By brownpau
Foggy Bottom Platform Escalator Fail
Originally uploaded by brownpau
So you know how the Foggy Bottom Station escalators are actually a two-layered system of bottlenecks? Today the platform-to-mezzanine bottleneck was made worse by one of the two up escalators being blocked off (at rush hour with no work being done on it at the time, natch) so that hordes of work-bound Metro riders had to cram on to one single escalator. Good thing there wasn’t a fire. Thanks, Metro!
By Don
Sunday’s WaPo had an article about online transit tools, including mention of an iPhone app for Metro times. I already had one but I thought I’d drop the $1 to see if the one they mention, iTrans DC Metro, was better. It was not.
If you’re of a mind to spend a buck on a tool for metro times – and I have found it worthwhile – grab iMetroMap DC instead. [Confusingly, it shows the above-pictured name once installed] While it currently lack one feature that iTrans DC Metro has – location awareness to tell you where the closest stop is – it has several others that are far more useful. In particular the ‘favorites’ option where you can have the stations you need information on most often.
There seem to be plenty of others out there – any of you have one you prefer over either the Post’s suggestion or mine?
By Katie
‘Metro Center’
courtesy of ‘brianmka’
I’ve been around these parts for a while now, and in all my Metro riding experience, nothing has ever been *quite* as hot underground as the sweatbox otherwise known as Metro Center. I hop off my train to transfer there twice a day and walking out of the air conditioned car I’m hit with a wall of hot, humid grossness. And with the red line trains running much slower and farther apart, I’m left sweating on the platform for a very uncomfortable amount of time.
UnsuckDCMetro has been reporting that the “chiller” is broken at Metro Center and last week was supposed to be fixed “in a couple days”, whatever the heck that means. Ughhhh, nothing says professional like mopping sweat when you get to work, right?
But Metro Center can’t be the only sauna in the system right now, no way. So I ask you, dear readers, what’s the hottest Metro Station you’ve been to recently?
By shannon
‘F6 Bus Stop’
courtesy of ‘justgrimes’
It’s July 1st, the day we’ve all been waiting for! Not only is tonight our first anniversary party (which you should plan to attend, because I hear a certain Metro pylon hat might be there to celebrate), it’s also the day that NextBus finally re-launches here in DC. You just need a cell phone or an internet connection, and you’ll finally have an answer to the question of whether you have time to grab a coffee before the bus comes.
Here’s how it works. If you’re like me and you don’t have a web-enabled phone, just call 202-637-7000, and enter your bus stop number shown on the circular NextBus sign. Update: Or, you can send a text message with your information and get your response via text (thanks, TransitNut!). If you have web access, simply click on the link from WMATA’s website and you’ll get the estimated arrival times for the next buses serving that bus stop. You can even bookmark the page, so you’ll have an easy way to tell when the next bus is coming!
I used NextBus this morning and it was spot-on. I could leave my house a couple minutes later than I usually do, and I still got to work early because I cut down on all that waiting time. Have you tried NextBus yet? Let us know how it’s working in the comments.
By Don
‘DC Metro’
courtesy of ‘SWP Moblog’
Don’t forget that WMATA’s GM John Catoe will be having his online chat at 2:30p today. I’d bet Tom’s left ear that it’s going to be hugely attended so you might want to plan your question in advance and be ready to paste it in promptly at 2:30.
By Don
‘Supreme Columns’
courtesy of ‘Carla Jones (Gen-esis Photography)’
WTOP reports that the first lawsuit has been filed by a crash victim. Davonne Flanagan, 15, received a broken leg in the crash, where he was riding in the rear of the first car of the striking train. The family is seeking $950,000 in pain and suffering as well as actual injury and expected rehabilitation. The victim’s family hired this subway accident lawyer in new york to handle the case.
A personal injury lawyer knows your rights and also knows how much your claim is worth. They also know that their success determines how much money you will pay them. Insurance claims come with so many uncertainties, and most times, insurers always try to find a way of denying claims. They keep tabs on timing and procedures to make sure things happen within the stipulated time limits. This will help keep your compensation claim on the right track. According to the San Bernardino accident lawyer, this is vital for ensuring fast settlement of your claim.
Attorney Lawrence Lapidus explains the prompt filing with the statement “My clients wanted to file early because the Transit Authority is known not to settle cases without filing suit.” Lapidus has apprently been a plantiff’s attorney against WMATA several times in the past.
By brownpau
In the aftermath of yesterday’s Metro crash I went with my backup plan today of skipping the Red Line in favor of the Orange. A malfunction had just occurred at Eastern Market, causing some delays, but a train arrived soon enough at Capitol South — then was held for ten minutes due to a sick passenger (photographed above). The train got moving faster than expected, however, and as it passed Metro Center I spotted yet another sick passenger being removed from another train on the New Carrolton side. Later still in the day, there was notice of more Orange Line delays due to a sick passenger on the train at Landover. Lots of sick people today.
To WMATA’s credit they got trains moving faster than I expected given the all-manual mode the trains are running in. And I must give kudos to Foggy Bottom Station for having the escalators all running with relative reliability for the past week. Yay.
By shannon
‘First subway ride’
courtesy of ‘ktylerconk (Tennessee)’
Great news from Metro today: you can now load value onto your SmarTrip card at over 100 CVS and Giant Food stores. This is the latest step in making it easier to use and reload SmarTrip cards since Metro eliminated paper transfers back in January. You can load value using cash or credit cards on portable SmarTrip devices at these stores, a welcome improvement over the cash-only reloading capabilities of Metrobuses.
The list of stores with SmarTrip reloading machines can be found here; the list includes 106 CVS locations and eight Giant Food locations. Participating retailers will have a decal or sign on the door announcing the SmarTrip capability.
Thanks Metro, for making it a bit easier to avoid the swarms of tourists at the farecard machines in Metro stations this summer.
And oddly enough, here’s another way that CVS is making it a little bit easier to get around: apparently the CVS Samaritan Van has been rescuing stranded motorists for thirty years! Who knew CVS cared so much about transportation? Thanks David for the link.
By brownpau
Orange and Blue Line riders had a hellish commute this morning thanks to a train down due to mechanical difficulties at Foggy Bottom station, causing single-tracking and trains held at stations up and down both lines in both directions. I waited on a Vienna-bound Orange Line train at Metro Center for about twenty minutes before wising up and getting on a taxi. You know it’s bad when the train operator doesn’t even use the word “momentarily.”
Unsuck DC Metro has collected TWITTER RAAAGE from the delays.
Update: From Get There blog, Orange Line problems explained. A combination of brake problems and communications dead zones led to a fifty-one minute delay on the failed Orange Line train before a Blue Line train could come within range to pick up communications. Both trains had to be offloaded before one could push the other to a rail yard.
By shannon
‘Arriving’
courtesy of ‘Karon’
The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) has named Metro’s own John Catoe as the best public transportation manager of 2009. APTA has credited Catoe for managing Metro well during Inauguration craziness, as well as improving safety system-wide in the wake of several Metro-related pedestrian fatalities. Metro has started calling itself “The Best Ride in the Nation”, and with this honor, it doesn’t seem so off-base.
What do you think? Has your commute gotten significantly better since January 2007, when Catoe began at Metro?
By shannon
‘Schneider Triangle’
courtesy of ‘NCinDC’
Welcome to another installation of Where We Live. This time we’re focusing on the area between Dupont and Georgetown. Some call it Foggy Bottom, others call it GW, but the neighborhood most recently has been calling itself West End. Read on to hear why this area is among the city’s oldest, but also one of the most rapidly changing, neighborhoods.
History: The area is known as West End because it literally was the west end of Pierre L’Enfant’s original plan for Washington. It was also known as Foggy Bottom because of the marshy, humid conditions and the concentration of smoke-emitting businesses in the area along the waterfront (so really, it’s more like Smoggy Bottom). The rowhouses in the neighborhood housed these industrial workers, so the area was home to many Irish and German immigrants back in the 1850s, along with their breweries.
Then the area started changing rapidly. Columbian College (what we now know as George Washington University) was established near Meridian Hill in 1821, moved to the Foggy Bottom area in 1912, and expanded significantly in the 1920s and 1930s. The decline of river-oriented industries led to the closing of many waterfront employers, and the area lost a lot of ethnic diversity as industrial workers left the neighborhood. By the mid-twentieth century, rowhouses were being torn down in favor of high-density apartment buildings, and much of the character of the neighborhood was lost. We can thank the Foggy Bottom Restoration Association and the DC Restoration Office for preserving the rowhouses that still exist in the area today. (If you’re interested in more history of the neighborhood, check out this PDF brochure put out by the DC Office of Planning.)
By shannon
‘chillin”
courtesy of ‘staceyviera’
Big news coming out of Metro today: officials are considering allowing kiosks in certain Metro stations to sell packaged food in stations! The move is an attempt to increase revenue by adding kiosks at a number of stations (in DC: outside Anacostia, in Fort Totten, in Gallery Place-Chinatown, and in Metro Center). Kiosks could be newsstands, dry cleaning services, and even gourmet food stores.
But no, this doesn’t mean you’d be allowed to eat what you bought at a kiosk– the Metro food and drink ban is still in effect. About three years ago Metro solicited proposals for kiosks that would sell anything but food, beverages, and tobacco– but they didn’t get a good response and realized it wasn’t profitable to not sell food in transit stations.
This seems a little weird to me. I think I’d be really bitter if I were starving, and got a gourmet sandwich at a Metro kiosk (probably marked up ridiculously because of the captive audience), and had to sit there just looking at it the whole ride home. That’s just mean, Metro.
By shannon
‘at least we’re not outside anymore!’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’
Did the Metro seem particularly crowded to you yesterday? Today, word comes from Metro that yesterday was the sixth-highest weekday ridership day in the system’s history. The combination of tourists that are still here for the cherry blossoms, spectators of the Frozen Four tournament, and regular old commuters like us led to this particularly high ridership day. And this is coming just a few days after record-high weekend ridership related to cherry blossoms and various sporting events.
But there’s good news! As Ben reported earlier, beginning next week WMATA is adding more rail cars during rush hour to accommodate the additional passengers on the red and green lines. So, take heart– next week’s commute will be better, and with the Cherry Blossom Festival ending on Sunday, those cherry-blossom-loving tourists will be out of town in no time.
By Wayan
New WMATA station names
Greater Greater Washington has an interesting idea gone all wrong. They’ve thought to rename Metro stations to be shorter and more logical. On the whole, I’d love the concept, as names like “U Street/African-American Civil War Memorial/Cardozo” are a run-on joke. But GGW better watch what it suggests.
To think that the Metro station at Georgia Avenue and New Hampshire should be called Park View instead of Georgia Avenue or Petworth is crazy talk. No, its fighting words. GGW can get all quick-hit somewhere else, cuz we’re not giving up our station to unknown Park View.
By brownpau
As of December 15th and till today, two out of three street-level escalators at Foggy Bottom Metro station are closed. Only one narrow escalator serves double duty as up/down stairs for rush hour crowds. It’s an outrage and an unmitigated catastrophe in progress, but still nothing new to this beleaguered Metro station. This means more lines, more crowding, more walking down broken steps. Avoid it if you can: use this handy map to find alternative Metro station entrances. More on this from Dr. Gridlock.
Update: As of about 7PM, the middle escalator has been opened, but only as stairs, with escalator #3 going up. There was no backup or bottleneck; how was it for you?
By Tom Bridge
You probably heard about this over the weekend, as our friends at DCist had this as part of their weekend coverage, with the original story coming from Greater Greater Washington. Late yesterday, Metro put up their side of the story which basically says, “Well, they wanted us to invest time and effort into doing it, and we can’t be assed to make the trains run on time to begin with, what makes you think we’d help someone else make money?”
But wait, there’s more.
Continue reading
By brownpau
The Metro Zamboni is back, this time at Foggy Bottom! This isn’t quite as crowded a platform as before, and at a slightly later hour, but while it’s not entirely clear in this fuzzy mobile video, he does plow straight towards a crowd of tourists standing by the escalator. I’m surprised these cleaners haven’t pushed anyone off the platform yet.
By brownpau
Broken Escalator Glass, Metro Center
Originally uploaded by brownpau
I’m not sure what happened here. Angry Metro rider? Angry Redskins fan? Angry that the escalator wasn’t working? Rush hour jostling accident? General horseplay incident? Repair work flub? In any case, this escalator from the lower level of Metro Center to the Glenmont-bound Red Line platform has been closed for two weeks, and is now likely to stay closed for a bit longer while they replace the broken glass.
By Katie
I was on my way home on Friday and I received a very exciting piece of paper at foggy bottom! The 2008 METRO SURVEY! . Now I know this is so incredibly, shamelessly, totally geeky, but I love surveys, you can visit here if you want to make yours. I think it stems from my background in PR, I just love collecting and understanding market data. It’s useful in so many ways, it is helpful in planning new communication, deciding fare increases, acquiring station data, and so many things that will help Metro out. But more than that, this survey gives YOU, oh Metro commuter, a voice! You hate how crowded metro is? FILL OUT YOUR SURVEY! You wish there was a station at Tyson’s Corner? FILL OUT YOUR SURVEY! Is the proposed Purple line is the best idea ever? FILL OUT YOUR SURVEY! There are few better ways for Metro to know how to improve than to run a survey and get back well-rounded results. Even if you’re a tourist, fill out that survey! They need this data – I promise you! So dig it out of your purse, the trash can, your back pocket, and fill that sucker out! And best part? It’s free! postage paid! And with 17 questions it’s not the most laborious thing you’ve ever done. So you literally have no excuse. You can return it at any metro station, or stick it in those convenient blue mailboxes on practically every corner in the city. Here’s a mailbox locator link just for you, dear reader, because I want you to fill out your survey so badly. 
(And no, I don’t work for WMATA, or any part of Metro. I just am truly this passionate about surveys, and in particular the Metro survey!) Images courtesy of Flickr user Needlessspaces.
By Don
foggy-metro, courtesy of frozenchipmunk
Maybe the better question should be, who’s not selling any metro ads?
For the umpteenth time today my westbound train on the orange line took me past the Dunn Loring stop and an ad for Hancock, opening July 2nd. What was a movie ad that was far past its expiration date has now aged so much that it just needs a small sticker to turn it into an early DVD release promotion.
Aside from the trauma caused by an early-morning exposure to an unshaven Will Smith in a grubby hat and bug-eye sunglasses, I am bothered by this question: there’s really not someone else willing to pay a few bucks for this spot? I suppose it’s possible the studio – in a fit of optimism – bought the space for a full 3 months past the movie’s release date, but it seems unlikely to me.
WMATA’s ads are sold primarily by CBS Outdoor, though a special marketing company handles the in-tunnel ads. The take from advertising across the system is what most of us would consider a pretty notable sum – $33,000,000 in 2007. However that comprises only 2% of WMATA’s total revenues, compared to passenger revenue of 36% and subsidies of 39%.
The question is, I think – could it be higher? I’d try to get some more information on WMATA’s advertising arrangements and dig a little to see if they’re really maximizing their return but it seems they’re unlikely to accomidate me.
