Washington Metro is shutting down parts of its rail system in succession so it can do maintenance work on them. Commuters appear to be adjusting to Metro’s slowdowns and shutdowns, but Metro employees haven’t.
Metro calls its maintenance program “SafeTrack,” but it appears to be anything but safe. In the course of one five-hour period yesterday, a Metro maintenance railcar derailed; a train carrying passengers collided with the mirror on the derailed railcar; and an empty train collided with a stationary train in a rail yard.
Fortunately, no one was hurt, but why was a revenue train allowed to use a track right next to the derailed railcar? Why did the railcar–whose job it was to secure rails to the ties–derail in the first place? Did the operator of the train in the rail yard fall asleep? All these events suggest that, while Metro may be spending money on maintenance, it still does not have the safety culture it needs to operate a public transportation system.
The Washington Post suggests that various design flaws are responsible for Metro’s maintenance difficulties. The Antiplanner argues that the real design flaw was the decision to use an obsolete rail technology rather than buses, and that Metro should replace the trains with buses.
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Speaking of safety, a court indictment a few weeks ago revealed that a woman was raped in broad daylight on a Metro train two months ago. The man accused of doing so is also suspected of an indecent exposure incident on another Metro train. Other women say they have stopped riding the Metro due to sexual harassment. Metro is clearly not doing enough to protect the safety of its passengers.
One advantage of buses over trains is that bus operators are in the same compartment as the passengers, and so act as a deterrent to potential criminals. Metro railcars aren’t often empty, but apparently one railcar was empty enough at 10 am on Tuesday, April 12 that someone felt secluded enough to assault another passenger. That passenger will probably never feel comfortable riding Metro again.
According to American Public Transportation Association ridership reports, Metro lost 3.3 percent of its riders in 2015, and ridership continued to decline in the first quarter of 2016.
No matter how much Metro spends on maintenance, it won’t change the fact that transit is an inferior technology. Every time Metro loses a rider, whether due to unreliability or concerns about personal safety, that loss is likely to be permanent when the rider discovers the advantages of alternative technologies. Thus, the Metro rail system may be in a lot more trouble than anyone realizes.
I still get a seat (and the accompanying nap) about 80-90% of the time on my commute. I think I agree with all your points, but there is one thing about the rails that I really, really, really like more than busses (on city streets). And that is I don’t get car-sick on the trains. On the bus I can’t read without getting motion sickness, but it is easy on the trains.
Antiplanner Wrote: ” Every time Metro loses a rider, whether due to unreliability or concerns about personal safety, that loss is likely to be permanent when the rider discovers the advantages of alternative technologies. Thus, the Metro rail system may be in a lot more trouble than anyone realizes.”
Very Interesting, the success of a service or product dependent on the satisfaction of the consumer who utilizes and agrees to pay for it and if unsatisfied renounces his/her decision and opts for an alternative. Ewwww, that is so private sector.
*SARCASM DETECTOR BEEPING*
The Antiplanner wrote:
The Antiplanner argues that the real design flaw was the decision to use an obsolete rail technology rather than buses, and that Metro should replace the trains with buses.
Based on very long-term patronage data (dating back to 1975, the year before the first Metrorail line opened), please do not forget that one of the things that the rail system clearly has done is to remove passenger trips from buses and put them onto trains (it has not done much in terms of removing drivers from their cars, even though it was widely pitched to elected officials and voters as a superior replacement for an assortment of District of Columbia and close-in Maryland urban freeways that were never built).
WTOP Radio (all news CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C.) ran this story earlier tonight: Metro needs a ‘significant amount of riders’ to avoid the system during major shutdown
With a major two-week 24/7 Metrorail shutdown beginning Saturday, Metro is urging riders to find other transit options to avoid a traffic mess.
“Please be prepared, please figure out how you’re going to get to work,” said Metro Director of Government Relations Regina Sullivan.
“We need a significant amount of riders to not use Metrorail and it pains me to say that but we need them to divert from Metrorail and, as they have, look at other options,” she told the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ Transportation Planning Board.