Red Line - Greater Greater Washington

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)

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Tanks roll into Ft. Totten

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 08:35:00 EDT

by Nick Casey

Riders on the Red Line north of Union Station are used to looking at warehouses and graffiti, but on Tuesday morning they passed dozens of Bradley Fighting Vehicles. Destination: classified. (DCist)

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Graffiti-covered warehouses by RI Ave. Metro buffed (May 10, 2012)
Better signs could speed trains through Fort Totten (Jun 28, 2012)
"Obama hates BORF" buffed from the Red Line (Feb 8, 2012)
Wall at Brookland Metro serves as a canvas for a memorial (Mar 10, 2011)
MARC shares more information including on-time issues (Oct 8, 2010)

Metro opens doors?

Wed, 16 May 2012 08:50:00 EDT

by Steven Yates

Doors opened on two 1000 series cars on a Red Line train while it was moving between Van Ness and Tenleytown. Metro officials say it is too early to tell if all of the 290 1000 series cars will have to be taken out of service. (Examiner)

Comment

Metro opens doors, closes data (Mar 5, 2012)
Ask GGW: What will happen to the 1000 series railcars? (Oct 21, 2011)
Latest Metro crash not such a surprise (Dec 2, 2009)
Time to reaassemble railcars into single-series trains (Mar 15, 2010)
Catoe opens up to bloggers (Jan 14, 2010)

Memorial to Red Line victims

Tue, 08 May 2012 08:42:00 EDT

by David Edmondson

A memorial to victims of the 2009 Red Line crash is coming. WMATA is soliciting proposals for the memorial's design, which will be built near the site of the crash. (DCist)

Comment

Commemorate the crash victims with a moment of silence (Jun 22, 2010)
Wall at Brookland Metro serves as a canvas for a memorial (Mar 10, 2011)
Gehry Eisenhower memorial delivers old forms in a new style (Mar 26, 2010)
Cannon almost stopped the Lincoln Memorial (Feb 4, 2008)
Why a classical memorial better honors Eisenhower (Jun 9, 2011)

Forest Glen zoned for failure

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 08:45:00 EDT

by David Alpert

A large plot of vacant land near Forest Glen Metro will get a few single-family houses. Why nothing larger? The zoning only allows single-family homes, even though there's a Metro station right there. (The Orbital)

Comment

Labor Day work to close 5 Metro stations (Aug 27, 2010)
Burtonsville residents debate mixed-use and "undesirables" (Jun 23, 2008)
Different housing types can mix if designed propertly (Nov 7, 2011)
Arlington rental proposal brings out immigrant phobia (May 14, 2008)
Ensuring retail and residential diversity in zoning (Jan 29, 2009)

Metro closing Red Line for 8 months to accelerate repairs

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 11:52:00 EDT

by Jamie Scott

This article was posted as an April Fool's joke.

Metro will suspend all service on the Red Line for the next 8 months to allow repair crews to finish work on the line more quickly. Shuttle buses will replace trains between Shady Grove and Glenmont.

Photo by ElvertBarnes on Flickr.

According to Metro spokesman Stan Dessel, Metro is tired of the constant weekend track work. "Frankly, we're just as sick of the slow trickle of repairs as the customers are. We decided it would simply be faster to just fix everything at once," Dessel said.

Dessel said customers should also consider alternative commuting methods, like driving. Customers who drive or take the shuttle buses should expect to add an additional 60-120 minutes to their travel time.

Riders from Shady Grove can also drive to Vienna and take the Orange Line.

Governors Bob McDonnell and Martin O'Malley announced plans to spend $10 billion to build a new freeway across the Potomac River in order to accommodate the Metro riders, but added that funding is too scarce to contribute more to speed up the Metro repairs. "We think this is the best way to use our state transportation dollars to help commuters," said Virginia Secretary of Transportation Sean Proaughton.

In addition, MARC will add new service on the Brunswick Line. CSX announced that it would allow MARC to run more trains and actually tell its dispatchers to give priority to passenger trains on the line, as opposed to previous times when they claimed to have done so but dispatchers did not actually follow through.

Metro is launching a new public relations campaign around the closure, called "Red Line: Deal With It." Customers will see construction walls at Red Line station entrances with slogans like, "8 Months Isn't So Bad, Is It?" and "No More Delays. No More Red Line."

Organizers of large national events are also being informed. A national tea party convention has already modified its website to inform attendees driving to the region from points north on I-95 to take the Beltway to Vienna instead of driving to Glenmont or using any other station.

Metro will suspend all work on other lines, including Silver Line construction, in order to complete the work in 8 months. "We hope that by the time the Red Line reopens, we'll only have to single-track twice a month," said WMATA CEO Richard Snarles.

Dessel said Metro is working with Mayor Gray to hire thousands of unemployed District residents to help with the 24-hour repairs. The program is part of a new employment program called "One City, One Line."

A social media component of the program, called "Metro Fast Forward," will equip track workers with helmet video cameras and editing software so that they can produce videos of the work in real time.

This concept has actually been in the works for over a year. Previous WMATA spokesperson Lisa Dystone planned not to tell riders about the closure, arguing that nobody would notice. However, Michael Perkins noticed an obscure footnote in a WMATA Board presentation and encouraged officials to mount a larger campaign to inform riders.

Some have already criticized Metro's plan. The critical blog DeCrapify DC Metro said 8 months is far longer than needed to finish the work. Another blog and popular Twitter account, WTF WMATA, wrote that customers deserve better treatment and vowed to hold Metro accountable.

How will you adjust to the Red Line closing? Let us know in the comments.

14 comments

Labor Day work to close 5 Metro stations (Aug 27, 2010)
More weekend closures, less single-tracking for Metrorail (Jun 10, 2011)
Weekend station closures will become common on Metro (Jul 14, 2011)
Orange and Blue lines to close downtown next weekend (Oct 1, 2010)
Metro work to close Orange, Blue lines this weekend (Nov 3, 2010)

"Obama hates BORF" buffed from the Red Line

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:46:00 EDT

by John Muller

The graffiti scrawls of "Cool 'Disco' Dan" and "Gangster Chronicles" have disappeared from along the Red Line, faded memories for a generation of riders. The mark of "Borf," a more recent omnipresent oppidan vandal, is now vanishing, too.

Photo by Eric Petersen.

First proclaiming in red paint "Bush Hates BORF" a half dozen years ago on a white wall facing the Metro tracks just yards south of Takoma Station, "Obama Hates BORF" in purple paint appeared soon after the 2008 presidential election. Coinciding with the start of 2012, the wall's proprietor buffed years worth of accumulated graffiti, including Borf's dictum.

If any Metro rides are feeling nostalgic, the owner of the uptown canvas, Vision Lighting, Inc., isn't. "That wall doesn't impact our business, it's just ugly from the Metro. The parts of our building that our customers see when they drive up Vine Street, we paint that on a regular basis as quickly as the weather allows us to after they've tagged us," says Kerwood Barnard, Jr., President of Vision Lighting, a manufacturer of energy-efficient light fixtures.

Still a streaming barrage of flashes, dashes, and splashes of colors and messages, the state of the Red Line's graffiti in 2012 is a shadow of its former self. The line has been a railroad, originally the Baltimore and Ohio, since the mid-19th century, and thus has long been an industrial corridor.

Graffiti-strewn buildings neighbor the Rhode Island Avenue Metro station. Photo by the author.

In recent years, the Metropolitan Branch Trail and development between Fort Totten and New York Avenue have brought new attention to the corridor's aesthetic appeal. Large-scale service projects have painted murals, as part of Murals DC, within sight of the Red Line. With Rhode Island Row's opening imminent, it is only a matter of time before the graffiti-strewn warehouses on the opposite side of Rhode Island Avenue NE are cleaned up.

Ownership of public spaces that enclose the Red Line is scattered between CSX (which owns the outer tracks used by MARC, Amtrak, and freight trains), WMATA, and mostly private businesses. The DC Department of Public Works' jurisdiction is limited to graffiti visible from the street.

"In FY 11 we spent approximately $500,000 on graffiti abatement, which is consistent with what we have spent in the past," said Nancee Lyons, spokesperson for DPW. "Last year, we completed 6,155 abatements on public and private space. Just to give you some perspective, we have five dedicated folks dealing with graffiti, one fewer than in the past."

Barnard, who has owned the business for 23 years, doesn't expect the wall's bareness to endure. "The building is so popular that the police have done midnight surveillance." However, the inevitability that another name will the grab the imagination of Red Line riders doesn't interest Barnard. "It's nothing but vandalism. They might as well come here and smash our windows. It costs us money all the time. It ruins the community. What's the message?"

Passing the now-almost-bare wall on a Shady Grove-bound train.

17 comments

Better access to RI Ave Metro would help communities (Dec 22, 2011)
A timeline of the Metropolitan Branch Trail (Aug 27, 2010)
Wall at Brookland Metro serves as a canvas for a memorial (Mar 10, 2011)
Take action: Rhode Island Avenue deserves decent sidewalks (Oct 5, 2010)
Get the Florida out of the Rhode Island Avenue streetcar (Nov 2, 2009)

Red Line will be bad for 3 years

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:05:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Repairs on the Red Line will continue for at least 3 years. Single-tracking and escalator repair will continue to 2015, at which time on-time performance should rise from 88.9% to 92-93%. (Examiner)

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Metro suffers complete blackout

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:33:00 EDT

by Michael Perkins and David Alpert

Metro suffered a complete system failure last night around 11:30 pm. The failures were so extensive that all communications, including track circuits, were out of service.

Photo by Make Lemons on Flickr.

Customers on Twitter were reporting that rail operators had to leave and walk to the next station to get permission to move. WMATA's website was down, no communication came over any of the alert systems.

Former DCRA tweeter Mike Rupert wrote in the Local Gov blog that he thinks the complete lack of communication killed months of goodwill.

This wasn't Metro's only problem yesterday. In the morning, a cracked rail forced single-tracking between Van Ness and Friendship Heights, and then one train single-tracking stopped for 15 minutes due to door problems, forcing long delays for all riders trying to traverse the area.

With Metro's 30-plus year old system and a long backlog of deferred maintenance needs, some problems are going to crop up, but many riders and the Riders' Advisory Council have repeatedly faulted inadequate communication during crises.

Meanwhile, while Metro has launched a detailed campaign to explain its need for maintenance work, it has been tight-lipped about more specifics, such as timelines and costs for various aspects. Riders frustrated by multiple overlapping outages of lines, escalators and more may well tire of just hearing entreaties to be patient for a period of years, with little more to reassure them that the delays are leading to actual change.

Were you stuck in either of yesterday's problems? Looking constructively, what level and type of communication do you think Metro needs to achieve?

41 comments

Lessen weekend service impacts with Metro timetables (Jan 19, 2011)
Weekend station closures will become common on Metro (Jul 14, 2011)
More weekend closures, less single-tracking for Metrorail (Jun 10, 2011)
Metro trackwork announcements take tentative step forward (Feb 4, 2011)
Metro needs to communicate service disruptions in stations (Aug 5, 2010)

Metro suing insurance provider

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 08:31:00 EDT

by Jamie Scott

Metro is suing an insurance provider because of decreased ridership after the 2009 Red line crash. Metro's policy was supposed to cover partial or total loss of business. (Examiner)

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And...

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 08:36:00 EDT

by Jamie Scott

DCRA has identified more vacant properties this year. (WBJ) ... A new bus line may help BRAC congestion. (NBC Washington) ... A person was struck and killed on the Red line yesterday. (TBD) ... Now that's an attention-grabbing real estate listing. (DCmud)

Comment

Excessive passive voice, linguistic detachment observed in Culpeper road fatality (Mar 23, 2009)
Old Anacostia's spirit unshakable despite vacant properties (Aug 9, 2011)
Novak sorry he has cancer, not sorry he hit a pedestrian (Sep 8, 2008)
Lt. Gov. Brown open to new ideas, needs to hear them (Aug 3, 2009)

Wall at Brookland Metro serves as a canvas for a memorial

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 11:31:00 EDT

by John Muller

While Washington is home to numerous stately memorials to national figures, murdered Redskins player Sean Taylor has his own unofficial memorial in the form of graffiti at the Brookland Metro station.

Photo by the author.

A few days after Taylor was killed in Miami, Florida, a spray-painted memorial mural appeared on the wall of the CSX rail line adjacent to the Brookland Metro station, where it remains today, untouched.

The mural, painted in the team's colors of burgundy, gold, and white, is seen by tens of thousands of Red Line riders going in and out of the city every day.

Taylor, 24, was in his fourth year with the Redskins. In the twelfth week of the 2007 season he had 5 interceptions—third in the league, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. His reputation as one of the hardest hitting players in the league and his all-out style of play had endeared him to fans.

News of his death during a home invasion on November 27, 2007 quickly spread across the region, leaving his teammates and fans in a state of disbelief and grief. While the Redskins organization honored Taylor's memory on the field, an established DC graffiti artist took to the red line in a public display of deference.

"The Red Line has been a hot spot since the mid-80's, but became the spot in the early 90's," according to Roger Gastman, a Bethesda native and author of Free Agents: A History of DC Graffiti and the forthcoming The History of American Graffiti. "If you wanted to be someone in the DC graffiti scene, you had to hit the Red Line."

"The Brookland station, you can walk right up to it. It is a very good location, if you can pull it off," says Gastman.

"The best writers interact with their environment," asserts Gastman, citing graffiti as the fastest growing art movement of the past forty years.

CERT

Beginning his graffiti career with the tag of "CERT" in 1992 at the age of 14, the well-known writer of the Sean Taylor mural declined an interview request for this article.

"The Red Line was CERT's backyard. He basically lived there and owned it. CERT could disappear, but, to this day he holds enough respect that his spots will remain untouched for years to come," reads CERT's profile in Free Agents that describes his graffiti as "hardcore and illegal" and "always in highly visible spots."

"Graffiti to me is my childhood, my teen years. That's what I was about 100 percent. But I'm still representing. Don't count me out. Don't forget me. I can come back at any moment and in a month I'll take king of the Red Line again," contends CERT in the 2001 book.

"Whatever his reasons for slowing down, CERT is a true D.C. king. It's time for him to sit back and let the mark he left on the city soak in. And like he said, don't count him out. With a closet full of paint and heart that's true to the game, CERT will be back," Gastman foretold in the conclusion of CERT's profile.

The mural has remained untouched since its appearance more than 3 years ago. Gastman says there is a code among writers that is being followed.

"Brookland station can be considered a museum for DC graffiti, because of the pieces that have endured over the years," says Saaret Yoseph, a graduate student at Georgetown University. "Brookland is unique in that the art is eye level. The graffiti is looking right at you as you wait for your train."

Yoseph is directing, "The Red Line D.C Project," a documentary exploring the "communal experience" of graffiti on the Red Line as a public art space. It will be released later this year.

Rider Reactions

"What struck me about that one was here was a memorial to someone we actually knew—or knew of. So much graffiti is inscrutable. Who are the people named there? What's the purpose of it? But this was one we could grasp immediately," said John Kelly, a writer for The Washington Post and Red Line rider since 1983. "And then a few years later, just across the platform was another one that fell into that category: some memorial paint for Michael Jackson."

On a recent morning at the Brookland Station, riders' reactions to the graffiti suggested a sense of pride in the station's distinction as the home of the Sean Taylor mural.

"If they cleaned it up we would be really hurt behind that one," said Milford Obendorf, a Brookland resident waiting with his wife on the northbound train to Silver Spring.

"It's been here since he passed away. People come here to look at it," said Marquette Obendorf.

"It's real creative," said LaWanda Swain, a custodian with Metro for 6 years. "He played here so they have respect for him."

"It spices things up. If they cleaned it up then you'd be staring at a wall for 15 minutes," said Mike Young, 20, a cell phone sales rep downtown. "People remember Sean Taylor because he shouldn't have died. He hit the hardest like when he cracked yungin' in the Pro Bowl."

Numerous videos on YouTube have compiled Taylor's highlights as a Redskin, including a tackle of punter Brian Moorman in the Pro Bowl that lifted Moorman off his feet to a point where he was parallel to the field.

However, some riders expressed frustration with the station's illegal art.

"It grows and grows until they clean it up," said Joe, an older man in a white dress shirt, a Brookland resident for more than two decades. "The kids that do it are talented, but they can put their talents to better use."

As a regular rider of the red line for more than a decade, I can remember the walls at Brookland being cleaned, "buffed" in the language of graffiti, about five years ago.

"The graffiti is on CSX property, not Metro property. Typically, when we become aware of graffiti, our goal is to remove it within 24 hours," said Angela Gates, a Media Relations officer with Metro.

CSX did not respond to email and phone call requests for comment.

"There have been no graffiti-related arrests or citations in the last year at Brookland-CUA," said Gates who emphasized that the property is outside of Metro's jurisdiction.

With no apparent plans to clean the walls and a lack of enforcement around graffiti, the Sean Taylor mural will continue to be a distinctive cultural landmark for the Brookland Metro station.

A print version of this article will appear in the forthcoming spring edition of The Brookland Heartbeat.

17 comments

Councilmembers: stand firm for the Brookland Small Area Plan (Mar 2, 2009)
Brookland: save the environment somewhere else (May 19, 2008)
Why I support the Brookland Small Area Plan (Feb 2, 2009)
"Save our sprawl" in Brookland (May 12, 2008)
An even better Brookland (Feb 2, 2009)

Longer trains on Red Line

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 08:30:00 EDT

by Erik Weber

WMATA has reconfigured the Red Line as planned. There are now 41 rush hour trains rather than 44. Since there are more 8-car trains, 284 cars rather than 278 run the line. (Dr. Gridlock)

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