Washington DC "Metro-geddon" (aka "Safe Track")

[MARC Rider]

If you're planning to visit the Nation's capital in the coming year, better plan on riding the bus or bringing some extra cash for cab fare. Metro is going to have some pretty significant rolling service cuts:

Here's a draft of what they're planning:

http://www.wmata.com/Images/Mrel/MF_Uploads/SAFETRACK-PUBLIC.pdf?

This will definitely have some effect on my commute. I may get re-acquainted with the D6 Metrobus.

Here's some background on how Metro got to this state of affairs:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/metro-sank-into-crisis-despite-decades-of-warnings/2016/04/24/1c4db91c-0736-11e6-a12f-ea5aed7958dc_story.html

 

[AmtrakBlue]

I saw on today's news where a small "explosion" occurred on the tracks in one station just as a train pulled in.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/traffic/transit/Metro-Trains-on-3-Lines-Delayed-by-Track-Problem-378320681.html

 

[Bob Dylan]

Not to worry! Trump will fix it and make Mexico pay for it and it'll be Huge!!!

 

[jis]

Not to worry! Trump will fix it and make Mexico pay for it and it'll be Huge!!!

After he tracks down Vincente Fox, who he thinks still leads Mexico.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Yep, he confused him with the Late Disgraced Football Coach @ Penn State Joe Paterno when he asked a crowd in State College " How's Joe Paterno doing? "

Any truth to the rumour they're gonna change the Red Line on the DC Metro to the Dead Line?

 

[afigg]

After push back from the FTA, WMATA released the revised Safe Track schedule this morning. Metrogeddon for the Orange, Blue, Silver, and Yellow lines is coming this summer. And is it going to be ugly for the Orange and Blue lines for much of June and July.

Washington Post: Metro releases significantly revised SafeTrack plan that addresses FTA concerns.

WMATA news release with the new Safe Track schedule.

Greater Greater Washington blog's take: Orange, Silver, and Blue riders: Pain is coming in just a month. DOTs: Get moving on bus and HOV lanes now.

What I would like to learn more about is why all the long single tracking outages from Ballston to West Falls Church. Why the heck wasn't the track, power and signal work done on that section BEFORE the Silver Line opened? Or if some of it was, was the track and power work done incorrectly and now it has to be done over? Of course, that could be asked about the complete shutdown for work on the Eastern Market to Benning Rd/Minnesota Ave segment of the Orange, Blue, Silver lines and the Red Line from Fort Totten to NoMa.

 

[mfastx]

Metro really frustrates me. I wonder if they will finally fix the lighting in their stations as part of this. In at least half of the stations the roof is all torn up and at L'Enfant they have these crappy temporary lights hanging on the lower level. These torn up stations have been untouched for years, many of them with construction barricades up that reduce the space on the platform. The fact that they started these projects and just abandoned them is a joke.

Also, I hope they really prioritize returning the trains to automatic train operation as part of this "safe track." The operators are so terrible at their job, between the nauseating herky jerky movements, inexplicable inability to maintain a safe distance from the train in front of them (causing the train protection system to come in and screech the train to a halt with the loud beeping) and inability to properly pull up to the station platform requiring constant time wasting train adjustments, I am sick and tired of these operators.

It also annoys the crap out of me that they have to wait 10 seconds before opening the doors, I mean think of how much time is wasted doing that!

 

[acelafan]

I have to agree with you, Metro has a lot of issues. On the flip side, the 7000 series cars ride like Cadillacs compared to the 40 year old 1000s they are replacing.

 

[user 1215]

UberPool! LyftLine! Drivers hate it, but it could be cheaper than Metro. lol

 

[user 1215]

I'm going to be staying in Crystal City 7/4-7/5. Looks like I'm going to be able to avoid issues with the blue and yellow line.

Do the hotels not have any underground passageways to the Crystal City station? Only one exit that goes outside at 18th & Bell?

 

[AmtrakBlue]

I'm going to be staying in Crystal City 7/4-7/5. Looks like I'm going to be able to avoid issues with the blue and yellow line.

Do the hotels not have any underground passageways to the Crystal City station? Only one exit that goes outside at 18th & Bell?

I don't know about tunnels, but back in 2011 at least one hotel had a regularly running shuttle to the Metro station. I used it to go to a convention even though I was only there for a day (not a guest)

 

[afigg]

I'm going to be staying in Crystal City 7/4-7/5. Looks like I'm going to be able to avoid issues with the blue and yellow line.

Do the hotels not have any underground passageways to the Crystal City station? Only one exit that goes outside at 18th & Bell?

The Marriott in Crystal City has a underground passageway under Route 1 to the Crystal City station. The station entrance is also connected to the underground Crystal City Shops complex which is a labyrinth in some ways. The CC shop mall complex is pretty dead on weekends and holidays, but there are stores and restaurants that are open.

As I recall, you can walk from the Radisson, Hampton Inn to the Marriott, enter the Marriott and go downstairs to the tunnel if you don't want to cross Rt. 1 at street level.

Meanwhile, during Surge 2 of Safetrack, aka Metrogeddon, we had localized intense storms yesterday evening that led to a flash flood waterfall pouring down the entrance to the Red Line Cleveland Park station. Wash Post (with video and photos): The torrential rainfall rates that turned the Cleveland Park Metro stop into a waterfall. Yes, sometimes when it rains, it really does pour...

And a neat time lapse video from a surveillance camera at the top of entrance showing just how quickly the water rose on the sidewalk and that it was over in around 11 to 12 minutes: Cleveland Park Flooding Time Lapse - June 21, 2016. Nothing to do with SafeTrack, but interesting photos and videos that suggest that maybe WMATA should look at raising the Cleveland Park entrance a few inches above the sidewalk.

 

[chakk]

Metro really frustrates me. I wonder if they will finally fix the lighting in their stations as part of this. In at least half of the stations the roof is all torn up and at L'Enfant they have these crappy temporary lights hanging on the lower level. These torn up stations have been untouched for years, many of them with construction barricades up that reduce the space on the platform. The fact that they started these projects and just abandoned them is a joke.

Also, I hope they really prioritize returning the trains to automatic train operation as part of this "safe track." The operators are so terrible at their job, between the nauseating herky jerky movements, inexplicable inability to maintain a safe distance from the train in front of them (causing the train protection system to come in and screech the train to a halt with the loud beeping) and inability to properly pull up to the station platform requiring constant time wasting train adjustments, I am sick and tired of these operators.

It also annoys the crap out of me that they have to wait 10 seconds before opening the doors, I mean think of how much time is wasted doing that!

If the platform is on the left side of the train, the operator must wait until the train comes to a complet stop, then put the "throttle lever" into neutral, then stand up and walk across the cab to the left side, then open the window and look outside to see if it is safe to open the doors, THEN AND ONLY THEN, push the button to open the doors.

Hence, an approximate 10-second delay before doors open.

 

[Ryan]

A not-entirely-unexpected impact to me is that now rather than emptying out at NCR, MARC trains are filling up in the morning as people use the Penn Line to skip the shut down segment of Orange Line to get into town. Maybe some of them will get converted to MARC riders instead of clogging up Rt 50 to get to the subway.

 

[afigg]

If the platform is on the left side of the train, the operator must wait until the train comes to a complet stop, then put the "throttle lever" into neutral, then stand up and walk across the cab to the left side, then open the window and look outside to see if it is safe to open the doors, THEN AND ONLY THEN, push the button to open the doors.

Hence, an approximate 10-second delay before doors open.

It is officially a 5 second delay. It may feel like 10 seconds to someone in hurry, but in my experience, the delay in opening the doors averages out to 4 to 5 seconds.

The delay was implemented because operators got sloppy and opened the doors on the wrong side of the train a few times. I don't recall if Sarles was still GM when the delay was implemented, but it was the type of solution that I would associate with his reign. Hope that someday the "new" management will revisit the issue and go with a 2-3 second delay as long enough.

 

[Ryan]

Even better would be fix the damn system so the automatic doors work properly without operator intervention.

Even hiring operators that can look out a window and determine what side the platform is on would be better than a stupid "count to 3" delay.

 

[mfastx]

Metro really frustrates me. I wonder if they will finally fix the lighting in their stations as part of this. In at least half of the stations the roof is all torn up and at L'Enfant they have these crappy temporary lights hanging on the lower level. These torn up stations have been untouched for years, many of them with construction barricades up that reduce the space on the platform. The fact that they started these projects and just abandoned them is a joke.

Also, I hope they really prioritize returning the trains to automatic train operation as part of this "safe track." The operators are so terrible at their job, between the nauseating herky jerky movements, inexplicable inability to maintain a safe distance from the train in front of them (causing the train protection system to come in and screech the train to a halt with the loud beeping) and inability to properly pull up to the station platform requiring constant time wasting train adjustments, I am sick and tired of these operators.

It also annoys the crap out of me that they have to wait 10 seconds before opening the doors, I mean think of how much time is wasted doing that!

If the platform is on the left side of the train, the operator must wait until the train comes to a complet stop, then put the "throttle lever" into neutral, then stand up and walk across the cab to the left side, then open the window and look outside to see if it is safe to open the doors, THEN AND ONLY THEN, push the button to open the doors.

Hence, an approximate 10-second delay before doors open.

Right, but there is still a mandatory delay of around 5 seconds. Some operators wait even longer inexplicably. On the flip side, some operators forego the delay entirely and just open them immediately. Even if the platform is on the left side, it only takes the good ones a second or two to open the doors.

Even better would be fix the damn system so the automatic doors work properly without operator intervention.

Even hiring operators that can look out a window and determine what side the platform is on would be better than a stupid "count to 3" delay.

This. I thought they fixed it some time ago but for some reason continued to manually open the doors. It's crazy that METRO doesn't even expect it's operators to know what side the friggin platform is on and requires them to wait as a result.