Workers are scheduled to start permanent repairs after this morning's rush hour to the slope along New York Avenue NE that collapsed in May.

They will take about three weeks to build a new retaining wall about 15 feet away from the curb lane by the Amtak property between Fairview Street and the 9th Street Bridge.

That lane along this major commuter route will be closed during the project to protect the workers.

A temporary fix has been in place since the slope failed in May, but the new retaining wall must be built to stabilize the slope, the District Department of Transportation says.

Paul J. Wiedefeld, head of the Maryland Transit Administration, today outlined steps being taken to improve the MARC trains' performance. It's been a difficult summer for the Maryland commuter railroad, despite increasing ridership.

You deserve better, he said.

"For the past six weeks, on-time performance for MARC train service has fallen far below what customers expect or deserve," Wiedefeld said in a statement. "Although some service disruptions are unavoidable, there were instances where we could have taken actions to reduce the anxiety, frustration and inconvenience that you and your family, friends and colleagues experienced."

He said he has directed MARC managers to review each recent problem with CSX and Amtark, owners of the three lines, and reduce the chances that the problems will recur.

For Penn Line riders, he said: MARC is talking daily with Amtrak to address delays and improve the reliability of the electric locomotives. The overhaul of four locomotives is nearly complete, and the first of those will be back in service in early August. The second is due back in mid-August.

For Brunswick and Camden Line riders, he said: CSX dispatchers have been relocated from Jacksonville to Baltimore to improve communication and service. He noted that the diesels are being replaced, with 26 new ones coming in at the rate of two a month starting early next year. Meanwhile, maintenance on the old ones will be improved.

There's a lot to improve: During June, Penn Line trains were on schedule 81 percent of the time. For Camden Line trains, it was 63 percent and for the Brunswick Line, it was 63 percent.

At this rate, people are going to decide that $5 gas is a bargain.

Summer always stresses MARC's very old equipment, as well as its riders. Breakdowns have been frequent. But the electric locomotives on the Penn Line have been out of service for overhaul, so MARC has been using older diesels in their place. The diesels are 40 years old and not aging gracefully. Plus, there are reliability problems with the new electrics, the MTA says.

See Lena Sun's story on this week's train problems across the region.

Metro announced today that Emeka C. Moneme, the District's transportation director, will leave that post in Mayor Adrian Fenty's cabinet to return to the transit authority as chief administrative officer.

As head of the District Department of Transportation, Moneme has overseen traffic and transit projects, including the shutdown and rehabilitation of the Douglass Bridge, the traffic and transit plan for the new Nationals Park, development of the pedestrian safety master plan and the proposed Anacostia streetcar line.

He also serves as a District representative on Metro's board of directors, a post he'll be leaving to join Metro's management.

[Post reporters David Nakamura and Lena Sun have more about this on D.C. Wire, the city staff's blog.]

Moneme was Metro's chief of staff to the general manager from 2006 to 2007. That was while Dan Tangherlini was serving as interim general manager, after the resignation of Richard White.

When Fenty recruited Tangherlini to become city administrator of the District, Moneme followed him back to the city government in January 2007 to serve in the cabinet as transportation director.

Moneme had started his career with D.C. government in 2000, working with Tangherlini who was then the transportation director in the Department of Public Works. The Department of Transportation was later spun off from the DPW.

Starting as Metro's chief administrative officer in September, Moneme will oversee the transit authority's departments of workforce, information
technology, safety and planning and joint development.

The appointment is part of a larger administrative reorganization announced today by General Manager John B. Catoe Jr. and includes the appointment of a chief financial officer and director of policy and government relations.

In a further raid on the District Department of Transportation, Metro named Metro Carol Kissal as its chief financial officer. Kissal has been serving as DDOT's deputy director.

Sarah A. Kline will be Metro's director for the Office of Policy and
Government Relations. She has been serving as counsel to the chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.

Catoe described his administrative plan in a statement: "This restructuring allows us to focus not only on rail and bus service for this region, but it allows us to focus on larger public transportation issues on the horizon and future planning of this region's transportation needs. We are the region's mobility managers, and we are looking to expand the options that people have when it comes to their transportation needs."

With pressures mounting to preserve and expand Washington's transit services, the transit authority is the logical leader for a regional effort to develop train, bus and streetcar systems. But it will be a while before we know if these administrative moves push us in that direction.

3:19 p.m. Update: Metro says that the cracked rail has been repaired and service restored on the Red Line tracks near Takoma Station.

The transit authority said it found the cracked rail after the morning rush. Track repairs slowed midday travel on the Red Line. Riders were advised to expect delays of up to 20 minutes.

Trains shared a single track between the Fort Totten and Silver Spring. Every other train on the Glenmont-bound side terminated at Brookland and headed back toward Shady Grove. Metro does this to keep up service on the most crowded part of the line.

This has been a difficult week for rail riders. Check Lena Sun's story in today's Post for a review of the problems on Metrorail, VRE and MARC. And see my previous posting about Metro's communications issues.

"We have done it," Virginia Transportation Secretary Pierce R. Homer said this morning, just before the ceremonial groundbreaking for the HOT lanes project along the Capital Beltway. He was referring to the successful development of a construction program, but quickly pointed out that there's an enormous amount of construction and disruption ahead over the next five years.

Homer and other public and private leaders of the HOT (high occupancy or toll) lanes project were standing under a tent on the roof of a Tysons Corner Center garage, just after this morning's line of storms rolled through. The Capital Beltway, where the heavy lifting gets underway starting tonight, was just below to the east.

Homer said the project would not have gotten this far without the leadership of U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters, who is an advocate for such public-private partnerships and for the variable tolling system that the HOT lanes will use when they open in 2013.
Thomas J. Barrett, a retired vice admiral and deputy secretary of transportation, said Virginia is a "national leader" innovative solutions to traffic congestion.

Barrett said public-private partnerships such as the HOT lanes benefit the nation by "substituting private capital for fuel tax revenues."

The HOT lanes will likely be the first major test of these ideas in our region. The Fluor-Transurban consortium will build and operate the four new lanes in a partnership with the state government. The first phase of construction will widen the Beltway by four lanes. Once that's done, the inner four lanes will be converted into the HOT lanes.

Homer today continued to emphasize the role of transit and carpooling in the HOT lanes, a concept the state hopes to replicate along I-95/395. Buses and carpoolers will have free access to the HOT lanes.

Gerald E. Connolly (D), chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, said the Beltway "is really the main street for this part of Northern Virginia," and "adding capacity to this main street is critical."

Metro, which has been working on improving its communications with riders, showed last night it still has a way to go.

Power problems plagued the Orange Line during the afternoon rush on Monday. Metro's eAlert, an e-mail notification to subscribers, said:
"Disruption at Dunn Loring-Merrifield. (Due to a power outage, all of the station's escalators and elevators are out of service. Shuttle bus service has been established between Dunn Loring and Vienna. The station remains open.)"

That was mostly true, except for the part about the shuttle bus service. Many aspects of Metro's action plan for the afternoon were fully described in an advisory from the transit authority's public information office. Metro posted that notice on its home page and sent it to media outlets across the region to be broadcast or posted online. But riders would not have known about them from the eAlerts or from announcements made in the stations.

For example, riders would not have known that Metro's plan called for every other train to turn around at West Falls Church.

Meanwhile, on the trains and platforms, little information was reaching passengers. At 5:35 p.m., I was aboard an Orange Line train that reached Foggy Bottom and was taken out of service because of what the operator described as a "problem at Rosslyn."

The passengers aboard the crowded train got off calmly and waited. So did the train. Meanwhile, there was nothing on the electronic message board about the power problem farther down the line. The board indicated that an eight-car train (ours) was boarding. The next two lines indicated that two six car Orange Line trains would follow, but showed no arrival times.

The message board did show that there were delays on the Red Line.

People on the hot and jammed platform were debating whether to take cabs to their destinations. At 5:46 p.m., a station announcement asked us to "please be patient. Trains will be servicing the platform as soon as possible." I saw no Metro personnel on the platform. Meanwhile, the train that had been taken out of service remained in front of us.

At 5:47 p.m., the train doors opened.

Nobody moved. Then the operator told us the train was back in service toward Vienna. He told us there were delays on the Orange Line toward Vienna. "The good news is there are two Orange Line trains directly behind us. Please stand clear of all doors."

It was a good, clear announcement. He told the many people on the platform that they need not crowd aboard this train because there were two more coming, and gave plenty of time for the repeated message to be understood before he closed the doors.

After that, the train operated smoothly to West Falls Church. Before Dunn Loring, I heard no announcement that the station's power was out and that the elevators and escalators were not working.

At West Falls Church, a big crowd boarded for the trip to Vienna, but by then it was easy for our train to accommodate the additional passengers.

The trip back downtown was much longer, leaving Vienna at 6:22 p.m. and arriving at McPherson Square at 7:38 p.m. But the train operator continued to make clear and detailed announcements about our situation. When the doors opened at stations, we also could hear announcements on the platform about signal delays that were affecting the entire system.

The operator told us how many trains were stacked up ahead of us to get through the Rosslyn tunnel. All through this time, both going toward Vienna and coming back, I had difficulty checking my Verizon cellphone messages to see if there was any additional information on the eAlerts.

At no point was there any information about other transit options for Metrorail riders, such as the possibility of taking the 38B bus, which parallels some of the Orange Line stops in Virginia after departing from Farragut Square.

VRE trains have been restored and should be departing shortly, but delays continue.

The CSX system was down this morning until 7:50 a.m. when train 332 departed Broad Run on the Manassas Line.

Trains are still running an hour and a half late, according to WTOP reports, but Metro will honor VRE tickets.

For more information, you can view the VRE alerts here.

Overnight drivers on the western side of the Capital Beltway in Virginia will encounter the HOT lanes construction project starting this week.

In the first phase, workers will build four new lanes on the outer sides of the Beltway. Later, the inner four lanes (two on each loop) will be converted into HOT (high occupancy or toll) lanes. They should be ready in 2013.

But for starters, here's what to expect in construction this week:
Tuesday and Wednesday: Southbound at I-66, two right lanes closed. First lane at 9:30 p.m., second lane at midnight. Lanes reopen by 5 am Wednesday.

Thursday and Friday: Southbound at I-66, the left lane will be closed from 9:30 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Thursday and Friday: The left exit ramp from I-66 East to the southbound Beltway south will be closed on Thursday from 9:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. and on Friday from 11 p.m. - 9 a.m. Drivers will use the I-66 East right exit ramp to I-495 South.

Thursday and Friday: The I-66 west exit ramp to the southbound Beltway will be closed periodically on Thursday from 9:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. and on Friday from 11 p.m. to 9 a.m.

Another difficult afternoon commute on the Orange Line: Metro says delays caused by a power problem in Virginia will persist through the evening.

At 7:55 p.m., the Orange Line platforms were almost empty, but there still were good sized crowds on Orange Line trains heading toward Vienna. This was partly the result of a signal problem that slowed travel on all the lines. I was on one train that left Vienna at 6:22 p.m. and got to McPherson Square at 7:38 p.m. (Getting to and through the Rosslyn tunnel was just ghastly. After that, service was normal.)

The rest describes the situation as of 4:42 p.m.:
Vienna-bound Orange Line trains will operate 12 minutes apart between West Falls Church and Vienna, Metro says. Every other train will terminate at West Falls Church. Passengers going to Dunn Loring or Vienna will need to get off at West Falls Church and wait for the next train. New Carrollton-bound Orange Line trains are leaving from West Falls Church and Vienna.

(Metro's eAlerts, the e-mail messages to riders, are saying that a shuttle bus service has been established. Metro spokesman Cathy Asato says that is not correct, as of 4:42 p.m. The buses are on standby, but no shuttle has been established yet.)

Dunn Loring Station doesn't have power, Metro says. The elevators and escalators are not working. Metro will try to get them working using generators. At this time, Asato says, the fare gates are open at Dunn Loring to let passengers in and out. Riders will need to see the station manager in the morning to have their cards adjusted, she says.

On Friday, Metro says, Dominion Virginia Power lost an electrical feeder near Vienna Station. Today, Dominion's backup feeder near West Falls Church went out. Metro has been using power from its West Falls Church rail yard to help keep trains running.

If more power is lost, Metrobus will operate a free shuttle between Ballston and Vienna, with stops at East Falls Church, West Falls Church and Dunn Loring.

If power problems persist, the morning rush hour also will be affected, Metro says.

Commuters today saw signs in many stations announcing Metro's new rules for trading in Farecards. The rules are designed to combat the fraud sceme uncovered last week.

Anybody having trouble with the new system?

Several blog readers were asking whether they could still put the value of their paper Metrocheks onto their SmarTrip cards at Metro's vending machines. Yes, any value card can be added to a SmarTrip card.

The problem some will encounter is that they can no longer trade in an old paper card with a value of more than $7 for a new paper card.

Some stations have signs on every vending machine stating the new policy. But at Farragut North this morning I didn't see any signs posted at the L Street plaza.

See Lena Sun's story in The Post, which explains the Farecard fraud and the reasons for changing the trade-in policy.

[Join me at 1 p.m. for an online discussion of all our local transportation issues, whether you drive, take transit, walk or bike. If you'd like to submit a discussion question or comment early, use this link. Of course, we're always open for business here on the blog, too.]