and Roosevelt by 20 minutes and will make the Red Line more reliable. By closing the entire line at once, riders will get to see those benefits sooner.

In the meantime, riders will have many alternatives to the Red Line, including several shuttle bus options to other L stations. Because of the increased volume of riders changing from shuttles to rail, CTA has also made temporary capacity improvements to the Garfield station on the nearby Green Line, including new staircases, faregates, and bus bays.

Additionally, the Red Line itself will be rerouted over part of the Green Line, and will operate 24 hours during the closure. To prepare for this, the CTA undertook an aggressive maintenance regimen on the Green Line track and structure, since trains will be running all the time, preventing any overnight maintenance.

However, there can be trade-offs. The Baltimore Light Rail was built as a single-track system with sidings where trains could pass one another. In 2004 and 2005, the Maryland Transit Administration closed each end of the line for about 6 months to reconstruct the line with two tracks. Before the project, train headways were limited to 17 minutes. Now, trains can run much more frequently.

During that time, MTA ran local and express shuttle buses to get riders around the closure, but ridership fell by 20% due to the inconvenience and took 3 years to recover, according to a source at MTA. When riders don't have transit options for long periods of time, they make alternate arrangements, like moving or purchasing a car.

If WMATA were to close a line for a long time, the agency could help to mitigate the inconvenience to riders by working with local jurisdictions to set up temporary bus lanes, signal priority, and other transit improvements. Adding additional buses to parallel routes, routing buses to different terminals, and discounting fares are all approaches that could help keep riders on board during the work.

Metro Forward is a big undertaking, and even when it's done, weekend work may still be necessary for future repairs. But for large projects, like Metro's years-long Red Line rehab, closures might get the work done sooner. However, it would cause significant disruption and a potential drop in ridership.

44 comments

Metro policy for refunds after delays falls short, riders say

Mon, 20 May 2013 11:39:00 EDT

by Michael Perkins

Many major transit systems offer a "service guarantee" policy where riders get a free trip or a refund if there are severe delays, but WMATA's policy is much more limited. After repeated rail delays, some riders are demanding a better deal.

Photo by Make Lemons on Flickr.

Rockville resident Dave Tucker recently complained to WMATA on Twitter after his train was evacuated due to brake problems. Officials replied that they were "prohibited from providing fare adjustments for delays caused by mechanical problems and other conditions beyond [Metro's] control," Tucker reported, but as a "gesture of goodwill," they gave Tucker two free one-way passes.

WMATA's current "service guarantee" policy falls short of best practices in other cities. During major delays, you can leave from your original station without paying, but only if station agents allow it. Metro should make its policy more flexible.

If you get trapped behind a stalled train for an hour halfway to your destination, you have two options. One is to stay put and hope you get there, all while paying full price. The other is to try and return to your origin, maybe be able to exit without paying, and then try to get to your destination another way.

Plus, are mechanical problems really beyond Metro's control? Only if they're caused by "acts of God" or by customers jamming the doors. More often than not, mechanical failure happens because of insufficient maintenance or sloppy inspections. Those are WMATA's fault, and when they result in delays, customers deserve refunds.

Other major transit systems offer customers a free future trip if they are delayed for a certain length of time. Philadelphia's SEPTA offers a free trip to riders after 50 minutes, while Boston's MBTA will give you a free trip after just 30 minutes.

Transport for London's service guarantee program goes even further, giving refunds to any customer after a 15-minute delay. Arlington resident Samer Farha explained his experiences during a recent trip to London, where he used Oyster card, their equivalent of SmarTrip. According to Farha, when his trip was delayed, Transport for London (TfL) emailed him to apologize. TfL told him the refund would go back on his card the next time he entered the system. Farha could even log in to TfL's website and choose which station he wanted to credit to go to.

With Metro's current state of repair, a 15-minute window might be a little aggressive, but the agency could at least allow customers to request a refund for delays of 30 minutes or more.

Metro should also let customers leave from the station they entered from, without having to wait for officials to declare a "major delay," as long as they leave within 30 minutes. If you bail out because the train is taking too long, what does it matter how long the delay is? You haven't used Metro for transportation, and shouldn't pay anything.

If WMATA has to refund customers when it's at fault, that could give employees and officials alike an incentive to start making the system more reliable. The number of customer refunds could become a performance metric which goes in reports to the WMATA board.

Metro promises its riders a safe, reliable means of transportation, though it doesn't always deliver. A service guarantee would acknowledge that they make mistakes and respect their customers' time and money.

41 comments

And..

Mon, 20 May 2013 08:53:00 EDT

How does BART's strategic planning resemble Metro's? (PlanItMetro) ... Ken Cuccinelli says FOIA doesn't apply to his office. (Post) ... The biker killed on U Street Thursday is Andre Brands, 50. (Examiner)

WMATA launches "Short Trip" rail pass on SmarTrip

Fri, 17 May 2013 12:48:00 EDT

by Michael Perkins

Starting Monday, Metrorail riders can purchase a "short trip" pass online or at a fare machine and apply it to their SmarTrip cards. It's a big improvement for Metro customers that commute regularly and use Metro on the weekends or for additional trips in the evenings.

Photo by Elvert Barnes on Flickr.

The pass costs $35 and is good for one week. It covers all off-peak trips and the first $3.50 of peak trips. If you take a trip costing more than $3.50, the difference comes out of the stored value on your SmarTrip.

Metro already offers SmarTrip passes that give rail riders unlimited rides of any length. Those cost $15 for one day, $57.50 for a week and $230 for 28 days. Those are useful for riders taking longer, more expensive trips. But those who only ride a few stops won't find that pass worthwhile. These new "short trip" passes are much cheaper because they don't cover long trips that riders may not need.

"Short trip" passes were previously available only as a paper farecard. If you took a trip of more than $3.50, you would have to use the Exitfare machine to pay the exact fare when leaving. Putting the pass on a SmarTrip card is much more convenient for riders who take the occasional longer trip, because the faregates can automatically calculate and deduct the extra fare.

Next, consider discounts and even passes for even shorter trips

You can also subscribe online to have the pass automatically renew when the old one is about to expire. For some riders, this is a good option. But since the pass costs the equivalent of 10 rides, it's not such a good deal that you'd want to set it and forget it, which could mean you'd end up buying one even on weeks with work holidays or vacation. I'd like to see a monthly pass with a discount, so that more riders would find it worthwhile to just buy passes automatically even around holidays.

Now that Metro's figured out how to implement a pass where people pay and get trips under a certain amount free, they could even try offering passes with a threshold below $3.50. For example, a pass that costs $100 per month and allows all trips under $2.50 each way for free might be very popular among riders that live in DC.

Give credit for bus transfers

One downside to the "short trip" pass is that it doesn't discount transfers between bus and rail. WMATA representatives have previously said that allowing transfer discounts to pass holders would be like giving discounts on top of discounts.

However, the transfer discount used to be available for pass holders when WMATA used paper transfer slips. When the WMATA Board approved replacing them with SmarTrip tracking, there was no discussion about eliminating the discount as well.

The discount isn't really a "discount," anyway. It's a recognition that a trip that uses bus and rail is really one trip on two modes, and the fare probably shouldn't be the same as two totally separate trips. You don't pay double the rail fare if you transfer between rail lines. In many cities, like New York, a bus plus rail trip costs the same as just one trip alone.

WMATA should restore the transfer discounts for all pass holders, and give riders with a rail pass the same reduced fare on the bus as any rider coming from a rail trip. Similarly, all riders should get the same fare when they transfer from bus to rail, whether or not they have a Metrobus pass.

All in all, "short trip" passes on SmarTrip are a great option, and I expect to subscribe to them in the future.

26 comments

Fire on the train

Thu, 16 May 2013 08:25:00 EDT

Investigators think a loose part sparked the electrical fire that snarled Red Line commuters near Silver Spring on Tuesday. (Post)

Southern access

Tue, 14 May 2013 08:33:00 EDT

Many who live close to Southern Ave. Metro drive instead of walking or biking to the station. Metro blames the station's poor connectivity and a pedestrian-unfriendly Southern Ave. Can fixes encourage people to walk or bike? (PlanItMetro)

Wrong escalator parts

Fri, 10 May 2013 08:24:00 EDT

Nine escalators won't get repaired as scheduled thanks to a contractor ordering the wrong parts. But Metro officials wouldn't or couldn't identify the contractor to the board. (Post)

WMATA will run, not fix transit center

Fri, 10 May 2013 08:24:00 EDT

Metro wants to operate the Silver Spring Transit Center, but doesn't want to be on the hook for ongoing maintenance. (WTOP)

Graham must pay for his lawyers

Fri, 10 May 2013 08:24:00 EDT

WMATA will not pay to defend Jim Graham in a lawsuit which alleges Graham improperly quashed a land deal between a developer and Metro while he served on WMATA's board. (Examiner)

Bike part of the way to work

Thu, 09 May 2013 08:20:00 EDT

Think you live too far from work to bike there on Bike to Work Day? You could bike to Metro, where WMATA will set up pit stops at West Hyattsville and Cheverly. (PlaItMetro)

Digging the parking hole deeper (Feb 11, 2008)
On the calendar: Bike to Work, Bike DC, Bikeshare expansion (May 13, 2011)
Hyattsville is a prime candidate for Capital Bikeshare (Oct 13, 2011)
How far do people drive to Metro? (Aug 5, 2009)
Metro tests secure parking with new "bike and ride" (May 15, 2012)

And...

Thu, 09 May 2013 08:20:00 EDT

DC Taxi Commission gives the green light for credit card readers in all taxis by August 31. (Post) ... More Metro employees feel safe reporting safety problems. (WAMU) ... The Congress Heights Metro will likely get a large, mixed-use development. (UrbanTurf)

Robberies up on Metro

Wed, 08 May 2013 08:50:00 EDT

by Nick Casey

Crime has declined overall on Metro due to safer parking lots. But robberies, mostly people stealing phones, has increased. Transfer stations like L'Enfant Plaza and Gallery Place are the biggest targets. (Post)

Reverse commute trips rise

Tue, 07 May 2013 08:47:00 EDT

by Jereme Altendorf

The number of Metro trips from the most congested core area outward has been rising. More reverse commute trips mean more empty seats filled in the reverse commute direction. (PlanItMetro)

Metro redesign gets a redesign

Tue, 07 May 2013 08:47:00 EDT

by Jereme Altendorf

WMATA adjusted its station redesign plans afer preservationists criticized them for covering up a historic design. But officials say the stations need to adapt to riders' needs. (Post)

Orange Line to Wiehle?

Mon, 06 May 2013 08:48:00 EDT

Should Metro have made the Silver Line a branch of the Orange Line? London, New York, and others unify lines that share a route through the core. Metro asked about this on a survey, but riders didn't go for it. (Atlantic Cities)

And...

Fri, 03 May 2013 08:54:00 EDT

A reminder to give up your seat on Metro for pregnant women. (Unsuck DC Metro) ... Don't like sprawling mansions? Then check out this one-room house on Capitol Hill. (UrbanTurf) ... Tom Toles takes on food truck rules. (Post)

Metro listens to feedback, tweaks future map

Thu, 02 May 2013 10:00:00 EDT

When the Silver Line opens later this year, the Metro map will have to fit in a silver stripe where the Orange and Blue Lines traverse DC. Metro has a two new drafts of the new map and wants to hear from riders.

The main challenge in the map's design is how to show 3 lines all running together. Until the Silver Line, no track segment had 3 lines. When there are 2 lines, the map shows a small dot in between the two. But what to do with 3?

In our 2011 contest, people tried a lot of solutions, like much thinner lines (like most transit systems), striped lines, pairs or triples of dots, or just bigger dots and much more.

Metro's first draft used little "whiskers" on each side of the circle. A few people liked them, but most hated them and pushed for "pill" or "capsule"-shaped station symbols instead, or thinner lines.

Metro now has a new version that incorporates those suggestions. It shrinks the line width by 24%, which still leaves fatter lines than in other transit systems, but much slimmer than the current map. In this option, the stations with 3 lines now use the "capsule" shapes. They also created a new version that keeps the "whiskers" but cleans up the map in other ways.

What works, and where there could be a few more tweaks

The capsule version is much better than the previous versions. The curves are very tight and clean. The thinner lines look better, and the capsules are superior to the "whiskers."

It seems to me that for consistency with the circles, the capsules should be as large on the rounded ends as the small circles are today—basically pulling 2 halves of one of the current circles apart and putting a rectangle in between. Or as Cameron Booth put it, "an elongated 'pill' symbol with the same cap radius and the normal circle." That would make them much larger in overall area, though. On the latest draft, they're much thinner. What do you think?

Booth had very harsh words for the current map (redesigned last year). He pointed out many technical errors, like the way the parking P and hospital H icons didn't line up with the text at all. Metro has corrected at least some of these, like one Booth pointed out:

Text alignment on part of the Red Line. Left: Current Rush Plus map. Image by Cameron Booth from WMATA base map. Right: New map. Image by David Alpert from WMATA base map.

Metro also abandoned an idea of abbreviating words like "Ctr" and "Hgts" in station names (another choice Booth panned), but they are abbreviating "Rd," "St," "Ave," and "Blvd" for all stations. The original map abbreviated some but not all road types.

As the map goes through iterations, some have repeatedly pointed out that there is considerable parkland east of the Anacostia, including right along the river, but none appears on the map. Given that even the Pentagon (a large office fortress with parking lots and highways around it) gets to be inside a "park" space on this map, it seems reasonable to put some green along the east bank of the Anacostia.

It continues to mystify why Metro doesn't want to put the "Farragut Crossing" out-of-system transfer on the map. If it did appear, that could entice some casual users to take it instead of crowding trains through Metro Center.

While Metro is adjusting lines a little, it also would be smart to move Metro Center and Gallery Place closer together, so that fewer tourists take the Red Line one stop and then transfer, and put Union Station nearer the Capitol, because it's the station closest to the Senate.

Overall, the capsule map seems best, and the map overall is moving definitively in the right direction. Especially compared to the pre-Rush Plus map, where curves were all uneven, some labels were not even at a 45-degree angle, and everything was just a mess in so many tiny ways, the map has gotten far more professional.

Update/note: The image at the top does not show the legend and other information that's at the top or bottom of the map. You can click on an image to see the full map including header and footer.

Update 2: The original version of this post said that Metro has a new version with capsule station symbols, but in fact they have 2 new versions, one of which has capsule symbols and the other with whisker symbols. I misunderstood the whisker version Metro posted as being the old one rather than a revised whisker one. The post has now been updated to show both new versions as well as the correct previous one and the current map.

80 comments

Inaudible speakers made Metro passengers evacuate

Wed, 01 May 2013 10:18:00 EDT

by Letters to the Editor

Metro has asked passengers not to open emergency doors. One did on a recent Green Line train at Shaw, creating delays. Reader Bitter Brew posted more details of what happened, and says the biggest problem was incomprehensible announcements and no other information from Metro staff. Here's Bitter Brew's comment:

What should you do [on Metro] when the crackling, incomprehensible intercom says something that sounds like "evacuate"?

Photo by Mr. T in DC on Flickr.

My girlfriend was in the car where they opened the doors. She said the intercom and speakers, as with so many Metro cars, barely worked.

They stood there in the dark for over 20 minutes, with the typical semi-comprehensible Metro announcements. First "**static** be **static** momentarily," which we can all translate as Metro's favorite lie. Then "***static** hold **static** control ***static***." Five minutes later, "**static** something brakes **static** apologize **static** delay."

Then a Metro employee came through the car from one end to the other, saying nothing, and not responding to anyone's questions. A couple more minutes of silence. Then "**static** evacuate **static** train **static** something safety."

At that point, a buzz went up through the car. "Did he say 'evacuate'?" someone asked. That's when a knot of passengers by a door began to discuss whether they should open it and evacuate. Why? Because Metro told them to evacuate.

After another minute or two with no more announcements and no sign of any Metro personnel, they began to open the door. And just after they opened it, someone from Metro finally came in from the front of the car and began giving instructions to offload that way.

If Metro is unable and unwilling to communicate with passengers during its frequent lengthy breakdowns, or is going to make unclear announcements with words like "emergency" and "evacuate," it can't blame passengers for following the instructions they do have. And it shouldn't—because sooner or later, the emergency is going to be a real, life-threatening one and if passengers are punished for taking the initiative now, they're not going to take the initiative when they need to do so to save lives.

35 comments

Metro morsels

Wed, 01 May 2013 08:56:00 EDT

by Nick Casey

The Verizon Center will pay to keep Metro open late for the NHL playoffs. (Post) ... Please don't open Metro emergency doors; one rider did and it stretched a short delay into a very long one. (WAMU) ... The Red Line was severely delayed this morning due to a cracked rail near Rhode Island Ave. (Post)

The rich parts of the Metro

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 08:38:00 EDT

Riffing off a New Yorker feature showing the income level along each stop of the NYC Subway, Chris D-P creates similar graphs for the lines of the Washington Metro. One Orange Line stop's income is 3 times another. (City Paper)

Metro backs out of transit center

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 08:38:00 EDT

WMATA does not want to run the Silver Spring Transit Center. While they will still run Metrobuses at the facility, they've abandoned their plan to also use it for intercity buses. (Post)

WMATA budget was easy

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 08:38:00 EDT

The WMATA board quickly approved its budget for 2014 with little controversy. The budget does not include a fare increase or a large subsidy increase from the jurisdictions. (Post)