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[CNJRoss]

WMATA news release 6/28/17:

 

Metro employees to say thank you to customers for riding out SafeTrack

 

 

Nearly 700 Metro administrative employees – office workers, managers, and other non-operations staff – will be out at all Metrorail stations during the afternoon commute tomorrow, Thursday, June 29, to personally thank customers for their support and continued ridership during SafeTrack. The employees will hand out thank you notes that include a small token of appreciation offered by a Metro partner.

 

“We know that SafeTrack was an unprecedented burden on so many of our rail customers, and this is a way for us to get out there and say thanks,” said Metro General Manager and CEO Paul J. Wiedefeld.

 

Metro has seen early signs that ridership may be recovering post-SafeTrack. Yesterday, for example, was the highest weekday ridership of 2017 to date, with nearly 700,000 trips taken.

 

SafeTrack ended on Sunday, June 25. The program, which included 16 around-the-clock “surges,” resulted in three years of track work being completed in just over one year, reducing the number of defective rail ties on the system from 22 percent to only 2 percent.

 

[CNJRoss]

WMATA GM/CEO email 6/29/17:
 

Thank You for Riding Metro

 

We appreciate your support during SafeTrack.  It’s not been an easy journey as we performed three years of track work in just one year.

 

Your support helped us improve safety and reliability so that Metro can get back to good. Thank You!

 

[CNJRoss]

The Washington Post,​ 6/29/17:

For Metro, a coupon for a cup of coffee brings out the passion — good and bad

 

 

On Thursday evening, it was a tale of two Metros.

 

As hundreds of Metro administrative workers fanned out to every station in the system during the evening commute to offer free coffee coupons to beleaguered Metro riders, the effort was met with mockery over the Internet.

 

“I’d have to urge you to try a little harder,” one rider quipped on Twitter.

 

“I don’t want free coffee,” tweeted another. “I want competent mediocrity from my public transport system.”

 

The coupons, good for a free coffee from McDonald’s, were intended as a thank-you to riders for enduring 13 months of SafeTrack maintenance work. (Never mind that there is more work planned for next month.) For some, the peace offerings were received as an act of aggression.

 

SNIP

 

 

At the McPherson Square station, General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld stood at the bottom of the escalator with a stack of coupons in hand. One rider grabbed a coupon from him, but then she stopped, somewhat confused, and frowned a little as she tried to make out what the coupon said.

She looked up. Then, an epiphany.

 

“Are you the general manager?” 40-year-old Rasika Kalamegham asked Wiedefeld incredulously.

 

“Yes,” he said.

 

More here.