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WMATA’s road to recovery sure can be discouraging


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#1 CNJRoss

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Posted 22 January 2017 - 05:09 PM

The Washington Post, 1/21:

 

Dr. Gridlock

Metro’s road to recovery sure can be discouraging

Br Robert Thomson, Columnist

 

 

This letter-writer has waited patiently for my response about the resumption of Metro’s SafeTrack maintenance program.

 

Dear Dr. Gridlock:

I’m a senior who rides the Blue Line from Franconia-Springfield station. I hesitate to order theater tickets and the like until I know the planned dates. I can put up with single-tracking but prefer avoiding station closures. When SafeTrack started, the dates were fixed, but unexpected problems have created delays to the schedule.

— Nancy Jerdan, Springfield

 

There’s still some uncertainty about the remainder of the schedule, but Metro recently addressed Jerdan’s specific concern about the Blue Line. The track between the Pentagon and Rosslyn stations is scheduled to shut Feb. 11-28. Blue and Yellow Line riders will be affected by a single-tracking zone that will start March 4 and end April 9.

 

SNIP

 

Dear Dr. Gridlock:

The fallacy of right-sizing is that Metro service in the rush hour did not keep up with the growth in ridership.

 

Why are there so many calls for eight-car trains? Imagine you are in a car with 150 passengers. Ridership drops 10 percent, and you now have 135 passengers in the car. You are still going to be in a very crowded car.

 

Now increase the headways, and the train will be even more crowded. Throw in a service hiccup, and people can’t fight their way onto the trains.

 

s that going to bring people back to Metro?  .  .  .

 

— Ira Silverman, Rockville

 

Meanwhile, the transit staff thinks the proposed fare increase will be discouraging enough to cut annual rail ridership by 3.5 million trips. Combine that with the plan to decrease the frequency of rush-hour trains on most lines and you’ve got a program that reinforces failure.

 

More here.






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