Category Archives: WMATA

Five Favorites, The District, The Features, WMATA
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Five Favorites: Metro Stations

Photo courtesy of
‘Woodley Station’
courtesy of ‘Tyrannous’

Hi, and welcome to a new feature called Five Favorites.  Our reader Jay suggested ranking favorite places in DC, and I’m going to start with five favorite Metro stations.  These are stations that are the best examples of vibrant, walkable, urban, mixed-use places in the District.  These are the Metro stations that you could emerge from at any time, and there’d always be plenty of people around.  This list is a mix of subjective factors and measurable data, so feel free to disagree and tell me which of your favorites I missed.

Number 5: Woodley Park/Adams Morgan. Ok, we all know that it’s annoying to have to walk across the bridge to get from the Metro station to the heart of Adams Morgan, but still– this Metro station is always full of people emerging from the ridiculously long escalators.  The Connecticut Avenue strip where you emerge from the Metro station is full of some great restaurants, and the 10-minute walk across the bridge to 18th Street puts you in the middle of it all.

The Adams Morgan neighborhood itself is a diverse, multi-cultural neighborhood with restaurants, bars, shops, and corner stores, and cute rowhouses and apartments mixed in.  While this stop just barely made it into the top five because of the distance to Adams Morgan itself, the vibrant, constantly-moving atmosphere of the area and the busy-ness of the Metro itself (residents and commuters in the mornings, people out on dates in the evenings, college students in the late evenings) make it one of the best mixed-use Metro stations in the city.  Walk Score: 95.  The Woodley Park Metro station has an average daily ridership of 8,000.
Continue reading →

The Daily Feed, WMATA, WTF?!
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Metro Scares Adults, Small Children

Photo courtesy of
‘Ghost Train’
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

Metro will be scaring the crap out of kids and adults alike tomorrow. Well, more than they usually do. And not by hurting or potentially hurting anyone, for once. They’re going to be out with their Boo Bus at Anacostia Metro tomorrow between 12p and 2p to provide a safe and fun scare (wait, are those things consistent?) for those who want to see a Halloween-decked-out Metrobus.

The Daily Feed, WMATA, WTF?!
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WMATA silently edits news release

Photo courtesy of
‘Pravda’
courtesy of ‘aquateamhungryfort’

Earlier I linked to a WMATA news release on the changes to how SmarTrip SmartBenefits would be handled and disbursed. When reader Nate commented that he disagreed with me about the significant part of the story I went back to look at the release again… and was surprised that I had misremembered there being a section about how unused benefit deposits were refunded

When I checked another window, however, I discovered I hadn’t misremembered – WMATA had just edited the release and made no note of the change. Both releases state they were issued at 11:52am today. The original section that explains what Nate is talking about was the last bit of the second paragraph and reads as follows:

Any unused benefits will be credited back to the employer at the end of each month. Employees who currently contribute a portion of their pre-taxed salary to through the SmartBenefits® program should contact their employers to determine how that employer will handle any unused portion of their pre-tax contribution.

The new edited release makes some mention of “pre-tax benefits” but excises the word “contribution” entirely. Kinda sleazy.

The other changed sections are after the jump.

Continue reading →

The Daily Feed, WMATA, WTF?!
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Burying the lead disappointment

Photo courtesy of
‘NO SMARTRIP -6480’
courtesy of ‘Joe Tresh’

WMATA’s press release about SmartBenefits talks a little about how some changes will be made to the SmarTrip behavior to comply with new IRS rules but leaves the really interesting thing for last. A sizable percentage of people in the area might get transit subsidies from their employers but here’s the real news for all SmarTrip users: no passes or online refilling of cards till Fall 2010.

WMATA blames this delay on the complexity of implementing these changes to meet IRA rules, but it’s hard to give this much credence given how horribly overdue they are in implementing this feature. IRS transit mandates might be why they couldn’t fit it into 2009, but what’s the reason they didn’t have it in 2004 or 2005?

The Daily Feed, WMATA, WTF?!
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WTOP: Ride Metro at Your Own Risk

Photo courtesy of
”
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

Mark Segraves and Adam Tuss over at WTOP.com filed a report this morning covering the fact that since 2004, Metro bus and train operators have been cited over 4,000 times for endangering the lives of their passengers. Most of the incidents involve illegal behavior including speeding in residential neighborhoods, running red lights and hitting cars, people, bicycles and wheelchairs. (Update: WTOP has informed me that this will be a week-long series with reports from both Mark and Adam through Thursday.)

Shocking? To most of us, probably not. Metro downplays the numbers, citing that on an average day, 1,200 buses cover 1,500 square miles and provide 20 hours of service. I can forgive the bad eggs that happen along; it’s a sad fact of life that no service or system is perfect. It’s hardly surprising to anyone that one of the more common complaints in the report is rude and discourteous behavior by Metro employees to customers, including profanity and grabbing people.

What is incredible about the report is some of the infractions that operators have been cited for. Slewing the bus around corners hard enough to tip wheelchairs over? Leaving passengers in bus lots or trains after closing? Urinating inside the bus?

Seriously, WMATA, WTF?

Talkin' Transit, The Features, WMATA
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Talkin’ Transit: Eye Candy

Photo courtesy of
‘Inside the Metro Car’
courtesy of ‘Bogotron’

I was going to take today’s article and gripe about the “Follow the Rules” mandate now being enacted by most of the Metrobus drivers this week. But really, what’s the point? (And what exactly is their point, too, other than to make commuters surly and late?) So if you’d like to gripe or share your bus ride horror story, share in comments. I can’t really gripe, because I don’t ride the bus, but I offer you the chance to blow off steam.

Instead, I offer pictures.

Metro is the subject of many of our local photographers, including myself. So today let’s just take a grand look at some excellent shots taken by local and visiting photographers.

Sometimes, pictures are worth a thousand words. Continue reading →

Talkin' Transit, The Daily Feed, WMATA, WTF?!
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Metrobus to Do Things By The Book?

Photo courtesy of
‘Panned Metrobus’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

I know this makes me nerdy, but I love that scene in Wrath of Khan where Saavik and Spock start talking about doing things By The Book, and the post this morning from Unsuck DC Metro is reminiscent of that this morning. One of their readers announced a few changes on his 52 bus last night, suggesting that folks may need to allow for additional time due to drivers following regulations to the letter in order to better reduce casualties in the bus system. It’s not clear if this is an organized union-endorsed behavior, or if this could be considered like a work stoppage.

So, did your bus seems slower than usual this morning? Or, was it business as usual?

And yeah, you can totally call me a nerd for referencing Star Trek in a post about Metrobuses. Because I deserve it.

The Daily Feed, WMATA, WTF?!
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Metro $22M Short

Photo courtesy of
‘Moving Momentarily’
courtesy of ‘Ghost_Bear’

No surprise in that headline. Last night’s finance committee meeting had Carol Kissal, WMATA’s CFO, telling the board that if there is no upswing in ridership by the end of the year, that $22.4 million budget gap could get bigger. Her estimate so far is based on July and August ridership levels.

Interestingly, Kissal blamed ridership decline on higher unemployment, lower gas prices and the June Red Line crash. Maybe so, but those are “dodge” excuses, really. What about abysmal customer service, long rail delays on OTHER lines, a creepily-high incidental death rate, non-explanatory e-alerts, bus drivers hitting people and a really, REALLY bad PR image at the moment?

And more unsurprisingly, GM John Catoe “has a plan.” Of course he does. He’s John-freaking-Catoe. What the man says, goes. Even if he doesn’t tell everyone else!

Seriously though, looks like Metro’s threatening fare hikes next year, unless we all suck it up and ride.

News, The Daily Feed, WMATA
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Repairs Complete at Fort Totten

Photo courtesy of
‘metro’
courtesy of ‘spiggycat’

Metro announced this afternoon that the repairs of track circuits between Fort Totten and Takoma Park have been completed, ending the last of the emergency maintenance after the crash this summer. This means that trains will be permitted to operate at their usual speeds through the area, and not under the degraded speed that they have been using during the repairs.

It’s not immediately clear if this will permit a return to Automatic Train Operation mode, which would return the Red Line to full speed, but we’ve asked Metro to clarify the situation.

Metro will still be working at Fort Totten and Takoma Park on the weekends, however, as part of regularly scheduled maintenance, and trains will single-track through that area in the late evenings. With the longer delays between trains in the late evening, though, additional delays are unlikely.

Update: ATO is still off-limits until the NTSB Report comes back, which would give a conclusive ruling as to what caused the accident.

The Daily Feed, WMATA
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Explosion Causes Red Line Delays

Smoke in Station
Picture of smoke in Red Line station uploaded by @arasmus

Update, 11am: “Normal” service restored.

Update, 10am: Red Line is now single-tracking between Farragut North and Judiciary Square. According to Dr. Gridlock, Metro spokeswoman Angela Gates says a collector shoe fell off a train car, sparking a fire under the train at Gallery Place-Chinatown. Smoke then traveled down the tunnel to Metro Center. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed, WMATA, WTF?!
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WMATA alerts by text message? No.

ScreenShot145

One of our loyal readers sent us a note about WMATA’s eAlerts system and the inability to sign up to get them via text messages rather than email. In fairness to WMATA, the main screen only says “you can receive alerts via email notifying you of Metro service disruptions.” However when you click on the subscribe button you get a popup that says “Receive alerts through email or text message” and the box to enter your contact info says “Enter Your email or SMS address.”

Unfortunately it’s a trap; the box refuses to accept any entry that isn’t a x@y.z format email address. You’ll have to stick with whatever email to SMS gateway your cell provider offers if you want to get the alerts sent to you via text. TechRecipies has the format for all the major carriers here if you don’t know yours.

As to why WMATA’s form is misleading? Unclear. Our tipster asked customer service why it wasn’t working and got a resounding “dunno.” Perhaps WMATA will be expanding to offer this functionality down the road and their text got ahead of their capabilities. Or maybe it’s already in and a coder simply forgot to update the validation check.

The Daily Feed, WMATA
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What’s Your Favorite Suburban Metro Station?

Photo courtesy of
‘Bethesda at night’
courtesy of ‘InspirationDC’

BeyondDC has a great post up today about the best suburban transit-oriented development (TOD) in the area.  The Washington region has some of the best examples of TOD, and places like Arlington and Bethesda have become national examples of how to create walkable, mixed-use districts in the suburbs.  BeyondDC thinks that Bethesda deserves the number one spot, with its great mix of uses and walkability.  King Street takes the number two spot, and Clarendon is third.

I’d argue that Clarendon deserves the title of the best TOD in the region– not only does it have a great variety of restaurants, offices, retail, and housing, but since it’s in the middle of the Rosslyn-Ballston Metro corridor the whole area is transit-oriented.  From Clarendon, you could easily continue walking to Courthouse or Virginia Square, but you can’t walk to any other Metro station from Bethesda, which makes it seem more isolated and car-dependent than Arlington.

What do you think?  What’s your favorite suburban Metro stop?  Leave your thoughts in the comments.

The Daily Feed, WMATA, WTF?!
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No, Really. They (Apparently) Did.

Photo courtesy of
”
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

Still awaiting confirmation on the story, but NBC Washington is reporting that several people were locked in the Van Dorn Metro station last night. Apparently the station manager had locked up the facility before the last train had arrived; it took the people 45 minutes to get someone to let them out.

If true, it’s just yet another great PR story for Metro. What a way to celebrate the renewal of Catoe’s contract!

The Daily Feed, WMATA, WTF?!
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Metrobus Driver Involved in Injury Crash is Fired

Photo courtesy of
‘Outside, Looking In’
courtesy of ‘Bogotron’

It really does boggle the mind that it took Metro almost a month to fire the driver who hit a pedestrian in DC. But, here we are, and Metro did the right thing 3 weeks after Carla Proctor struck Amanda Mahnke with her empty Metrobus. Why’d it take so long?

No idea. But, in the meantime, GM John Catoe got a 3-year contract extension worth over $1M.

All Politics is Local, Downtown, The Daily Feed, The District, The Mall, WMATA
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Wisconsin Avenue Circulator Route Is No More

Photo courtesy of
”
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

As reported earlier this month, the in peril Wisconsin Avenue section of the Georgetown-Union Station Circulator route has officially been cut.  According to the DDOT, the  new Georgetown routing will be Washington Circle to K Street (under the Whitehurst Freeway), right on Wisconsin Avenue, right on M Street, right on Pennsylvania Avenue, returning to Washington Circle and on to Union station.  The rerouting will also cut all the Circulator stops on the north side of M Street, as the new route will only operate eastbound on M Street.

Other Circulator service changes involve discontinuing the Smithsonian-National Mall from October 4, 2009 until April 3, 2010.  As well as added stops to the Union Station-Navy Yard and Woodley Park/Adams Morgan-McPherson Square Metro routes.

The Daily Feed, WMATA
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WMATA Gets Recommendations From NTSB

Photo courtesy of
‘New Carrolltn’
courtesy of ‘Kevin H.’

NTSB has recommended 9 fixes for Metro as a result of the June accident that claimed the lives of 9 people. It’s not clear what the recommendations encompass yet, but it’s reported that the NTSB has sent letters to Metro and Alstom Signaling, who makes the parts for the train presence signaling system.

Update, 6:15pm: WTOP has more details of the 9 recommendations, which include six that are marked as Urgent.

Update, 6:18: We’ve found a copy of the letter (PDF) that gives WMATA 30 days to respond to the contents.

Update, 6:23: The letter on the NTSB website is actually only one recommendation to the Alstom Signaling, Inc, the company who acquired General Railway Signal, the original manufacturer of the WEE-Z system used to sense trains on the track and which seems to have been decided as the underlying cause of the June collision. We’ll have some analysis of this later and will continue looking for the WMATA recommendations.

The Daily Feed, WMATA
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Franconia-Springfield Loses Parking

DSC_1665

If you’re a Blue Liner and take Metro from the Franconia station, get ready to fight for parking at the garage. As many commuters who use the station are aware, the Metro garage is about to undergo a major rehabilitation project. WMATA issued a press release announcing that the first phase of construction will begin on Thursday, October 1. Up to 220 spaces will be “lost” over the next twenty months of repair as concrete deterioration is replaced, treated with sealant, and parking spaces restriped.

Check the press release for a whole list of options to park; most of them are free alternatives but do require some walking.

The Daily Feed, WMATA
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Metro Gets More Money

Photo courtesy of
‘YIP 228 – Things you don’t want to see in the Metro’
courtesy of ‘(afm)’

The US Senate passed a $122 billion transportation, housing and urban development funding bill recently that has $150 million earmarked for Metro. The Senate bill has language that requires Metro to put safety as its first priority when determining what projects to pursue, including implementing the recommendations of the NTSB. (The NTSB has suggested replacing the oldest rail cars, installing guardrails at curved sections and installing equipment that warns track workers and operators of approaching trains.)

The real question is, will WMATA be so enamored from the infusion of cash that they’ll reason it out to fill their widening budget gap, or will they actually listen this time?

Downtown, Life in the Capital, News, The Daily Feed, We Love Food, WMATA
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White House Farmers’ Market Opens

Photo courtesy of
”
courtesy of ‘Hoffmann’

Today, the White House Famers’ Market opened for business.  The Market features about 20 stalls staffed by area farmers and various, agriculture related government offices. It will occur on every Thursday until  October 29 on Vermont Ave., between H St. and I St.  It seems that market has some security issues to work through.  This afternoon, there were only two metal detectors to accommodate the several hundred individuals that gathered for the markets’ inauguration. As such, there were far more would-be patrons attempting to enter than there were individuals actually shopping the stalls. Even so, the market attracted notable DC personalities like Jose Andrés and several local media figures.  Until the famers’ market closes for the season, Metro will be diverting its southbound L2 route so that it swings by Vermont Ave. Get there.

News, The Daily Feed, WMATA, WTF?!
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Tea Bag Metro?

Photo courtesy of
‘they’ve had enough’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

Tax hating, tea-party protesters are angry at Metro. You’d think it would be for being a publicly funded transit system that wastes tax-payer dollars as it ferries the excessively large federal workforce in and out of the city.  It turns out, however, that the tea baggers are upset because WMATA’s service wasn’t up to snuff during their Saturday protest. Texas Representative Kevin Brady is calling for an investigation into whether or not Metro adequately prepared for the number of protesters that were in the city on 9/12. The irony, of course, is that these people were in DC to protest government spending on services, in general. 

See the WSJ article on the subject, here.