Juxtaposition is a powerful tool, especially in photography. It lets you make commentary on an otherwise silent picture.

Pablo.raw must have either waited for a bit in front of the Studio Theater, or was lucky enough to have a flip-flop wearing, iPhone toting guy walk by as he got on the scene. The yelling mouth certainly screams “can you hear me now?” from the old Verizon commercials.

Whether he needed to hang around or not, it pays to keep an eye out on your surroundings and know when that makes the picture.

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With Icelandair starting service out of Dulles tomorrow night, and having just returned from Iceland, I thought it would be a good excuse to show off some of my photos and convince you that you should book a nice long weekend in Reykjavik.

It’s really not the hard to convince people, especially after telling them it isn’t that cold. It is beautiful though, and has kept me entertained and coming back for over ten years now. It doesn’t hurt that because of their economic problems, Iceland has become much more affordable than a few years ago.

The lighthouse above is over a hundred years old, and disused, but oh, so photogenic.

‘Footsteps in the Valley of the Gods’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

This is one of the spots where the earth is splitting apart. The North American and Eurasian plates are growing apart, and these walls are the edges. At any moment, the earth could have rumbled and swallowed us up, despite my friendly geologist insisting the odds were “slim.”

‘More Steam and Clouds’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

Iceland gets much of its power from geothermal. They drill into the crust of the earth until they hit super heated water, and use that to drive steam turbines and generate electricity. This site is part of the Iceland Deep Drilling Project.

‘Rocky Blue’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

The darkest sands and cliffs to the bluest skies and the most intense crashing waves of the North Atlantic.

‘Steam Rising’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

The Blue Lagoon started off life as a waste water pool for a geothermal power plant. They dumped the still hot but not hot enough water into this pool hoping it would eventually filter through the lava rocks and back into the water table. But the silica and other minerals clogged up the holes in the rocks and created a hot pool like no other. There’s just about nothing more relaxing than spending five hours soaking in it while it snows.

‘Hallgrímskirkja’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

Hallgrímskirkja is the largest cathedral on the island, and another example of the great architecture here.

‘Looking Out the Front’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

And this is the view from the clock tower.

‘Path to History’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

This is the site of Iceland’s original parliament, started here in the year 930. People came from across the country for two weeks in the summer and would meet here to listen to the lawspeaker.

‘Strokkur Geysering IV’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

Iceland’s Geysir gave us the word “geyser”, and while it still goes off about once a day, it’s neighbor Strokkur goes off every few minutes. It is spectacular.

‘Might As Well’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

Gullfoss is a spectacular waterfall, and you can get right up to the edge of it.

‘Over View’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

Gullfoss, from above.

‘Mount Esja’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

Mount Esja, looking a bit threatening.

‘Light Play’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

And less threatening here.

‘Snow Storm’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

A pop-up snow storm in the middle of Reykjavik’s harbor.

‘Strut’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

There’s a pond in Reykjavik that’s kept warm by a small stream of hot water. Birds from all over the world stop off here to rest on their migration.

‘Walking Away’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

And this is how I feel every time I leave Iceland.

One thousand one hundred feet. Does that sound like too long of a walk? What if you had bags and were headed to an airport?

That was the decision in front of the Washington Metropolitan Airports Authority Dulles Corridor Committee this morning, and it seems the answer was, “yes, it is too far to walk.” The committee, as reported by WTOP’s Adam Tuss, voted to support a below ground station that would bring the Metrorail extension to Dulles about 500 feet from the terminal.

The problem is that this is going to come at an additional cost of about $300 million. That’s roughly half a million dollars per foot that we move closer to the terminal.

‘226/365 – dulles’
courtesy of ‘dracisk 365/365′

I’m a little bit dismayed at this decision. The full board voted to support the committee vote, as expected. Perhaps the board should have considered more that while WMAA is raising the funds for this, everyone had better consider the shape of the Metro as a whole, though, before deciding this.

Yes, the billions being spent on this extension to Tyson’s and Dulles have no direct impact to the Metro budget. But if Virginia is willing to cough up some part of $300 million to move a station 600 feet, I’m sure I’d like to hear why we’re discussing reducing service to close the budget gap, instead of, say, contributing more?

If the state isn’t willing to cough up much of the cash (I’m thinking that’s a good bet), how can you justify charging an extra $0.50 per car on the toll road to pay for 600 feet?

And even if the board manages to find $300 million in savings in other parts of the project, doesn’t that lead to the question of “why are there $300 million to find, and if there aren’t, what other essential systems are we going to short change by ‘value engineering’ this?”

‘Mobile lounge’
courtesy of ‘afagen’

To add insult to injury, these three tweets (1, 2, 3) show the argument that the National Airport station being 1000 feet from the terminal hurt the airport with low usage. When terminals B and C were built, steps from the station, usage spiked. Because, you know, usage didn’t spike from having two new modern large terminals there? It was just that it was a few hundred feet closer? Really?

If MWAA thinks $300 million to move a station 600 feet closer to the terminal is a good idea, perhaps they should show how that will result in $300 million in revenue. Or how building moving walkways to ferry people to the terminal wouldn’t be cheaper.

Or, you know, maybe reuse those people movers in a new role: station to terminal transport!

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This shot could have been taken fifty years ago. A slightly rusty 1950s era Chevrolet Styleline Deluxe, parked on the cobblestones near a tram line in Georgetown. About the only thing in this shot that looks out of place is the parking sign, but who knows?

Kim Baker’s processing of the shot also adds a hint of “vintage” without overdoing it or distracting from the composition and subject of the shot.

Sometimes, you just have to look up.

Sometimes, you just have to use your flash.

Phil did both and, in the process, captured the very few flakes we got on Sunday. A good balance between the ambient light and the flash and he’s got a pretty, almost idyllic picture.

I was getting ready to head to work on Monday when I noticed that Twitter was all atwitter about the Orange and Blue lines being a mess. I usually head into town from Court House after 9:30, and usually congestion issues have worked themselves out by then.

But this was much bigger. A power cable outside Federal Triangle needed replacing, and this caused Metro to single track trains for roughly the duration of the morning rush hour. Even after rush hour ended, there were still residual issues with trains clumping and having to slow down.

I was trying to assess if I should work from home that day and looked at the next train arrival times for Court House. To my utter amazement, I saw that the next three trains were 8-car trains. When I decided to go in, I also saw that the two of the next three trains were also 8-cars. I was shocked, and dropped a note to Metro to find out what was going on.

‘good morning.’
courtesy of ‘volcanojw’

Essentially, what I was seeing was the residual effects of the delays in the system. These were mostly 8-car trains that had been scheduled already, but which had been delayed by the single tracking. I’m almost sure that one or more might have been phantom 8-car trains (6-car trains that are erroneously listed as 8 by the public information display system).

UPDATE: I misunderstood what Metro spokesman Ron Holzer told me. What did happen was that six more cars, in pairs, were added to existing trains to create three more 8-car trains than was planned.

My conversation with Metro spokesman Ron Holzer did point out that they try to be proactive in the use of what they term “gap trains.” These are trains that are not on the schedule but which can be deployed quickly to fill in any gaps left by having to remove a train from service. Sometimes, these trains are added in to relieve congestion, as well.

So how does Metro know when to deploy a gap train for congestion relief? In scheduled events, like a game or concert at the Verizon Center, Metro has gap trains at the ready, and send them in when the crowds start to exit. But in the case of train or track issues, the agency has traffic checkers at key stations, and central control can bring up platform cameras to see what’s going on.

In Monday’s incident on the Orange line, a 6-car gap train was added six cars were added to create three more 8-car trains than was planned, but “no other capacity could be added because of the single tracking,” Holzer said.

‘the long wait home’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99′

Holzer also points out that as part of Metro’s ongoing improvements and in an effort to ease congestion due to the Cherry Blossom Festival and the onset of tourist season, the agency is adding 8-car trains. This expanded capacity will continue even after the festival is over.

For Monday’s commute, this was but a band-aid on a huge cut. There’s no getting around single tracking when there are critical issues that have to be fixed immediately. This power cable repair had to be done, and there was no way to postpone that work. Unfortunately, and we’ve talked about this before, until the system is in a state of good repair, issues like this will not be uncommon.

One other thing I think Metro can improve on is communications. Single tracking was done by the end of rush hour, and the problem was known to be a power cable. Yet, even by 10a, my train operator was saying that we were single tracking. There has to be clear communication, otherwise it appears that various parts of Metro are not in sync.

I also think that some of the pictures I saw of crowding on the platforms were very scary. This wasn’t an incident where people had to be offloaded on one platform, it was single tracking during rush hour. In other words, the station managers should have expected platforms to fill up, and should have started to stop people from entering the station until there was space for them.

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Sometimes you don’t have your best gear with you. Sometimes a camera phone or point and shoot are all that’s allowed in, or all that you happen to have. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that Flickr contributor spiggycat was not too thrilled to not have the use of her big DSLR.

But she did capture a wonderful image, regardless, using a point and shoot (albeit a top notch Canon G12). Once again, the photographer’s eye and instinct is much more important than the tool available to take the picture.

Most of us work in jobs where our performance matters. Every year, your boss sits you down and tells you what you did right or wrong, and if you’re good, the rights outnumber the wrongs and you get a raise. For some, the raise doesn’t come, and for others, you get fired. Companies like to pay based on performance because it motivates people.

If you go to a nice restaurant, and you order your meal, and as they’re bringing everyone else’s food out, they explain to you that they screwed up your order. Maybe they dropped it on the floor, maybe they realized they sold the last rabbit too late for your order, or maybe the waiter forgot to enter it. No matter, really. They usually apologize and, more often than not, they will take the hit and not charge you for your meal. Better restaurants go a little further and offer you a discount on your next visit, or a free dessert.

Both situations have one thing in common: the income is related to the performance. You get paid more if you do well. You have to lose money in order to correct a mistake. I think Metro could learn a thing or two in the realm of customer service and performance.


”
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

So how would a “performance-based fare” work? In London, you get a free ride if your trip is delayed by more than 15 minutes. Let’s make that the base and work from there.

If any escalator is broken on your path, Metro should deduct ten cents from your fare. If two or more escalators are down, that’s another ten cents, and the maximum.

If an elevator is broken on your path, but it doesn’t impact your ability to use that station, Metro should deduct five cents.

If an elevator is broken on your path and it impacts your trip (in other words, if you have to use an elevator and it being broken means you have to go out of your way to get to another elevator, or if you have to go to another station), Metro should deduct half your fare.

If your train is offloaded, you trip is free. This will create an incentive for Metro to only off load a single car if the doors won’t close, as opposed to the whole train.

If your train is delayed by more than three minutes, you should get a five cent deduction for every three minutes it is delayed. If your train is delayed by more than 15 minutes, your fare is free.

If your bus is delayed by more than five minutes, you should get a five cent deduction for every five minutes it is delayed. If your bus is delayed by more than 20 minutes, your fare is halved. If the delay is cause not by traffic, but by something that is under Metro’s control, your ride is free.

‘Arrival of the Metro’
courtesy of ‘pablo.raw’

How would Metro do this? Well, first, it would be available only to people with SmarTrip cards. Not that it isn’t possible to do this in real time, just highly unlikely, and it’s another incentive for locals to get a SmarTrip card already.

Second, Metro has all the details, possibly even down to the minute, of when an escalator, elevator, train, or bus failed. Every evening, or possibly every weekend or end of the month, Metro should go back and plot the routes that people take, cross reference that with the various outage reports, and automatically adjust the fares. The next time you enter or exit a station, your SmarTrip card will be updated, and the website will always show the current value.

Some of you might be thinking that Metro can’t afford this, and you’d be right. I still think Metro needs something of this sort (perhaps only the 15 minute delay) in order to make passengers feel like someone understands there is a problem, and, while the five cents won’t fix it, it does acknowledge it. And it’s a damn sight more believable than another recorded “we apologize for any inconvenience” message.

Metro could take the accountability further: have the refunds come from the budgets of the appropriate groups. This probably won’t work well in the beginning as the system is being rebuilt, but it should be a consideration going forward.

If the CEO title for the GM is meant to show a commitment to “the buck stops here” corporate thinking, I think corporate practices for performance should spread within the agency.

I’m very fond of Ryan Maxwell’s “street” portraits on the Metro. Black and white, almost always taken without the person’s knowledge, and almost always an interesting subject to look at.

This one is particularly good. It gives a glimpse into another subject, unsmiling, riding the Red line (an everyman, really). But it also gives a glimpse into the artist at work. Go look at it larger and you’ll see Mr. Maxwell clicking away.

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Two weeks ago, Metro’s board heard, again, about the possibility of eliminating late night service on the weekends. This has reopened the debate about what direction Metro should be going, and whom it should be serving.

Two of the most vociferous opponents of such a change on the WMATA board have recently left, and the new board seemed more amenable to the idea.

There are those who believe that late night service is a big boon to Metro’s bottom line and that it should be continued. Others, especially within Metro, argue that closing the system earlier would give them the equivalent of 45 days more maintenance time per year, and lower costs for overtime.

As always with Metro, it’s a balancing act. On the one hand, the system is overloaded during the rush hours, has long lead times in the evening, and pretty crappy service on the weekends. It is constantly facing budget shortfalls, and its funding is always under attack. It is aging, and it isn’t in a state of good repair. It wasn’t designed to handle the service we’re asking of it, and we won’t fund it well enough to even make it run “normally”.

‘light rail’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99′

On the other hand, we don’t live in the same city for which the Metro was designed. The DC area has grown bigger and faster than just about anyone predicted (see also: housing and roads). We have a population that expects to be able to get home by public transport as it shuns driving. Our younger population needs Metro, because between housing prices, a flat economy, and taxi prices, they can’t afford to go out on a Friday night unless they have a reliable way to get home cheaply. And everyone would love to have a system that can be rightly called “world class.”

So, what are options? What’s realistic? Here’s what we do know: Metro has to do maintenance. It costs them more when they have to work employees over long weekends. Metro has a big budget crunch about to hit it, and it is unlikely they will get additional funding from the regions.

Across the board service cuts (eliminate 8-car trains, increase headways between trains, etc) would lead to a revolt at this point. So would increasing fares. So is it wrong to look at eliminating a service that, while important, isn’t the core of Metro? In a word, yes.

As the nature of the city has changed, so too must the nature of Metro. And that means late night hours should stay, and we should be looking for ways to increase late night service, not reduce it.

‘Tunnel Rats’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

So, options:

Create a maintenance schedule the concentrates resources on one line or station so that you can close that line early for a night. Or two nights. Or however many nights in a row. And I don’t mean just late night service: if the work you need to do requires six hours, but you only have from 12:30a to 5a, then close the station or line earlier, even on a weekday. Communication is key, here, both in station and via blogs and newspapers.

Work on one side of the tracks at a time, and space trains out so that you can easily switch them using the same set of tracks. This is trickier, slightly more risky, but when trains are running every 15-20 minutes anyway, the impact isn’t going to be that great.

Lastly, close down entire stations for a weekend at a time if needed, but plan on providing reasonably normal service to the stations that are open. That hasn’t been the case with holiday weekend closings, but the upcoming work in March on the Orange line needs to be better handled. Busses just don’t take the place of full trains very well.

I’d like to see a future system where not only do we have late night service on Fridays and Saturdays, but twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Yes, I know we’ll need more and better trains, and we’re getting there. We’re also going to need better planning, and limited service in those overnight hours. But why not run, single tracking if need be, a train every 30 or 45 minutes in the overnight hours?

It isn’t just the daily suburban commuters that we need to help out. Everyone, from the tourists that line our pockets to the service workers who can’t work a late shift because they can’t get home to the (gasp!) drunks in Adams Morgan and Dupont, deserves better.

There are many ways to make a great picture. Sometimes, it requires you to look at a familiar subject from an unusual angle. It’s not always possible, but sometimes you get lucky.

Looks like Ryan Maxwell got a little luck and managed to take the time to put his camera on the edge of a Metro escalator. He was lucky not to have others walking up behind him to use it, for one, and luckier that it didn’t self destruct while he was there.

A long exposure from a low angle, and the escalator is transformed into something a bit more … sci-fi? Something bigger? More sinister?

Last week, Metro’s new, permanent General Manager and CEO Richard Sarles held a blogger roundtable to talk about system safety, improvements in customer service, and bag searches. You probably read about it here and there, so I’ll leave the recap to below the fold and tell you about my impressions of Sarles and why I think he’s going to be the most important head of the system for the foreseeable future.

Sarles is a relatively soft spoken guy, but he’s got a gravitas that lets you know he’s both in charge and very well versed in the details of the system he runs. He’s also very much an engineer, having come to management at NJ Transit later in life. He understands the system, and strikes a pragmatic tone in his talk with us.

He brings that engineering background to the role of GM, and already has a systemic plan to return the system to what’s referred to as a “state of good repair.” That means, essentially, that the critical systems of transporting people have to be well maintained so that they do not pose either a safety or breakdown hazard. And that’s a long way away.

‘Metro Blogger Roundtable’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

I think Sarles has the knowledge and the leadership to get the system back into the state of good repair. I also think he’s very focused on customer service, and that the board has finally chosen a transit leader that understands the minutiae of the system. If he succeeds, and I think, with one exception, he has all the tools in front of him to do so, he will have turned around a system that is seriously broken, and will have laid the groundwork for the system to thrive for years to come. In essence, he will have reset the clock on the decay and failure of the last two decades.

I believe Sarles not only deserves our respect, but deserves good will and space to act that I don’t think any of the last three GMs deserved. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t going to be a cake walk, and it isn’t going to be done soon (maybe not even during his tenure). Neither we (the blogging community) or you (the riding public) should feel afraid to criticize or push WMATA on what’s needed. But we should keep in mind that these changes take time and money, both of which are in short supply.

“This whole catching up — state of good repair — it is something that’s not going to turn around in six months or a year,” said Sarles. “It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. And we’re going to be running a long marathon here.”

He’s very serious about that statement, too. “Look at the Red line, that’s 35 years old. This place has got to be rebuilt. [It] has the heaviest traffic, it’s the oldest part of the system, and we’re in the process of rebuilding it.”

‘Metro Blogger Roundtable’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

The timelines aren’t fast, either: “We’ve got another two years to go on the Red line contract … then we’re moving on to the Blue and Orange lines … and that’s going to go on for another three or four years to rebuild that line.” Some of that work will overlap, but construction and weekend and evening closures look like they are going to be with us for at least the next five years.

And what of money? With a budget slashing Congress in place, and the economy not rebounding as quickly as some had hoped, what happens to Metro if promised funds don’t show up?

“With what’s going on in Congress right now, there’s the potential that all the plans we laid last year could unravel,” says Sarles matter-of-factly.

“We will not catch up [to the state of good repair],” he continues, more somberly. “It’s devastating. Unless someone else wants to give us that kind of pot of money, there’s no place else to go.”

I can’t stress this enough: we, the riders of the system, have to ask our members of Congress to not cut Metro’s funding. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t demand smaller budgets and lower taxes without losing something. For those of us that rely upon Metro to get us to and from work, for this region and its economy, we can’t sit by and not act. Metro has no options. It wouldn’t be viable at $10 a ride, and there are no other sources of funding.

More than the accidents and the delays, more than the crowding and the nightmare commutes, funding remains the number one problem for the agency. And this is something that, no matter the engineering, is not entirely in Metro’s or Sarles’s hands. If you want to see the system and this GM succeed, you need to get involved, too.

‘Metro Blogger Roundtable’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

And now that I’m off my soap box, here’s a quick summary of other topics of interest:

“CEO”: Sarles is the first Metro GM to have the title Chief Executive Officer since Richard White. “By adding the title … reinforces that fact that the CEO is going to act like a CEO here and run the organization. And the board has indicated they are going to focus on policy, and governance and monitoring.”

On bag search, which we discussed at length: Sarles indicated that he was briefed, in depth, by the Metro Transit Police Chief on the use of bag searches, and that he authorized them. His defers to anti-terror experts in this, and says the belief is that terrorists like to have a routine and do not like it when their routine is broken. That’s exactly what I want to hear from the CEO, but I still believe they are wrong on this. Here’s Bruce Schneier on this subject. I’d recommend you refuse a search and force the agency to rethink their plans, but I like tilting at windmills.

“People want to do something here,” said Sarles, all but admitting this was security theater. “We are the nation’s capital, we are the symbol here of a great country, and we call ourselves America’s subway. I can tell you that we are something that people would like to attack.”

I’d expect to see the bag searches used in limited fashion, especially around the “special times” (holidays, significant dates, etc).

On escalators: Sarles is aware of the problems. He’s elevated the escalator group to a more prominent position in the organization. The first big escalator project will be the replacement of the ones at Foggy Bottom, which Sarles says will take about a year and will include adding stairs as well.

On the number one issue: According to Sarles, the number one issue that riders report having problems with is … trash. Are you kidding me? Who are these riders? My guess is this is partly due to what people feel Metro can control and so they complain about that when asked, versus not complaining about other things. Like service.

The final word: I expect that Metro is going to be doing more outreach. This meeting was called at the last minute, and the attendance showed. I was told this is because of Sarles’s schedule, and the difficulty of finding one hour to do this. But Sarles has also been out and about, meeting riders on the Metro during rush hour last week. And he rides the system regularly. I think he understands that while the system is being rebuilt, the best way to gain favor with riders is not to lie to them about the pain they are feeling, but, rather, to listen and to be sincere in their answers.

There’s so much I admire about this shot. First, it’s well spotted and composed. Initially, I thought it might be posed, even, but there’s really no indication that is the case.

Secondly, pablo.raw certainly threw his camera into manual. With oncoming lights and the relative darkness of most Metro stations, it’d be all but impossible for the exposure and focus to have hit the right spot.

Lastly, Metro stations make great backdrops, and it’s still not illegal to take great looking pictures in the system!

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We are putting building blocks in place – making safety investments, improving our tracks and rail system, putting new buses in service, expanding staff training and designing new rail cars – while it may not be immediately evident and there are inconveniences along the way – we are literally building a new Metro for our customers and employees. — Metro’s GM/CEO, Richard Sarles

As we reported yesterday, Metro’s board named Richard Sarles as the permanent General Manager and Chief Executive Officer. It’s a move they should have done in the first place, and one that I said might happen when we first heard of Sarles.

Over ten months, Sarles has brought an engineer’s attitude and has been acting less interim than his title would have implied. He said he wasn’t looking to come here full time, but he always seemed to want to make an impact. “I came to Metro as the interim general manager,” he said at the board meeting yesterday, “simply wanting to help put the agency on the right path.”


‘if it ain’t broke…’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99′

I think he’s certainly done that. Metro is by no means a shining example of a transit agency, but I think Sarles has managed to put it back on track to recovery. That path, though, is not a short or smooth one, and there’s yet a long way to go.

But, let’s take a look at where we’ve come in the last ten months. Under Sarles’s tenure, we’ve had a lot more construction in order to improve service and safety. We’ve had a refocusing on safety within the agency, and there have been far fewer deadly accidents in the system. We’ve gone from members of Congress calling for a take over of the system to a reinvigorated board and organization.

What of my wish list that I hoped Sarles could get to delivering? There’s been progress, but not nearly enough.

The system isn’t yet reliable enough, though some might say that it is reliably broken, especially on the weekends. There’s a long way to go here, and Sarles acknowledges that, saying, “we still have a big job ahead.” He points out that moving the system forward has to include “a continued commitment to safety, reliability and financial stability while adopting the fourth cornerstone of improving customer service.”

‘dupont circle’
courtesy of ‘dracisk 365/365′

I still want to see more 8-car trains, but at least Metro is now much more honest with us about why they aren’t there yet (surprise, no money). There does seem to be a shift in the culture of Metro toward more openness, but there’s definitely a tug of war between the past and the future. And speaking of the culture, I think it, too, is slowly changing. Bus and rail staff seem more friendly, though it’s still far from certain that an employee will be helpful.

This year saw one of the largest increases in fares, and the addition of a strange and complicated peak-of-the-peak pricing. I have no idea what I’ll be paying when I enter the system anymore. Luckily, SmarTrip makes it relatively painless, and I can now track my spending online. Metro has released a lot of data over the last ten months, and there’s still hope it’ll make it into Google Transit. Some day. Soon.

Sarles still has a lot of work to do, though. And the job isn’t made any easier by the need for money, big money. Part of the “CEO” title is surely going to mean he’s going to have to do more talking to and convincing of members of Congress, who are going to have to cough up more money to keep the system from having to reduce service.

‘dupont circle’
courtesy of ‘dracisk 365/365′

“Operating more efficiently will continue to be a focus for us throughout the agency, particularly as it related to the operating budget,” Sarles said. “However, I want to point out that our ability to operate our core services, as well as continue safety and reliability improvements through rebuilding our infrastructure and equipment depend upon adequate funding.”

And so, while Sarles really is the right man for the job in my view, it’s clear that the future of Metro is far from certain. He’s going to improve many things, from escalators and elevators to customer service and safety, but at the end of the day, money is still the system’s biggest need, and that’s a tough sell in a good economy.

Read Sarles’s comments to the board.

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Sports photography can be a very difficult business. Everyone’s moving, making it hard to follow while looking through a lens. Indoor sports are even harder to photograph, with lighting often being sub-par.

But the rewards are often great. Motion and emotion captured for all time. Dr Kim Veis does a great job shooting an amateur boxing tournament. His shots show the power and fluidity of motion, the emotion of winning and coaching.

And, once again, it’s a nice project. And it’s one that anyone can do in a single day (or just a few hours). Photography projects don’t have to take weeks to do — a simple series done well can be just as rewarding.

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I’m a fan of open and honest communication. It’s the best policy. You lay out your position, you let everyone know what is going on, you keep them informed. They might not be happy with everything that you do, but they will see that you are making an effort and that you are, at least, trying to keep them updated.

Metro seems to have a love-hate relationship with this concept. Last year, Metro tried for a little more openness. They invited bloggers into their HQ for a no holds barred talk with both the former General Manager John Catoe as well as his replacement, Interim GM Richard Sarles. We covered both events, and we were happy to see WMATA headed in a more clear and open direction.

But I’m beginning to think these things are flukes. Last week, WTOP’s intrepid transportation reporter Adam Tuss called out the agency on Twitter for not answering questions about the recent violence at L’Enfant Plaza. Metro eventually caved, but not until after he threatened to “slam them on air.”

‘Easy Listening’
courtesy of ‘Rolenz’

Metro has a bad habit of trying to pretend that bad things don’t happen. Worse, they don’t have a good habit of getting out ahead of the story. It’s almost like they have no strategy to make sure that people are informed and that the folks responsible (in this case, Metro Transit Police brass) face the press and public alike.

What they are good about, it seems, is putting out press release after press release on how Metro is ready to fight the snow that’s [not] coming. Things we should be able to take for granted, Metro feels the need to shout from the proverbial rooftops. With barely a flake in the sky, they felt that it was imperative that we all know that rush hour commuting was going to be fine, but no press release about the L’Enfant incident (yes, they did a release, apparently in private, to some members of the press).

‘footprints to the White House’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99′

Part of the job of being a public agency is communicating with your public. Metro seems less and less interested in that and more interested in not talking about bad things and bad policy. At a bare minimum, their Twitter account should respond and have a more “human” voice.

Even their press releases talking about track work seem to have a need to spin them into the positive: “To improve service reliability, Metro to conduct mid-day track work on the Red Line” one recent release says. It could easily, and more accurately, read, “disruptions on the Red Line due to mid-day track work to improve service reliability.” I don’t have a problem with trying to be more positive, but to obfuscate that there will be an impact on your travel isn’t really right, either.

And just in case you didn’t know, “Metrorail improvements planned for Martin Luther King, Jr. Weekend,” really means, “Don’t bother trying to get to or from VA on Metro’s Blue or Orange lines unless you’ve got lots of time on your hands.”

I don’t want to tell them how to do their jobs, but perhaps a walk over to Metro’s data group can help them see that openness isn’t all bad.

Last week, Max challenged you to go out and take pictures, tell stories, get out of your comfort zone. Today, I’m highlighting one way someone can challenge themselves: create a theme project.

In this case, Maria Izaurralde seems to have decided on a life-size Barbie theme, and the execution is brilliant. You have to look twice, sometimes more, before it finally occurs to you what it is that makes the picture so strange.

Your first take is “something’s not right with her.” The stiff stance and “fake” smile on the woman’s face leaves you wondering what is going on, until, finally, it clicks. That’s Barbie, brought to life.

Check out Maria’s Tumblr for more.

As you might have heard by now, Metro’s longest serving board member, Chris Zimmerman, has elected to step down. I spoke with Mr. Zimmerman this morning about his decision to step down, and about Metro in general.

Despite the persistent reports that he resigned due to frustrations with funding, Zimmerman told me that he stepped down because of time constraints. At the beginning of the year, Zimmerman will become chairman of the Arlington County board. “I have a number of things in Arlington that are very important to me that I really need to spend time on,” he said. “The Metro assignment has become quite consuming, and at some point you have to decide what to focus on.”

That doesn’t mean he isn’t concerned with Metro’s funding. “My concern about Metro in the future is that we have not been committing the resources necessary to operate at the level that the region expects, and we’re seeing the consequences of that. That’s not something that can be fixed from within the Metro board.” He adds that he expects to continue to be involved in Metro and other transportation issues, and in finding a stable source of funding for the agency.

Read on for what I thought was a frank and wide-ranging discussion of the issues the board and the region have ahead of them.

‘Into the Darkness III’
courtesy of ‘yonas1′

“It’s a chronic problem. We’ve been facing it for a long time, we’ve been talking about it for a long time,” he says of Metro’s funding. “These are not things that are going to be fixed by a magical general manager. They’re not going to be fixed by any configuration of the board of directors.

“If we really want this thing to work, we have to get serious as a region and commit the investment to it that’s necessary to maintain it at the level people want to maintain it and to operate it at the level they expect.”

Metro, Zimmerman says, is core to the local economies and it is those local jurisdictions that have to step up and help pay for the service. “It’s not just another amenity, it’s actually a core service. It’s something that is key to the vitality of the local economy that generates the revenue that pays for everything else, therefore it has to be given a certain primacy. If it’s necessary to come up with more money, even when you’re cutting other things, then yes, you have to come up with it. Because this is the seed corn.”

He says that Northern Virginia’s local governments came up with extra funding during the budget crunch earlier in the year. “The choices were cut service, raise fares, or come up with additional subsidies, and it was the Northern Virginia local government that said, ‘okay, we’re willing to go half way, even though that means raising taxes in our jurisdictions.’”

“The biggest resistance was from Maryland, and the District wasn’t particularly great, either, frankly.” He continues, “I think that’s just a matter of who’s closest to the system, who’s closest to the riders. The local governments [...] are willing to step up to the plate. The problem when you have it at the control of the state level, it just gets lost in lots of other priorities.”

‘2nd Annual Ellen Bozman Affordable Housing Award’
courtesy of ‘cliff1066â�¢’

His frustration with the situation is quite palpable. “I am concerned that we were forced to raise fares so high this year because of the unwillingness of government at the state level basically to provide any additional funding.”

“The only alternative was to raise the fare or slash the service, and I thought slash the service was the worst thing we could do. But we definitely raised fares a lot more than I thought we should be doing. So far it’s not clear that it’s so expensive that people can’t afford it, but obviously it has an impact.

“We, frankly, should be incentivizing transit use. We’ve done a fair amount of that. We’ve been increasing ridership tremendously. We’re ahead of every other place except for New York in the country on transit ridership, and it has been growing. This could wind up being the first year it doesn’t grow, but the combination of a recession and a significant fare hike presumably will have some impact.

“My concern mostly, though, is what will happen next year? With the continuing recession and the impact it is having on budgets, if the board faces the same choice we had last year — a big gap and what to do about it — if there’s no more willingness again to put up additional funding from the governments, then they are going to face the same kind of choice, and it’s going to be much harder to raise fares.

“I definitely think we’ve raised them as much as they can safely be raised in the short term, and I don’t see how that’s much of an option for this year’s budget. So you’re going to be looking at cutting service. Do governments want to see services cut, or are they going to be willing to put up any additional funding to meet the needs.”

Yeah, that sounds like we (as in the people) need to start calling our state representatives and making sure that Metro gets additional funding. It isn’t going to be easy, of course, but as Zimmerman said earlier, Metro is vital to the region. We can’t afford to have worse service than what we put up with now.

On proposed changes to the Metro board, Zimmerman says the talk is a bit of a distraction. “I think that mostly what people are looking for is anything to change so they can change something that doesn’t involve the actual pain of having to pay for it. I think that’s the real problem we have right now: It’s one distraction after another.”

‘Thirty #112′
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

We spoke a bit about what can be done for long term planning and not just at Metro. “We need to use the existing infrastructure more efficiently. You can move a lot more people on the road network that we’ve got if you put them in transit vehicles and if you give transit priority.”

“We need to do things like use ‘bus on shoulder’ on our highways, something that Minneapolis has a couple of hundred miles of, and queue jumpers at intersections, and signal priority, and dedicated lanes on the streets, and then you can move lots of people. If we build the street car – light rail networks that are on the books now, [if we build] the purple line, those things all can add tremendous capacity to the region, but we have to invest in them.”

And that’s the rub, really. Zimmerman says that if we don’t have the willingness to fix and improve the existing systems, getting money for other improvements is going to be very difficult.

“I pushed real hard for years to get 8-car trains. We’re at maybe 20-25%, at best, 8-car trains in the peak time. We were supposed to be at 50% by now. The inadequate funding combined with the things that have to be done to respond to the NTSB is pushing all that out.

“Our number one concern should be how we get the most out of the system, how do we get to actually taking advantage of the design capacity? That means more rail cars, and it means more operating funds. We can do that, and we can add a few hundred thousand riders a day, and that’s not insignificant.

“But we have to be willing to pay for it. We’re not willing to pay for the system we have now, it’s hard to talk about adding new capacity.”

While Zimmerman paints a less than rosy picture about the future of Metro, I don’t get the feeling that he’s quitting to send a message or out of frustration. He’s very passionate about the system and about transit, and he’s not dropping out lightly. He’s even got his replacement ready to go, and has already picked out his replacement from Arlington’s board. Mary Hynes will be taking over the reigns, and Zimmerman feels she’s more than qualified for the position, and that she’s suited to that work.

As an Arlington resident (shh, don’t tell the We Love DC editors), I’m sorry to see Zimmerman step down. In my mind, he was arguably one of the best on the board, and certainly one of the more passionate members. I’m hoping Hynes will be able to fill his shoes, and I’m glad we’ve still got him fighting the good fight.

You’ve heard the phrase over and over again: “A picture is worth a thousand words!” Maybe. Sometimes, though, it only has to be worth one.

As soon as I saw this picture, and before I’d seen the title, I thought, “wonder.” One word. But this photo captures the feeling of wonder so perfectly, so succinctly. I’m sure this shot could replace a thousand words, but its power lies in not having to distill a rambling set of prose. It does the much harder job of showing you one singular emotion.

Jennifer Crawford’s photo taken at Zoolights was the first that popped up as a candidate for this featured photo, and remained the front runner as I looked through the last week’s worth of pictures. I hope the snow and the season shed some wonder into your lives over the next week or two.

As some of you read, I’ve returned to riding Metro after a few months driving to work. The cost of parking is still such that taking Metro often makes more sense.

Apparently, though, it makes less and less sense for many people. The Washington Post reported that due to the increase in fares, bus ridership was down 7%, and while Metro ridership remained the same, Metro found that up to 3% of riders had moved their commute from the highest fare times.

In a way, this is exactly what’s needed to manage capacity. Market forces tend to balance out between supply and demand. Of course, it’s naive to think of a mass transit system in those terms.

‘Grungy DC Metro’
courtesy of ‘Andrea930′

Yes, Metro does have capacity issues — especially during rush hour. But making it more expensive for the neediest people to get to work is going to turn into a nightmare. So far, that has resulted in a 4% decrease in revenue. Which will likely mean higher fares. And the cycle continues.

And while rail ridership continues unabated, Metro is seeing a change in ridership. There are fewer short rides — people are walking, taking the bus or Circulator, or a bike. Metro also found that riders were taking fewer long trips, too.

Anecdotally, I know from friends who are further out that they would rather drive. With the highest fare running $5.45, when you factor driving to the Metro, paying for parking and a round trip ride from the outer suburbs, the cost is probably higher than what most downtown garages charge.

Michael Perkins at Greater Greater Washington has a good post about the options Metro has to simplify its fare structure. I think many people are confused and annoyed by the complex fares, and simple is almost always better.

‘300/365′
courtesy of ‘BrianMKA’

But I don’t think that goes far enough. I think Metro needs to get off the distance traveled fare scheme and figure something out that’s much simpler. London’s zone system has been batted around, but London is also much larger (in every measure) than Metro.

I’m sure we could do well with a rail zone system that has zones marked out by DC, inner suburbs, and outer suburbs. But, honestly, I still think the best argument is for a flat fare, similar to New York’s.

I’ve made that argument before, and I think it still holds. It will have the added benefit of eliminating the tiered pricing system we have, and then, perhaps, people can stop complaining they aren’t getting more rush hour service for their rush hour dollar. Because Metro isn’t going to get better anytime soon.

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