One Weekend To Go on Red Line
Readers continue to complain about the impact of the Red Line track work at Van Ness that has gone on for three weekends and has one more to go.
The complaints weren't so much about the delays -- perhaps by now riders were taking the 30-minute delays as a given -- but rather about the information available, especially the announcements.
Here's an example.
Dear Dr. Gridlock:
To add to the weekend confusion on the Red Line, the announcements on the platforms are totally incomprehensible. I hope the repairs will be over shortly because the incoming tourists will be even more lost
than usual if they continue. A stranger would have no idea what's going on. I don't myself.
I live at the UDC stop and usually use the subway on the weekend to go downtown. I have given up. Too much time gets wasted factoring in extra half hours before one can count on getting to a movie punctually.
Yoma Ullman
Washington
Others said they heard many, many announcements on topics such as not eating or drinking inside the system, and watching for unattended bags, but nothing about what was happening with the trains.
Plus, there was this reaction when I listed the L2 and the 30s Line as Metrobus alternatives around the Red Line's single-tracking area in Northwest Washington.
You have to be kidding about using the L2 on weekends as an alternative to the Red Line problems! You obviously don't ride it.
The schedule may state that the L2 runs every 20 minutes on Saturday, and every 30 min on Sunday, but it doesn't. The L-line doesn't run on schedule during the work week, let alone, the weekend! And during the work week, there's also the L4 between Dupont and Chevy Chase Circles. Even so, you could give birth half of the time, waiting.
CC Benedict
Washington
Metro's schedule calls for one more weekend of work on the Van Ness switch, starting at 9 p.m. Friday and continuing through midnight Sunday, when the system closes. What was your experience during these past three weekends?
[We'll have an online discussion about all things related to local transportation today at 1 p.m. If you'd like to submit a question or comment early, use this link.]
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March 10, 2008; 9:10 AM ET
Metro
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Posted by: stuckman | March 10, 2008 10:14 AM
Can't wait to see what this is going to be like this coming weekend. Its the weekend before St. Patrick's Day, and next Saturday night will be a HUGE party night. Lots of revelers will be heading to DuPont and Adams Morgan (via Woodley Park Station) on the Red Line, and if you thought these past 3 weekends had bad crowding, I challenge you to try the Red Line at about 10:30 Saturday night.
Posted by: Woodley Park | March 10, 2008 10:34 AM
follow the crowd...... MOOOOOOOOOOOO
Posted by: metro rider | March 10, 2008 12:05 PM
I understand the need to do work - but why do Yellow line work on the same day?? Not servicing Gallery Place - and having no announcements about it - lead to a trip involving: Yellow line (from Virginia) to L'Enfant, 12 min wait for the green line to get to Gallery Place, and then dealing with the Red Line chaos. Why can't Metro only make our lives miserable on one line at a time?
Posted by: Rhode Island Ave | March 10, 2008 3:20 PM
Rhode Island Ave. I was suprised there wasn't more info on the yellow line work either but it was on the metro website. Were you transfering again at Gallery Place to the red line? In the future perhaps take the Blue line to metro center and switch there? Probably would have been a little bit faster and less transfering.
If you weren't transfering, the walk from L'enfant plaza to gallery place isn't too far. And it's a straight shot up 7th St.
Posted by: Laura | March 10, 2008 3:50 PM
Laura, perhaps Rhode Island Avenue was boarding at Huntington or Eisenhower Avenue, which would have required a second transfer anyway even via Rosslyn. On average, transfering twice through L'Enfant would be faster than transfeing twice through Metro Center, just because of longer running time/longer distance after the two transfers are factored out. The wait time at L'Enfant was a toss-up in terms of walking. Granted its a straight shot, but even at the best of times, it probably still would have taken 12 minutes.
Posted by: thetan | March 10, 2008 5:52 PM
Yup, the L2 is beyond unreliable. I've spent more than 45 minutes at a time waiting for it over the past several years - on weekdays, at peak times -sometimes just for fun in nice weather, as an experiment to see how long it took. It is not a serious option as a replacement for the Red Line - it's not a serious option to get anywhere except total insanity!
Posted by: PQ | March 10, 2008 5:54 PM
I've gotten on the first car of the eight car trains the last two weekends and they've been crowded by the second stop in single track area in both directions. I did notice on Saturday around 5 at metro center that train going to Shady Grove had only six cars and was incredibly crowded in the lead car.
Also there are a growing number of tourists over the last two weekends and they were totally confused about the multiple disrupted lines.
Posted by: Red Line Rider | March 10, 2008 9:30 PM
metro doors need to have spikes on them, the passengers are too stupid to respond to anything else
Posted by: Anonymous | March 11, 2008 5:24 PM
drill holes in their heads
Posted by: sasqautch | March 12, 2008 5:33 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
A question for everyone complaining about this weekend's overcrowded Red Line trains -- did you try boarding the back car of the train?
I was riding in the back car of an inbound Red Line train on Saturday, and there were plenty of empty seats. At Metro Center, the train stopped for an unusually long time. After several attempts to close the doors, the train operator threatened to take the train out of service if passengers didn't clear the doors.
As the train pulled out of the station, I saw what was happening -- there were *hundreds* of passengers still on the platform who were unable to board the train -- and there were still empty seats in the back car!
Then, the exact same thing happened at Gallery Place! While hundreds of fuming passengers were left behind on the platform, I was stretching out and enjoying my ride in my nearly-empty car.
What good are 8-car trains if nobody boards the extra cars? Should Metro end the 8-car train experiment because they aren't being utilized? Why aren't Metro employees directing passengers on crowded platforms to the rear cars, instead of standing around with clipboards and chatting with each other?