DC Metro: The money's gone, and we're going to punish you

[nacho]

Ah... Metro Police!

Metro issued a statement Sunday saying that the man, whom police have not identified, had resisted arrest, “which resulted in him falling out of his wheelchair.”

In the statement, Metro said transit police on routine patrol at the U Street Metrorail station in Northwest Washington on Thursday spotted the man in a wheelchair “drinking an alcoholic beverage.”

When asked to leave, the man refused, Metro said. The officers tried to issue a citation, but he “refused to comply.” The officers then told him that he would be placed under arrest, and he resisted, the statement said.

It said he was arrested in connection with an assault on an officer and drinking in public. He was taken to a hospital with a minor injury, the statement said.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow4RU6PtslY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow4RU6PtslY</a>

[nacho]

Wow...talk about working for a limited audience. These are very subtle:

http://irishbreakfasttime.wordpress.com/2011/05/18/metro-opens-bottles/

Broken escalators, trains catching on fire, the horrors of gentrification, and train-wide brawls all recent news, and all represented.

[nacho]

God... These are the people I commute with.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR0Ld7XSXgU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR0Ld7XSXgU</a>

The story:

It was rush hour, and the Metro was crowded as hell. Then it stopped in a station and a voice over the speakers said we should get out because there was a "medical emergency" with a passenger. Additionally, they told us to go upstairs. Around 500 people over crowded the "never working properly" escalators. When almost everyone was upstairs, an announcement said that the problem was "resolved" and that the train was going to return to service.

An then what is shown in the video happened. The majority of people went to the escalators that were going down, but a group of people decided to "outsmart" the others and go back faster by turning around and going down in the escalators that were going up. This could go wrong in so many ways, just imagine that somebody fell in the middle of the way...

[nacho]

Jesus Christ... Panic on the Red Line:

Person detained in Red Line bomb threat
By Dana Hedgpeth and Amy Orndorff
[This post has been updated]

A woman who allegedly made a bomb threat aboard a Red Line train Monday morning has been transported to a local hospital for a mental health evaluation, a Metro official said.

Metro and emergency officials said there was no evidence that there was an explosive device, but the threat shut down rail service at Rockville Station. The station reopened about 9:45 a.m., according to reports from Metro.

Trains were temporarily stopped between Shady Grove and Grosvenor. Shuttle bus service was established to transport passengers. Dan Stessel, a Metro spokesman, said a passenger made “a claim of a bomb threat” around 7:30 a.m. at Rockville Station. Passengers were evacuated, and Metro Transit Police were summoned.

“At this point we have no evidence of an explosive device at Rockville,” Stessel said.

Passengers who were on the train described a chaotic scene.

Tarek Nasser, a commuter, said the woman who allegedly caused the disturbance boarded the train at Shady Grove. The woman dropped to her knees and appeared to start praying. Later, the woman, who wore a hijab, began ranting about Muslim Americans on a cellphone, Nasser said.

Nasser recounted that the woman said, “‘I’m going to destroy the office.’” At another point, Nasser said the woman said “‘I’m going to visit the tomb at Rockville station.’”

When the train was leaving the Rockville Station, Nasser said the woman said, “‘God bless you all.’” At that point, a passenger called the driver on an intercom, Nasser said. The train stopped and riders began panicking, Nasser said.

Commuters attempted to flee from the car where the threat was made. Passengers moved toward the front of the train, passing between the doors that connect the cars, several passengers said.

“I’ve never seen such panic before,” said Scott Brooks, a passenger. [The people at the front of the group] didn’t stop to explain. You could see they were really scared.”

Another rider, Raquel Hurlong, another passenger, described it as a “mad rush.”

[nacho]

Today's news is that the lady was having an irate phone call about a bombing in India or wherever and some of her family had been hurt... Then she left the train. A commuter, then, snapped and cried bomb. The following is an eyewitness account providing more details than the gentle snickering of the Post's update:

From Duane:
I was on the train car with the woman who was screaming into her cell phone. She said she was going to blow up someone in their office building because they killed her family, she went on and on screaming at the top of lungs--a bunch of nonsense.

She didn't say "praise Allah" or throw anything. I was 15 feet or so away, and I didn't see her praying. I just noticed her when she started screaming. She looked Indian and was dressed as such.

She was pissed at someone about a bombing in India or something. She said "you killed my father you killed my mother, I'm coming to your office to kill you and blow it up."

Then she said she was at Rockville and was going to visit the Rockville station tomb. She never said she was going to blow up the train, nor did she threaten anyone on the train.

When we pulled up to the Rockville platform, she got off and all hell broke loose.

She walked off the train, and I didn't see her say anything, but when the doors closed and the train moved, some idiot said there was a bomb on the train and that someone should pull the emergency door lever.

He was screaming like a maniac, and I asked him if he saw a bomb. He just kept screaming that there was a bomb and to stop the train.

I started to pull the lever by the doors, and others said "don't pull it, don't pull it," so I hesitated, and someone else pulled it in the panic.

When the train stopped, everyone rushed to the doors at the end of the car to go to the next car. Everyone wanted to go toward the front of the train.

I have never seen a bunch of adults act so selfishly and foolishly in my whole life. They should all be ashamed of their actions.

They were pushing women, and one lady fell down, so I stopped to help her, and someone pushed me, so I pushed back and screamed "everybody calm down."

When we got to the next car everyone there was shocked because another fool went running through the car yelling "BOMB."

I tried to stay calm and tell the people to just go to the front of the train, but they weren't listening, and the stampede started again.

People left their belongings in the seats and started jumping over the seats and people to get out.

By the time I got to the third car, I figured if there was a bomb, it would have gone off, so I stopped and sat down.

People opened the side door and were jumping out onto the tracks and walking toward Twinbrook.

The operator came through at that time and asked where the bomb was. We told her, and she looked and saw there was nothing.

Now the crazy part is we sat on the train for an hour with no message from Metro.

No one told those people to exit the train and get onto the tracks, they told us nothing until they said to walk to the back of the train and get off because the last door was still at the platform.

When I left the train, I only saw a few Metro police. When I exited the station, the bomb dogs had just arrived--an hour later.

They then told us there would be shuttles to Twinbrook. There were no shuttles.

I caught a Ride On.

I received an alert email saying Metro was closed from Shady Grove to Grosvenor.

I asked the station attendant at Rockville, and she said Twinbrook was open.

BS.

They don't know anything.

The Ride On driver called Twinbrook, and they told him it was closed.

To make a long story short, it wasn't Metro's fault that someone yelled bomb and stopped the train, but they did nothing and told us nothing.

They don't seem to have any emergency plans in place at all.

Within 10 minutes, they knew there was not a bomb on the train, but it took me almost 3 hours to get to Metro Center from Shady Grove today.

If there was ever a real bomb on Metro everyone would be screwed because they don't seem equipped to handle any emergency.

They are a joke.

[monkey!]

Nacho, are you sure you don't live in Logan's Run?

[nacho]

I'm not, actually. This city is all kinds of fucked up.

Hell, two blocks were closed for four hours yesterday in Columbia Heights because a man with a screwdriver locked himself in his apartment. It's what we call a "barricade situation" in these parts. He calls, says he's going to kill himself, then refuses to let the cops in but continues to threaten his safety through the door. So two major city blocks are shut down and SWAT comes out.

Welcome to DC!

[nacho]

God...the ongoing nightmare at Foggy Bottom. Here's the line just to get down the one working escalator into the station (also serving as the up escalator -- and the same situation is happening with the 1st St. entrance to Union Station -- the only working exit is a single escalator with two-way traffic):

http://www.princeofpetworth.com/2011/07/foggy-bottom-metro-mon-516pm/

[nacho]

And...crash! Green line derailed! All lines delayed! Madness!

Metro responding to derailment at West Hyattsville

 At approximately 4:45 p.m., an inbound Green Line train reported a derailment on approach to West Hyattsville Station.  At this time, there are no reported injuries.  Metro Transit Police and Prince George's Plaza Fire Department are on the scene evacuating approximately 55 passengers from the train. 

Green Line service is temporarily suspended between Fort Totten and Prince George's Plaza.  Shuttle buses are en route.

Updates will follow.

News release issued at 5:24 pm, July 6, 2012.

Much more fun:

https://twitter.com/#!/unsuckdcmetro

[nacho]

Your fare increase at work!

Metro has redefined what it means for its trains to be “on time” when the transit agency is carrying out maintenance or repair work.

Under guidelines approved Thursday by a Metro committee, it will be acceptable for trains to run as infrequently as every 30 minutes during off-peak times and every 15 minutes during peak times when maintenance or repair work is being conducted on the line. Acceptable wait times during normal operations will be shorter but are unspecified under the rules.

[nacho]

So I went today to look at the history of the Metro rolling stock and have some fun nostalgia-time looking at shit from my childhood. I figured, you know, Metro has been around since 1977. I'm probably forgetting what all those original cars were like.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Metro_rolling_stock

Oh! All the original cars are still in service! Which is probably why they crash.

[nacho]

Well...couldn't get to work today. Ah, Metro...

So I hit Silver Spring at my usual 8:30 and the platform is packed. Delays, delays. Whatever. I have an hour to get to work and it's just a 20 minute ride. My usual response to delays is to park myself in a corner and wait for things to clear up.

9am. No trains yet! Platform is full up. A train comes, packed, and leaves. Another comes and, finally, we get the scoop on the delay. What had been a "third rail problem" and "single tracking -- delays of 20 minutes" wasn't quite honest. One minute after the last fucking MARC (light rail) train leaves at 9:10, the Metro operator says that, actually, there's no power at all between two stations between us and downtown DC. Her train has been ordered to wait at the Silver Spring Platform for -- ready? -- 40 minutes. ETA to get downtown is two hours.

Okay. So a horde of us go over to the MARC station and learn that the train we had just seen was the last. So then groups of people head to the cab stand -- we're now at 9:30 -- and decide to split cabs to DC. We walk the half mile to the cab stand and there are no cabs and about 60 people waiting in a mob.

At that point, I say fuck it. Going home. At around 9:50, I walk back under the Metro platform. Our train was still there, the platform packed to capacity.

Awesome.

All of this, of course, once again illustrated the fact that I'm paying twice as much to ride the Metro to Union Station than I would to ride the MARC. So I'm switching this week. Enough of this.

[nacho]

LOL...

Metro’s SmarTrip campaign rolls out slowly

By Mark Berman, Published: September 20

As part of Metro’s campaign to push riders to ditch paper Farecards, every station in the system was supposed to have a SmarTrip card vending machine by now.

The plan was to have at least one machine in each station by Sept. 1, two months after a raft of fare changes went into effect, including a $1 surcharge on trips paid for with paper Farecards.

But in nearly half of the system’s 86 stations, Metro riders still don’t have a way to buy a SmarTrip card because Metro failed to ensure that the new vending machines, which cost $12,000 a piece, complied with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

And it’s going to be months before the new machines are ready to come out from under the plastic sheets covering them at Friendship Heights, Clarendon and other stations.

That hasn’t stopped the transit agency from collecting the surcharge, which still catches some riders by surprise, despite notices on the fare machines.

“As a consumer, I was never informed that I was paying more because I am using the paper card,” Mauro Moran, a government contractor, said in a recent interview after entering the Twinbrook station using a paper card.

Moran said he had noticed that he was using up his fare value faster than usual but thought the reason was the fare increase that went into effect in July.

“Now I feel I have to switch to plastic,” he said.

Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said the agency took responsibility for the delay. “We erred in the rollout of these machines, and we apologize for any inconvenience,” he said.

The first shipment of the new machines did not have the audio and Braille features required under the Americans with Disabilities Act. But Metro thought it could roll out the machines and add the audio and Braille a couple of months later. When disability advocates raised concerns, Metro realized that going forward would violate the ADA, and the transit agency halted the rollout.

So nearly three weeks after every station was to have its own SmarTrip card dispenser, riders at nearly half of the stations in the Metrorail system are out of luck if they need to buy a card. And in the stations where they can buy cards, riders have to use older, less-reliable machines that are in line to be replaced.

The problems have marred what Metro considers an important — and so far still successful — effort to move riders away from paper Farecards.

The $1 surcharge that began in July was the first part of the push. Then came a $3 rebate for buying and registering $5 SmarTrip cards, although that did not kick off until this month, when a cheaper chip reduced the price of the cards.

And then there were the new SmarTrip card vending machines destined for stations that did not already have one of the older machines and eventually for all of the stations.

But a subcommittee meeting of Metro’s Accessibility Advisory Committee and a report last month in The Washington Post spurred questions from advocates of people with disabilities.

While the older machines have only Braille, which was sufficient when they were purchased in 2004, the new dispensers must have an audio function and Braille before they can be put into use, Stessel said.

Despite the delay, Metro’s SmarTrip push appears to be on its way to accomplishing its goal of saving money spent on printing paper cards and maintaining fare machines.

Metro sold 111,200 SmarTrip cards in August, an increase of 36 percent over the 81,563 sold during the same month last year. More than 15.2 million rides were taken with a SmarTrip in August, up from 14.2 million the year before, while paper card use was down to 2.8 million, from 3.7 million.

Samantha Barton, 29, bought her SmarTrip card the first time she saw a machine selling them at the Greenbelt station.

“I was like: ‘Finally! They’re selling these cards in the station,’ ” Barton said.

SmarTrip cards are available online and at Metro sales offices, commuter stores and multiple retail outlets. “Anyone who wants a SmarTrip has many, many options for getting one,” Stessel said.

But for a busy commuter, making a trip to a Giant or CVS solely to buy the card becomes another errand on a long to-do list.

“I’m just always in a rush,” said Malingo Namata, who still uses a paper card. “I have to get to work, or pick up my daughter. It does add up, though. I’m hoping to get a SmarTrip card some time in the near future.”

At least one rider is sticking with the paper cards by choice. Suzanne Henry of Austin still uses them because she can submit them as expenses when she’s in Washington for a conference.

“The train here is still so much cheaper” than a cab, she said in an interview at the Greenbelt station. “When I turn it in to expense it, they’re appreciative that I took the train at all. If I got a more permanent Metro pass, they wouldn’t know how to expense it anyway.”


Luz Lazo and Ted Trautman contributed to this report.

[nacho]

Not the Metro... But certainly kissing cousins in the "DC's Infrastructure is Fucked" family.

At this rate, it’s hard to see a streetcar rolling down any D.C. street before 2014.
That’s the only conclusion to draw after city transportation director Terry Bellamy told a D.C. Council panel Tuesday that a Northeast neighborhood’s move to block plans for a car barn could add up to 90 days — or a lot more — to the current official estimated opening date of “late 2013.”
The proximate reason for the latest delay is an application to city historic preservation authorities seeking landmark status for Spingarn Senior High School and its grounds, which is where city officials are planning to locate the car barn that is a prerequisite for the line’s opening. Should the Historic Preservation Review Board grant the Kingman Park Civic Association’s request later this year, the process of reworking the plans could add many months to the opening date. Should it decline the application, the delay would be less dramatic.
“It all depends on how we get through that whole process,” Bellamy said.
The less-proximate reason for the delay is the largely seat-of-their-pants process by which D.C. officials, both elected and not elected, over the course of several administrations, went about bringing the streetcar to fruition. The plans have been sweeping, but the planning has not been so sweeping — a distinction drawn Tuesday by council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3).
“We’re sort of doing this on the fly,” Cheh said, responding to Bellamy’s testimony on the streetcar system’s status. “This is soft and amorphous and unsatisfying.”
Bellamy acknowledged things may have been pushed hastily, driven more by political machinations than by the realities of planning and engineering the system: “What we’re doing now is taking a step back and doing it the right way — doing the hard planning, doing the environmental work and doing the community outreach.”
That’s the right thing to say at this juncture, but it also does little to address the frustrations of those who consider the 2.2 miles of shiny track along H Street and Benning Road and the three unused streetcars in storage and wonder, how did we get into this?
There’s hope, however, that the process might improve as the city moves forward with plans to build a 37-mile streetcar network. Bellamy and aides said work continues to progress on new lines, including an extension of the Benning Road line to Minnesota Avenue and perhaps beyond, as well as an Anacostia line to serve Ward 8.
Read more about the latest developments from the smart folks at Greater Greater Washington and DCist.

[RottingCorpse]

Them tracks on H street sure are all purty.