Red Line Rail Repaired; Delays Ease

The cracked rail near Takoma Station has been repaired and Red Line riders should find service back to normal now, the transit authority says. During this morning's repairs, trains in both directions had to share a single track between Fort Totten and Silver Spring, resulting in delays. The rail problem was discovered at 6:20 a.m., and track workers went to the scene immediately to make the fix. The Red Line is the most heavily used in the Metrorail system....

By | July 2, 2008; 08:10 AM ET | Comments (4)

Doors Open in Tunnel on Six-Car Train

The transit authority confirms that the doors on a six-car Blue Line train opened while the train was stopped in the tunnel outside Smithsonian Station last Wednesday. While no one was hurt, this is the latest in a string of disturbing incidents involving doors opening in tunnels. Wesley D. Wilson, a passenger on the train, had reported the latest incident to me this way: "I was riding in a six-car Franconia-Springfield-bound Blue Line train [Wednesday] morning (car number 4017) at approximately 8:45 a.m., when the train stopped short of the platform at the Smithsonian Station, and opened its doors into the tunnel. "There is no reason this should be happening, and someone is going to get hurt." Until now, all the reports had involved eight-car trains. Metro's internal investigations indicate the operators forgot they had eight cars behind them, thinking they had the usual six. They stopped too short on...

By | July 1, 2008; 06:31 AM ET | Comments (30)

New Service Today on Old Bus Line

Weekday bus commuters this morning are having their first experiences with the big fix on the 30s Line, one of the oldest, longest and most heavily traveled routes in the Metrobus system. Traveling through the most congested part of our region, the line had all the problems with slow, erratic service that other lines experience -- only more so. If the new plan developed by Metro and the District Department of Transportation works, it could be a model for revamping some other difficult routes. While riders still can travel the entire route across Washington, the new setup on the 30s Line provides two limited-stop routes during morning and evening rushes and three neighborhood shuttle services. There are supervisors stationed along routes who are supposed to respond quickly to problems, such as buses getting bunched up. Routes 37 and 39 are new limited-stop bus routes. -- Route 37 (Wisconsin Avenue Limited...

By | June 30, 2008; 08:17 AM ET | Comments (0)

Metrobus Changes Coming

The transit authority is making many changes in Metrobus service, starting Sunday. Of special interest are the changes in the 30s bus line, one of the longest and most heavily used of Metro's bus services. The line passes through some of the most congested parts of the region and has suffered severe problems with erratic schedules and slow service. So the transit authority and the District Department of Transportation worked with riders to develop the plan that takes effect Sunday. If this works out, it could serve as a model for improving other services. Here's a list of all the routes affected by the changes. (Type your route number into Metro's bus timetable page to see what impact it will have on your ride.) District of Columbia 30, 32, 34, 35, 36 - The Pennsylvania Avenue Line 70, 71 - Georgia Avenue-7th Street Line 79 - Georgia Avenue MetroExtra Line...

By | June 26, 2008; 07:12 AM ET | Comments (5)

What Those Lost Fares Cost Metro

During our online discussion today, a reader asked how much Metrorail lost in fares after the Friday the 13th power outages zapped the fare gates in some of the downtown stations. Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said this afternoon that the transit authority estimates that it lost $154,962.08. Because the fare gates weren't operating, 74,501 customers exited at the powerless stations without processing their fare cards, he said. The transit authority wiped the slate clean, reprogrammed the fare gates so that those riders could reenter the rail system that afternoon without having to get their cards adjusted, one at a time, by the station masters. Still a mystery is the wait of close to 30 minutes described by a passenger waiting for a midnight Orange Line train toward Vienna from Rosslyn Station. There were no specific delays reported at that hour in that part of the system, Taubenkibel said. Trains should...

By | June 23, 2008; 04:04 PM ET | Comments (5)

The Commuter: Failure to Communicate

A string of Metro disruptions earlier this month has prompted complaints from many riders about the system's communication practices. This week's Commuter graphic takes a close look at the transit authority's plans to address riders' concerns....

By Mike McPhate | June 23, 2008; 03:18 PM ET | Comments (4)

Are Your Trains More Crowded?

This is getting to be a daily event: Friday was another extremely high ridership day for Metrorail. The 829,998 trips taken made it the third highest ridership date in the system's 32-year history. The total was 24,845 more rides than on the comparable date last year. Metro made several similar announcements last week, as dates broke into the top all-time list for ridership. In fact, says the transit authority, nine dates since April have made their way into the top dozen for ridership. On Friday, the Nationals and Mystics games in Washington padded the total. But on several other days last week, there was no special event. Are you seeing more people on your trains? And how about those of you who ride buses? (The transit authority can only estimate the bus ridership in calculating that about 1.2 million trips are taken on Metro rail and bus each day.)...

By | June 23, 2008; 02:36 PM ET | Comments (19)

Despite Troubles, Rail Ridership Surges

Despite its difficulties with derailments, disruptions and delays this month, Metrorail continues to set new marks for ridership. Thursday was another such milestone, becoming the eighth highest ridership date with 819,979 trips taken. That was 33,519 more than on the comparable day last year. As with the other high ridership days this week, there was no special event, such as a baseball or football game, to drive up the numbers. Thursday was the annual Dump the Pump Day, when transit advocates encourage people to leave their cars at home, but the string of high ridership dates this week suggests there's more going on. Also, because it was Dump the Pump Day, Metro had a contest to guess the ridership, and more than 3,500 people entered. The winner, who will get a $100 SmarTrip card, was 10 off from the actual total....

By | June 20, 2008; 12:04 PM ET | Comments (9)

2 Metro Lots Closed This Weekend

Last Sunday's Dr. Gridlock column included a letter from a participant in the Race for the Cure who discovered only on arriving at Van Dorn Station that the lot was closed for paving. So I wanted to highlight the maintenance jobs coming up this weekend. New Carrollton The station's surface parking lot No. 2 will be closed Saturday and Sunday. Metro says the work should have a minimal impact, because only 357 of the 3,519 parking spaces will be off limits. The main parking garage and surface lots 3 and 4 will be open. Tenleytown On Saturday, the Kiss-and-Ride Lot at Fort Drive NW will close to prepare for resurfacing. The street will remain open to Metrobus traffic. On Saturday, June 28, the Kiss-and Ride Lot will be closed for asphalt paving and Metrobus service will be detoured until the job is done. The street is scheduled to reopen that...

By | June 20, 2008; 06:21 AM ET | Comments (2)

Kung Fu Recycling on the Metro

Metro has created an amusing public service announcement extolling the virtues of recycling. In the straight-to-YouTube video "Littering Rabbit, Recycling Dragon," a Kung Fu master confronts his long lost brother on a Metro train. An argument ensues over whether leaving a newspaper on a train is a sort of gift to fellow passengers who might appreciate the freebie, or just plain littering. You can guess which side the Kung Fu master, and eventually his brother, takes....

By Mike McPhate | June 16, 2008; 03:47 PM ET | Comments (8)

Analyzing Metro's Performance II

This continues a discussion begun early Friday about emergencies on Metrorail -- but they keep piling up. Less than 24 hours after a Metro board committee finished venting at transit authority management about the previous week's incidents, riders confronted fresh problems during the Friday morning rush. The widespread power outage and the two fires challenged Metro operations and communications in ways that earlier incidents -- the heat kink in the rails, the derailment and the storm damage -- did not. The Friday morning problems evolved over several hours and affected many stations on many lines. I'd like the hear rider comments on Metro's Friday morning response, now that people have had a weekend to think about it. My two cents on communications: Metro did a good job getting timely and detailed information out to radio, TV and the press, so we could relay that information to the public. The media...

By | June 16, 2008; 06:47 AM ET | Comments (6)

A Messy Morning Downtown

UPDATE: Metrorail riders who could not use the faregates when leaving the powerless downtown stations this morning should be able to reenter stations this afternoon without a problem. "We're reprogramming our fare gates so that riders who exited stations without paying this morning do not need to see the station manager this afternoon/evening on their way home," Metro spokeswoman Cathy Asto said in an e-mail. "They can just go through the gates and tap their SmarTrip cards or process paper Farecards like they usually do. Basically, we are overriding the fare collection system. Those riders who exited the stations affected by the power outage this morning will not be charged for their morning trip if they exited a station that was experiencing a power problem." Metro Center and Dupont Circle stations, closed this morning for different reasons, have both reopened. Power has been restored at other stations that were operating...

By | June 13, 2008; 08:25 AM ET | Comments (90)

Analyzing Metro's Performance

As Deputy General Manager Gerald Francis was starting to tell Metro board members about improvements in customer communications today, board member Chris Zimmerman said he wanted to talk about other important forms of communication. Zimmerman, the Arlington representative, board chairman and advocate for better bus service, clearly wasn't happy with Metro's performance during the past two weeks. Hadn't Metro been notified on Sunday that the region was under a Code Red air quality forecast for Monday, triggering the free bus ride program in the suburbs? Metro has said that the fax and e-mail notifications the transit authority received had obscured the "Code Red" alert. (The alert has a red-colored box containing the word "Red," but to Metro, it just looked like a solid-dark box on the fax and the Metro computer couldn't read the HTML box in the e-mail version.) Given that these alerts are part of a highly-valued and...

By | June 13, 2008; 07:19 AM ET | Comments (2)

Metro Promises Better Communication

Metro's bus bridges don't work during rush hours. As Orange Line riders know only too well, when rail service is disrupted during prime time, the band of buses brought in to bridge the gap can't do the job. Unless you've got hours of time and thrive on chaos, you may want to consider alternatives. Transit authority leaders laid out a customer communications plan today that includes being realistic about such things. If Metro responds to a service disruption by creating a bus link between the stations involved, riders will be told that it may make them a couple of hours late and they should consider alternatives, such as another bus, a taxi or a walk. This Communications Initiative has been in the works for many months, but transit authority staff made it public today because the plan is so unfortunately timely. Orange Line riders have been hammered by delays during...

By | June 12, 2008; 01:33 PM ET | Comments (5)

Big Delay on Orange Line (Again)

UPDATE: Delays continued Wednesday night on the Orange Line because of the sun kink in the rail, but the transit authority says normal service would resume by 5 a.m. Thursday, when Metrorail reopens for the day. Discovery of the bend in the rail between East Falls Church and Ballston at 3:15 Wednesday afternoon led to big delays. Orange Line service was suspended between those stations when the operator of a train heading toward New Carrollton noticed an irregularity on the tracks, Metro said. (Good work by the operator. The problem could have resulted in another derailment. VRE and MARC riders are very familiar with the slowdowns ordered in summertime out of concern for heat kinks.) Orange Line trains then had to share a single track and cut their speeds between the East Falls Church and Ballston. Metro also set up a bus bridge of free shuttles between the Ballston and...

By | June 11, 2008; 05:08 PM ET | Comments (9)

Westbound Orange Line Train Derails

UPDATE: Rail commuter delays are long and widespread, but no one was injured in the derailment. See story. An Orange Line train headed to Vienna derailed between the Rosslyn and Court House stations on Monday afternoon, according to the Metro web site. The train derailed around 2:45 p.m., according to Metro. Trains are sharing a single track between Clarendon and Foggy Bottom. Metro has told customers to expect "major delays" on the Orange line for the remainder of the day. The Blue Line is operating normally....

By David Marino-Nachison | June 9, 2008; 03:19 PM ET | Comments (44)

Metro Response Angers Orange Line Riders

Metro commuters are complaining about the transit authority's response to the service disruption yesterday afternoon on the Orange Line. They express concerns that are common -- too common -- when there is an emergency in the rail system: Metro's reaction, they say, is too slow, and when it comes, it's disorganized. The problem began at about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, when the storm brought down a power line on the tracks between East Falls Church and West Falls Church and service between stations had to be suspended. Metro set up a bus bridge, providing free shuttles service to get homebound riders to West Falls Church, Dunn Loring and Vienna. Regular service wasn't restored until 6:12 p.m. Here's a letter that captures the anger that other riders also expressed. Dear Dr. Gridlock: I am so surprised that the WP only has 1 sentence in their story about yesterday's storm about metro's incompetence....

By | June 5, 2008; 02:00 PM ET | Comments (20)

Distracted Driving on Metrorail

Talk about an accident waiting to happen: Metro trains continue to open doors on the rear cars while they're stopped in the tunnels. Ann White of Washington was among the passengers in the last car of a Red Line train heading for Glenmont and approaching Dupont Circle on Tuesday morning. While still outside the station, the train doors opened. "Fortunately, no one was standing by the car doors," she said. "There was no announcement by the train operator that anything was wrong. After the doors stood open for a little while, they closed again and the train moved forward a bit. "The doors then reopened inside the Dupont Circle Station. That was the first I realized that the rest of the train had already been inside the station. (The train had already stopped several times in the tunnel and we had heard announcements about trouble with a train ahead of...

By | May 29, 2008; 10:13 AM ET | Comments (11)

Man Hit by Metrorail Train at Wheaton Station

UPDATE: Coverage from The Post's Lena Sun. UPDATE 2: Normal service has been resumed on the Red Line, according to Metro. The man has been taken to a hospital for treatment. A Red Line train hit an unidentified male traveler at the Wheaton Metrorail station at 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday, May 21, according to a Metro press release. The man's condition was not mentioned. Trains at the station were sharing a single track between the Glenmont and Forest Glen stations to accomodate the work of police and emergency personnel, according to Metro; shuttle bus service was also established. Metro estimated that rail service would return to normal by 3:30 p.m....

By David Marino-Nachison | May 21, 2008; 02:50 PM ET | Comments (1)

Another Weekend of Track Work

Metrorail once again this weekend will be working on the switch replacement at Mount Vernon Square, creating delays for many passengers on the Yellow and Green lines. The project, which began last weekend is a four-weekend job all together. (It will skip over Memorial Day weekend.) Papal mass at Nationals Park on April 17 tested Navy Yard Station and Green Line. (Thomson) Here's a detailed description from the transit authority of what to expect. This weekend, the Nationals are away, so there won't be the problem of extra crowding on the Green Line to reach Navy Yard Station. But even last weekend, when the team was here, there was some praise for Metro's performance. See some of the comments during Monday's online discussion with Post reporters Lena H. Sun and Eric M. Weiss. Here's a snippet: "I just wanted to say that even with the track work on the Yellow/Green...

By | May 16, 2008; 09:30 AM ET | Comments (5)

Navigating Metrorail This Weekend

The track work and resulting delays this weekend will be quite extensive. They affect the Green, Yellow and Orange lines, but it's the Green and Yellow that will be hardest hit, because of the switch replacement project at Mount Vernon Square. You Red Line riders suffered over the winter and are getting a bit of a break right now. The transit authority estimates that between 11 p.m. Friday and the end of service on Sunday, Green and Yellow line passengers should add 30 to 45 minutes to their usual travel times between Mount Vernon Square and L'Enfant Plaza. (It's about a mile and a half between the stations. Many of you could out walk the train.) The group likely paying the most attention to this consists of baseball fans with tickets to the weekend series with the Marlins at Nationals Park, near Navy Yard Station on the Green Line. Tonight's...

By | May 9, 2008; 06:30 AM ET | Comments (7)

Metro Outlines Track Work Plan

The transit authority has unveiled its guide for rail travel during the four weekends of track work needed to replace the switch at Mount Vernon Square. With plans this detailed, you could invade a small nation. I'll give you the link here, and just deal with a few highlights. Switch replacements and the resulting lengthy delays on train lines are unfortunate but not new. The new thing with this particular project is that it's on the main route to the new baseball stadium, so it's unclear what the impact will be -- though it can't be good. Nationals Park is nearest Navy Yard Station, on the Green Line. The switch replacement weekends overlap with two Nationals homestands: May 9, 10, 11 and June 6, 7 and 8. Here's what Metro plans to do on May 10-11 and June 7-8 (the Saturdays and Sundays) to ease congestion and waiting times: Getting...

By | May 6, 2008; 09:36 AM ET | Comments (15)

Ridership, Revenues Looking Up

Because the fare and fee increases haven't discouraged people from riding Metro, the transit authority staff won't be requesting the 25 cent rise in parking fees that remained an option after the Jan. 6 hikes. But what do you make of this: Despite the largest cost increases in Metro's history, rail ridership remains strong. In fact, it didn't just hold steady, it grew 6 percent in January, 4 percent in February and 3 percent in March. The budget staff expects a 3 percent growth over the next few months, hence the confidence that Metro will hit the revenue target of $109 million by July that it sought from the higher fares and fees. At the fare hearings late last year, speaker after speaker talked about abandoning Metrorail, or at least about the prospect that many others would abandon Metrorail. Are gas prices the only explanation as to why that didn't...

By | May 5, 2008; 03:48 PM ET | Comments (16)

Train Operators Blamed for Doors Problem

Lena H. Sun reports in today's Post on the problem you readers alerted us to concerning the train doors opening in tunnels. In the two incidents this week and last at Rosslyn Station and in other incidents, the transit authority says the operators are simply forgetting that the train is eight cars long. An eight-car train must pull up to the very front of the platform to get all the cars in the stations. Here's another letter I got about this week's incident at Rosslyn. Dear Dr. Gridlock: I was pleased to see some attention paid in your April 21 blog post about an incident where the doors of the last car in an 8-car Metro train opened while the car was still in the tunnel at Rosslyn. I was on that train and it was rather disturbing. I complained to Metro and got a good response, but this morning...

By | May 2, 2008; 08:56 AM ET | Comments (10)

Train Doors Open in Tunnel Again

Again this morning, the doors on an eight-car Metro train opened while a train car was still in the tunnel outside Rosslyn Station. No one was injured, but alarming as it is for this to happen once, it now has happened twice in two weeks. Dear Dr. Gridlock: The incident on an eight-car Orange Line train at Rosslyn, in which the doors of the last car were opened into the tunnel, reported on your blog on April 21 happened again this morning. By dumb luck, my partner and I have been present for both incidents on our commute into the city from Court House. Today, at 8:19 a.m., the incident repeated itself identically. An eight-car train, which had successfully made it all the way onto the Court House platform where we boarded, pulled into Rosslyn, but the last car failed to make it into the station. The operator then opened...

By | April 30, 2008; 01:46 PM ET | Comments (24)

Metro Tests New Flooring

I've been thinking about some new flooring for the kitchen, so I stopped by National Airport Station this morning to see if I could get some decorating ideas from the transit authority. Dark rubber flooring in car 6026. (Thomson) There was Metro spokeswoman Candace Smith holding a few floor tiles for review as she ushered reporters aboard three Metrorail test cars, each with a different type of surface under foot -- but none of them a carpet. You may see these test cars roaming the system. Let me know what you think. Metro wants to know, too. Gray rubber flooring in car 6027. (Thomson) You'll see photos of the floors on this page, but you've really got to see them for yourself. Smell them, too. It's a radical change from the carpet styles -- musty old carpet styles, with colors not found in nature -- that have adorned Metro cars...

By | April 22, 2008; 02:30 PM ET | Comments (16)

Metro Investigating Train Doors Incident

During this afternoon's online discussion, I got a note from a Metro rider about an very disturbing incident aboard a train entering Rosslyn Station. "I was in the last car of an 8 car train this morning. As the train pulled into Rosslyn, the last car did not make it into the station and was still inside the tunnel. Nonetheless, the doors were opened to offload passengers at Rosslyn. "We were left staring at the tunnel walls. Luckily, no one was hurt. The train operator either did not know that this had happened or did not acknowledge it as he proceeded to Foggy Bottom where a number of people had to get off and take the next train back. "After last week's article regarding manual operation of doors, how does a train operator know that all of the cars are aligned with the platform? Seems like this may be a...

By | April 21, 2008; 02:43 PM ET | Comments (13)

Big Day For Metrorail Ridership

For the first time this year, a day's worth of rail ridership broke into Metro's top 10 list of travel dates. The transit authority said people took 801,370 Metrorail trips on Wednesday, placing it at No. 9 on the all-time list for ridership. Four of the top 10 dates are from 2007. The all-time leader is June 9, 2004, the date of Ronald Reagan's funeral, when ridership totaled 850,636. Over the years, the cherry blossom festival often has pushed a date into the top 10. That was a factor on Wednesday, but so was a series of evening sports events at Nationals Park, Verizon Center and RFK Stadium. Look for next Thursday, the date of the morning papal mass at Nationals Park, to challenge for top 10 membership. What suggestions do you have for those traveling to the mass or just trying to avoid the resulting congestion?...

By | April 10, 2008; 01:42 PM ET | Comments (9)

Metro Will Open at 5 a.m. Sunday

On Sunday, Metro will open two hours early at 5 a.m. for the Cherry Blossom 10-mile race and 5K run/walk. The 10-mile race begins at 7:50 a.m., and runners will start and finish near the Washington Monument. The 5K run/walk starts at 8:50 a.m., and participants will start and finish just down the street from the Washington Monument. The closest Metro station to the courses is Smithsonian Memorial on the Blue and Orange lines....

By Amy L. Kovac | April 3, 2008; 03:40 PM ET | Email a Comment

More Than 20,000 Take Metro to Opening Day

Metro reports that it transported 21,492 baseball fans to and from the Navy Yard station yesterday for the Nationals' Opening Day game. Total ridership for the day was 332,737, according to Metro, far and above the average Sunday traffic of 207,735. Metro stayed open until 1 a.m. to accommodate the crowds and added 15 extra trains after the game to carry people home. Did you take Metro to the game? How was your experience?...

By Amy L. Kovac | March 31, 2008; 03:12 PM ET | Comments (14)

Peeps Take the Metro to the New Ballpark

Those wacky Metro employees. They released a video on You Tube that follows three peeps as they try to make their way to the new Nationals Park. It's not great cinematography, but you will likely find yourself chuckling throughout -- if only because it's so bad, it's good. The Reliable Source spoke to WMATA public relations director Lisa Farbstein about the story behind the video yesterday (second item). Check out the video below and let us know your thoughts on "Peeps in the Park."...

By Amy L. Kovac | March 21, 2008; 09:13 AM ET | Comments (39)

Metro Open Late for NCAA Thursday

Metrorail is going to stay open till 1 o'clock Friday morning to accommodate the Verizon Center crowds attending the Thursday night NCAA basketball games at Verizon Center. The normal closing time on weeknights is midnight. Also, there will be extra train after the first, third and fourth games on Thursday and both games on Saturday to help with crowds on the Red, Green and Yellow lines. Verizon Center sits on top of Gallery Place Station, where those three lines intersect. There are four games on Thursday, starting at 12:20 p.m. So Metro is suggesting that commuters who work around Gallery place avoid the worst crowding by using the station entrances at 9th and G streets NW or 7th and H streets NW. Or, go over to Judiciary Square Station at 5th and F streets NW. When you're using Metro to attend any big event, it's best to buy a round...

By | March 18, 2008; 02:51 PM ET | Comments (5)

Metro to Cut Back Weekend Maintenance

Metro plans to curtail its repair and testing projects for the next four weekends, giving riders a reprieve from recent service delays that have lasted up to 30 minutes. In a press release on its website, Metro announced suspension of track work on March 22 to 23, March 29 to 30, April 5 to 6 and April 12 to 13. The break in track work will coincide with the Cherry Blossom Festival, opening weekend of the Washington Nationals, the National Marathon and other mainstays of Washington's busy tourist season....

By Liz Heron | March 18, 2008; 01:49 PM ET | Comments (7)

16th Street NW Reopened

Announcement from the District Department of Transportation this afternoon about the Mount Pleasant fire zone: DDOT announces that all lanes have been reopened on 16th Street, NW following a complete closure earlier in the day due to a 5-alarm fire in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood. Traffic will resume its normal flow....

By | March 13, 2008; 04:38 PM ET | Comments (3)

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...

By | March 10, 2008; 09:10 AM ET | Comments (10)

Red Line Revisited

Stuck inside a tunnel with the Red Line blues again: All that stuff that happened last weekend is going to happen again, starting at 9 o'clock Friday night and continuing through midnight Sunday. Replacement of a switch at Van Ness Station means that inbound and outbound Red Line trains will be taking turns sharing a single track around the work zone in upper northwest Washington. That's a popular route for many people getting to and from restaurants, movies, games and other entertainments. Last weekend, I heard from many riders angered by the delays. (Metro says add at least 30 minutes to the time it normally takes on your Red Line trip.) The transit authority, which had extra staffers out on the line, heard your complaints, but it thinks its service plan is about as good as it can get. These are Metro's suggestions for busing around the work zone: L2...

By | February 29, 2008; 04:49 PM ET | Comments (2)

Weekend Frustrations on Red Line

Guys like Ben Ross, the president of the Action Committee for Transit, are among Metro's best friends. They are true believers in transit. So when Ross and his Montgomery County group have a complaint about transit, you notice. Ross is among the many people angry about the delays and crowding on the Red Line this weekend, the first of four weekends for a major track repair project at the Van Ness Station. He made public he sent to Metro General Manager John B. Catoe Jr. Dear Mr. Catoe: Trains ran on 30 minute headways Saturday night on the Red Line due to single tracking between Friendship Heights and Dupont Circle. I was on an inbound train last night that was offloaded at Friendship Heights and told to wait for the next train coming in 15 minutes. This is an unacceptable level of service at a busy time for Metro; boardings...

By | February 25, 2008; 02:57 PM ET | Comments (20)

Weekend-Long Delays on Metro

Metrorail riders are used to service delays caused by weekend repair and testing projects, but this one more extensive. It's phase two -- the final phase -- of a bridge rehab job at Metro Center, and it's going to disrupt service on three lines for the entire President's Day weekend. The problem is that the Red Line tracks are sagging where they cross over the Blue and Orange Line tracks. There's a bridge at that point that needs to have its bearing pads replaced to eliminate the sag. You'll see the work in progress if you ride the Blue and Orange Lines this weekend, but it's probably not worth it. You'd be better off finding a way around Metro Center, even though the station will be open. The bridge is still safe, Metro says. (You can walk across the sagging part without realizing it. I had to stare down at...

By | February 15, 2008; 08:28 AM ET | Comments (18)

Metro Looking at New Message Boards

Metro is looking at a new system of big flat screen display panels to carry advertising, information and entertainment in the rail stations, on buses and at bus shelters. The video screens would supplement the electronic boards that display the times and car lengths of arriving trains, as well as some other information about delays and elevator problems. The contract with the company that puts advertising throughout the transit system expires in 2010, and Metro plans to seek proposals from companies interested in using the new technology for a contract that would run about 10 years. Metro could customize the displays for individual stations, and in an emergency could take over control of the boards to get more information to passengers, such as information about bus shuttles around problems. So far so good. But a Metro board committee this morning spent about 45 minutes on questions and comments about how...

By | February 14, 2008; 12:23 PM ET | Comments (243)

Three Plans for Better Bus Service

Metro is planning three improvements in its bus service that make a lot of sense. Metro Extra bus at a downtown stop. (Robert Thomson) -- Expand the service that links Union Station and the Navy Yard Station. The N22 line now shuttles commuters between Union Station, Eastern Market and the rapidly developing area around the Navy Yard near the Anacostia Waterfront. When the 41,000 seat Nationals Park opens at the end of March, there will be increased pressure on Metro to provide transportation for fans, and the Green Line can't do it all. The plan is to add night and weekend service on the N22, so fans can connect directly to the Red Line at Union Station or pick up the Blue and Orange Lines at Eastern Market. The buses would run every 10 minutes. -- Expand service on Georgia Avenue's Metro Extra. The route now provides rush period passengers...

By | February 14, 2008; 05:26 AM ET | Comments (8)

Creative Fixes for Bus Line

The Metrobus line with the highest ridership runs between Friendship Heights in upper northwest Washington and the District's far southeastern border, carrying about 20,000 riders a day. A stop on the 30s Line. (Metro photo) The routes along Wisconsin and Pennsylvania avenues that make up the 30s Line can be as long as 14 miles, and despite the high ridership, the buses are slow and the schedules unreliable. Metro has looked at this problem before, but no action resulted. The obvious solution was to break up the lengthy line into shorter routes, but that wasn't popular with people who depended on the bus to take them farther than the proposed cutoff for their segment. A better idea: Since June, Metro has been with the District Department of Transportation and with many of the people who actually ride the buses to reorganize the service. Planners held community meetings and listened to...

By | February 13, 2008; 10:30 AM ET | Comments (7)

More Newspaper Bins on Platforms

Metro says it has placed newspaper recycling bins on nine station platforms for the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks. I hope this helps with the cleanliness of the Metrorail cars as well as with the problem track fires. The Express and The Examiner, the popular publications given away at the station entrances, are too often left aboard the cars. (The Express is part of The Washington Post Co., as am I.) If you think you're doing other riders a favor by placing a copy on your seat as you depart, please reconsider. They can always get their own, and too often, the papers wind up ground into the carpet, where they are amazingly slippery under foot. Worse yet, papers can become part of the trash pile on the tracks. All too often, the trash ignites and train service comes to a halt until the fire can be extinguished....

By | February 12, 2008; 05:31 AM ET | Comments (18)

Blue Line Diversion Proposed

The transit authority is considering a plan to send some Blue Line trains across the Yellow Line bridge over the Potomac, rather than through the Rosslyn tunnel, and will present its proposal to a Metro board committee this week. How the line's riders will react to the idea probably will depend on whether they work on the eastern or western sides of downtown Washington. If the board were to adopt the proposal -- something that would not occur for many months -- then fewer Blue Line trains would travel up from the Pentagon and through the Rosslyn tunnel to the stops at Foggy Bottom, Farragut West, Metro Center and Federal Triangle during the morning rush. (Or along the reverse path during the afternoon rush.) But for riders who board at Springfield to reach stations on the eastern side of downtown, such as L'Enfant Plaza or Gallery Place or the Navy...

By | February 11, 2008; 09:02 AM ET | Comments (91)

Metro GM Talks About Service, Dulles Rail

General Manager John B. Catoe Jr., starting his second year in the job, cited progress with the system's safety and reliability but outlined several significant problem that still need attention. In a press conference this morning to mark his one year anniversary, he also defended the Dulles rail project against some of the criticisms the Federal Transit Administration leveled against it last week. He also confirmed that Metrorail ridership is up since the fare increases on Jan. 6 -- by 1 percent overall and 2.6 percent on weekdays, according to Metro staff -- but said it was a couple of months too early to make anything out of that. (See previous entry.) Thinking back on his first year, Catoe noted he had remarked to the Metro board "That was no honeymoon." When he took over last winter, fatal accidents involving Metro employees and pedestrians were raising widespread concern about the...

By | January 30, 2008; 12:19 PM ET | Comments (12)

Metrorail Ridership Still Strong

During the hearings late last year on the Metro fare increases, many riders talked about the likelihood that people would abandon the trains and take to their cars in reaction to the biggest Metro fare increases ever. So far, I don't see such a trend in the ridership numbers that Metro posts on its Web site. An ideal world. (Metro photo) Now, of course, it's still early. The fare increases took effect on Jan. 6. But so far, the weekday ridership numbers are higher than on weekdays last January. One example from last week: On Thursday, Jan. 24, 722,390 Metrorail trips were recorded. On Jan. 24, 2007, which was a Wednesday, ridership totaled 719,701. From a week earlier: On Thursday, Jan. 17, rail ridership was 713,053. On the same date in 2007, it was 691,186. Ridership varies from day to day as well as year to year, and it's tough...

By | January 30, 2008; 05:16 AM ET | Comments (39)

Major Rehab at Metro Center

Repairs to the Red Line bridge over the Blue and Orange lines at Metro Center will limit service this holiday weekend at one of the transit system's most important hubs. The Red Line bridge at Metro Center is sagging, so the transit authority is going to replace the bearing pads that support the bridge. Also, crews will replace the granite platform and ceiling tiles, and repair expansion joints and structural concrete. While the tracks and platforms are safe, Metro says, the work needs to be done. But the $1.3 million job at a crucial downtown junction of three rail lines is bound to be disruptive, so Metro is planning to do the work on two three-day holiday weekends: Martin Luther King Jr. Day and President's Day weekends. The station will remain open during the work. However, Metro recommends building an extra 30 minutes into your travel times on the Red,...

By | January 15, 2008; 07:28 AM ET | Comments (28)

Metro Looking at New Cars

The next generation of Metrorail cars, which could be about five years away, will be a sharp break from the design of the past four decades. Side view of new interior. (Metro photo) Metro managers made their first, very preliminary presentation about this today to the transit authority board. I'll show you the pictures they displayed, and they should be fun to talk about, but don't think of the design specifics as set. As board members pointed out, they can have a dozen meetings just to discuss redesign of the Metro logo, let alone how the interior of the cars should look. [See story by Lena H. Sun in Friday's Post.] More significant is the basic concept: In buying new generations of rail cars, Metro has sought to make each new series compatible with the previous series. That gives transit managers more flexibility when they put together the four-car, six-car...

By | January 10, 2008; 08:58 AM ET | Comments (47)

Repairs Will Slow Red Line Travel

This is a special alert for Metro's Red Line riders about delays likely to occur on weekends during the next month. The transit authority does some form of track maintenance every weekend, which slows down travel because trains must take turns sharing a single track around the work. This is bigger: Metro will be replacing a switch outside the Medical Center Station in Bethesda. The work required is extensive and the impact significant. So Metro decided to do it during the winter weekends, when ridership is lower, but it will take four weekends to finish. This is the work schedule: -- 9 p.m. Friday to midnight Sunday. -- 9 p.m. Friday, Jan. 25, to midnight Sunday, Jan. 27. (Skipping over the MLK Day weekend.) -- 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 1, to midnight Sunday, Feb. 3. -- 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8, to midnight Sunday, Feb. 10. During those time periods,...

By | January 9, 2008; 01:11 PM ET | Comments (10)

Feeling the Fares?

How was your Metro ride this morning? Did the commute feel more luxurious, now that you're paying more? On a Red Line ride from Glenmont to Farragut North, I would not have been able to tell the new fares and fees are in effect until I smacked my SmarTrip card against the fare gate at Farragut North and saw "$4.00" on the readout. People who park at Glenmont won't pay the new $4.75 fee until they leave this evening. I heard no announcements in the station. The fare calculator sign at the station manager's kiosk was new, but still in that really tiny type, so you'd have to look closely to notice the new charges. (And I didn't see anyone doing that.) The station manager was helping some people figure out how to buy SmarTrip cards at the one of two vending machines that was in working order. But there...

By | January 7, 2008; 09:44 AM ET | Comments (29)

Fare Increase Basics

The new Metro fares and fees take effect on Sunday, but most riders won't feel the effects until Monday, when they park at rail stations and board rush hour trains. New fare guide posted. (Metro photo) At the stations, passengers will see new fare charts posted on the vending machines and the station managers' booths. On buses, new decals with updated fare information will be displayed on the fareboxes. Look also for brochures in the stations and on buses that announce the new charges. These are the increases that affect most riders: A 75 cent increase in the daily parking rate, a 30 to 75 cent increase in the cost of a train ride during rush periods and a 10 cent increase in the bus fare unless the rider pays with a SmarTrip electronic fare card, in which case the cost stays the same. [Readers, I adjusted the max fare...

By | January 4, 2008; 05:50 AM ET | Comments (57)

Metro Expanding SmarTrip Sales

Metro learned a lesson when began requiring drivers to use SmarTrip cards for parking at the stations, but didn't have enough of the cards to meet the sudden demand. Starting Jan. 6, Metro will try to steer more bus riders toward using the electronic fare cards. The Metrobus fare will go up a dime unless riders pay with SmarTrip cards, and the transit authority says there will be plenty of cards available for people who want to buy them. SmarTrip cards have long been available online at Metro's Web site. But Metro is taking a couple of steps to get the cards out to the public. In early January, SmarTrip cards will be available to purchase for the regular $5 fee (in cash) at eight of the busiest bus stations from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Here are the dates and the places: -- Jan. 3 at Anacostia Metrorail station...

By | December 27, 2007; 05:30 AM ET | Comments (13)

How to Figure New Fares

Use this link to reach a page on Metro's Web site that will let you see what you're Metrorail fare will be as of Jan. 6, when the fares and fees approved by the Metro board last week take effect. On that page, you'll find a list of all the stations. Click on the name of your station and you'll be taken to a chart similar to the one that would appear on a station manager's kiosk. It shows the peak and off-peak fares to all the other stations. It also shows the reduced fare for senior citizens and disabled people. On another online chart, Metro provides an overview of all the fare and fee changes, including the charges for buses, various types of passes and parking. Here's a link to that page. Also, it appears to me that Metro has now made the fare adjustment in its Trip Planner...

By | December 20, 2007; 07:46 AM ET | Comments (26)

What Metro Left Unresolved

Metro customers will start to absorb the biggest ever increase in the cost of riding on Monday, Jan. 7, when the new peak fares and parking fees approved today kick in across the region. Highlights: The Metro board adopted the compromise pushed by its Maryland representatives, somewhat blunting the impact of the increases on suburban commuters who park at the outer stations and ride the trains for long distances while killing the proposal to offer more reserved parking spaces. Over 18 months, the plan should raise about enough money to balance the transit authority budget. But the Metro board's action today did not answer many questions that riders are asking of Metro, and that Metro board members are asking each other. Let's look at a few. Will customers desert? Nobody really knows. Among the 422 people who spoke during the six public hearings or submitted written comments to Metro, about...

By | December 13, 2007; 02:35 PM ET | Comments (34)

Fare Cards and Magnets

This reader has a problem so common among Metro riders that I thought I'd seek your advice. Dear Dr. Gridlock: I must say I've debated about who, at The Post, could best help me with a little problem I've been experiencing: Dr. Gridlock or Suzanne D'Amato in her fashion column. It's a dumb question that probably every commuter knows the answer to, but I clearly need some help. A couple of months ago, I found that my Metro fare card, with plenty of money on it, wouldn't work. At the window I was told it had become de-magnetized. Solution: Go to Metro Center, to the Sales Office, to get new cards issued. I admitted that I suspected it was my purse, with its many magnetic closures. The guy was patient enough to let me experiment with exactly how magnetic they were. Once satisfied that I knew which sections of the...

By | December 12, 2007; 05:33 AM ET | Comments (26)

Metro Testing Rail Cars

Metrorail today launched a few new test cars that incorporate some of the design elements that could help save wear and tear on the trains and increase their capacity and comfort. That will be partly for you to decide. Here's what to look for: -- In rail cars 6104 and 6105, there's no carpet on the floors. Metro is testing a new, resilient material as flooring. It's supposed to last longer and be easier to clean. The transit authority says it will check the material every day to make sure it's holding up and also will get rider reaction. Grab bars are placed along ceiling rails to reach shorter riders. (Metro photo) These test cars also have stainless steel grab bars overhead. These should help out shorter commuters who have been complaining that the newest cars, the 6000 series don't have enough convenient places for standees to get a grip....

By | December 4, 2007; 01:54 PM ET | Comments (14)

Slick Tracks Slowed Morning Metrorail

The trains are back up to their normal speed now, but for a few hours this morning, Metrorail dropped speeds in many areas because the tracks were unusually slippery. It was a combination of falling leaves and morning dew. On the last day of November, leaves are still coming down. Along many sections of the above-ground tracks, the combination of leaves and dew creates a slickness that makes it more difficult to start and stop the trains. (This contributes to another routine problem on train cars: the flattening of wheels because of irregular wear. Sometimes they have to be taken into the shop for rounding.) Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said in a statement that for safety, Metro slowed the trains from their normal operating speed of 55 mph down to 30 mph in the areas around 27 of the transit system's 86 stations. This widespread speed restriction was in effect...

By | November 30, 2007; 09:40 AM ET | Comments (15)

Metro Cuts Weekend Service

Commenter "Jay" on the previous blog entry has rightly reminded me that I should call your attention to the story in today's Post by Lena Sun about the service cutback Metro initiated last weekend: Riders this winter will see more four-car trains and fewer six-car trains. Oddly, this was not something Metro chose to announce to riders. It just happened. Metro routinely announces bus detours for weekend events or plans to take an elevator out of service for repairs. But the only reason you know about the four-car trains is that Lena Sun went after the story. Weekend Metrorail service has always been among the top complaints among my readers. Might as well drive, they say, if the service is going to be that poor. The problem for riders has been the maintenance and rail car testing program that forces trains to share one track for travel in both directions....

By | November 28, 2007; 03:49 PM ET | Comments (9)

Commuters Blast Fare Hikes

Long distance commuters who will bear the brunt of Metro's fare and fee increases told transit authority board members Wednesday night that the plan is unfair. The hearing in Rockville, attended by about 70 people with 26 testifying, was the confrontation I had expected to see on Tuesday night in Reston, at Metro's first hearing on the proposals. Last night's session drew battle lines between city and suburban interests. Many commuters noted that the impact of the increases would fall most heavily on those who drive to the Metrorail stations at the ends of the lines and take the trains to downtown Washington. Their traveling costs will go up much more sharply than those of people who travel by bus or take shorter rail trips. "The proposal assumes that commuters who ride longer distances should be punished financially because they ride farther," Laraine Balk Hope of Rockville said in her...

By | November 15, 2007; 09:06 AM ET | Comments (58)

Happy About Fare Increases?

Couldn't blame Metro board members if they thought so, based on the turnout at last night's hearing in Reston on the fare and fee increases that could take effect in January. The hearing was in Reston. (See Lena Sun's story in today's Post.) I had expected to hear many questions about service on suburban bus routes and the Orange Line, along with complaints about the combined impact of increasing parking fees and train fares for long-distance riders. In fact, there was articulate, reasonable and specific testimony on those topics. The problem was that only a handful of people were there to voice it. The burden of speaking for hundreds of thousands of transit riders fell to Cali Ence of Vienna, Peg Owens of Upton, Ray Rowley of Lorton and a couple of other local residents who commute by train and bus. The session started at 7 p.m. with a brief...

By | November 14, 2007; 07:01 AM ET | Comments (21)

Metro Hearings Start Tonight

If I printed all the letters coming in about the Metro fare increase proposals, the Dr. Gridlock column would be nothing but that till the end of the year. Most oppose the plan, but some say fare hikes are needed. Just about everyone has questions or comments comparing the increases with the current level of service. Metro trains pass at L'Enfant Plaza Station. (Michael Williamson) Metro management says the cost of the service is increasing. Customers are not focused on Metro's internal issues. They relate the cost of the service to the quality of the product. Here are extracts from some of the letters. (You can write to me at drgridlock@washpost.com.) These aren't weighted to reflect majority sentiments in the mailbag. Rather, I wanted you to sample the range of ideas people have about what should be done, since the Metro fare increase hearings start tonight. Dear Dr. Gridlock. Just...

By | November 13, 2007; 07:43 AM ET | Comments (7)

Red Line Delay Continues

Metro says it will need a second night of work to replace the flawed section of track discovered on Sunday during a routine ultrasound check of the transit system's tracks. So trains continue to move at reduced speed between Medical Center and Friendship Heights. Metro made temporary repairs on Sunday night, so the track still could be used for weekday service, and the transit authority had hoped to replace the 39-foot track section Monday night, but announced today that the second night would be needed. Meanwhile, trains in that area are moving at 35 mph, rather than the normal 44 mph. The ultrasound checks on the track system are performed five times a year. Track inspectors also walk the rails twice a week to make safety checks. The only way to make permanent repairs during the day is to shut down a track and have trains from both directions take...

By | October 23, 2007; 12:23 PM ET | Comments (10)

Letter From Fed-Up Metro Rider

This letter came in on Aug. 1 from an Arlington commuter who gave up on Metro. He starts off describing a particular incident, but it wasn't this one thing that led him to switch to his car. I'm a big fan of transit, but I know that day-after-day crowding and delays on Metro wear people down. See what you think of a fellow commuter's thought process. Dear Dr. Gridlock: Tonight on my commute from Navy Yard to Clarendon, I saw an altercation on the Orange Line. As we approached Rosslyn, a male rider started to try to get to the doors a few seconds before the train stopped. As the train was packed, I can't say I blamed him. More than once I've missed exiting my train at Clarendon because of the number of folks clustered around the doors. Unfortunately for this gentleman, he stumbled and bumped into a woman....

By | August 17, 2007; 05:17 AM ET | Comments (110)

Metro GM Apologizes For Delays

Metro issued an apology to its riders today for yesterday afternoon's extensive delays on the Blue and Orange lines downtown. (Metro GM John Catoe Jr. talked about it during an online chat at noon today on Metro's Web site.) Here's part of what he said: "Let me say that I am sorry that so many of you were inconvenienced last night traveling on the Blue and Orange Lines. I have received comments from so many of you, and when you're delayed on Metro, I understand how you feel. I travel on Metrorail myself, and I understand that you want to know why. Although, I can't give you back the time spent on your commute last night, I would like to explain to you what happened. "At 5:26 last night, the brakes of a Blue Line train locked as it was traveling between Foggy Bottom and Rosslyn. There was an Orange...

By | August 3, 2007; 12:21 PM ET | Comments (25)

How Do You Fix a Bus Service?

The Metro buses that run the 30s routes along Wisconsin and Pennsylvania avenues are among the most popular and problematic in the transit system. As they travel between the Naylor Road and Friendship Heights Metro stations, carrying about 20,000 riders on weekdays, they make 116 stops and pass through 130 traffic signals. They do that in some of the worst traffic congestion that an urban area can provide over about 14 miles. The 30s line gives Metro a chance to study most of the challenges a bus system can face, along with many of the solutions planners can envision. Last night, the transit authority and the District Department of Transportation held the second of two forums that drew on another source of solutions: the riders. "What do you need this bus to do?" said James Hamre, a Metro senior planner working on the study. Isn't that a refreshing way to...

By | July 25, 2007; 07:38 AM ET | Comments (30)

Metro Board Adopts Budget

The Metro board today adopted a new budget today after General Manager John B. Catoe Jr. assured the board members that the spending plan was balanced. Catoe has spoken recently about the possibility of a fare increase as early as January, and that had left some people -- including me -- confused about whether the staff reductions and other money-saving measures imposed by the new GM had indeed balanced the budget. "This budget does not require nor does it seek a fare increase in order to be balanced," Catoe told the board. In response to a follow up question from board member Jim Graham, who represents the District, Catoe added: "My view is that as we look forward into the future, the earlier you have any fare increase -- should one be approved by the board -- would bring in revenues to offset possible deficits in the future." "There's no...

By | June 28, 2007; 02:04 PM ET | Comments (16)

Metro's New Boss Faces Challenges

The start of Metro General Manager John B. Catoe Jr.'s term got caught up in widespread concerns about a spate of accidents involving buses and pedestrians. Yesterday, as his staff handed summaries to reporters of what had been accomplished during his first 100 days, he was explaining a major failure on the Green Line that stalled thousands of commuters during the morning rush. Sometimes during these few months, he said, he had asked himself what he was doing here. "But then I realized what I was doing here," Catoe said. He was here "to fix what was broken." Yesterday's status report on the trains and buses got caught up in the crisis of the moment on the Green Line, which you can read about in Lena Sun's story today. With 37,422 travelers aboard the Green Line during the morning rush, Metro's boss realized the importance of directly addressing their frustrations....

By | June 20, 2007; 08:59 AM ET | Comments (29)

Free Rides on Green Line This Afternoon

Metro is taking the highly unusual step of offering free rides this afternoon to its Green Line riders, following the extensive delays caused by this morning's power problems. (See story on our Web site.) "Green Line riders will receive free rides this afternoon from 3:30 to 7 p.m. to help make up for the poor service this morning," Metro General Manager John Catoe said in a statement. Green Line service was disrupted from 7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. because of power problems near Fort Totten. Four trains had to be taken out of service. A separate power problem knocked out a train between Rosslyn and Foggy Bottom during the morning rush. Power has been restored and full service should be available on all lines. "We apologize for this morning's delays," Catoe said in the statement. "Many Metro employees experienced the same delays on their way to work this morning and...

By | June 19, 2007; 04:01 PM ET | Comments (7)

Metro Changing Many Bus Routes

The transit authority will modify bus routes throughout the region on June 24, and that won't be the end of it. The Metro board this month will consider staff recommendations to cut serveral more routes in the Maryland suburbs. This is all in addition to the routes that will be changed temporarily because the Douglass Bridge on South Capitol Street will be shut down during July and August. The June 24 changes should please many riders, but certainly not all. Some lines will be extended, some cut back. Some schedules will be adjusted to bring them in line with real travel times, while others will be increased to provide more service. For example, these are the changes that take effect June 24 on the heavily used 16th Street NW Line: "Weekday mornings, additional southbound buses will end at McPherson Square. Between 3 and 6:40 p.m., northbound S4 buses will begin...

By | June 13, 2007; 08:04 AM ET | Comments (9)

Transit Track Work This Week

I promised readers during today's Live Online that I would give an account of this week's Metro track work and resulting delays. (This was after getting several complaints about the delays caused by single-tracking this past weekend.) By the way, Lena Sun, who covers Metro for The Post, said I should tell you that Metro's Trip Planner -- normally a very useful feature for finding train times -- doesn't take track work delays into account. During the track work periods, she says, it's best to check the "Next Train" feature on Metro's Web site, which will tell you when the next three trains are scheduled to arrive. Here's what's up this week. Red Line: Add up to 15 minutes to your regular travel time between the Silver Spring and Forest Glen because of track maintenance that results in single-tracking of trains between 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. each weekday. Riders...

By | May 29, 2007; 03:25 PM ET | Comments (7)

Metro Plans Service Changes

The Metro board this morning took two steps of interest to bus and rail travelers. First, board members agreed to detour some bus routes this summer because of the reconstruction at the Frederick Douglass Bridge, which brings South Capitol Street over the Anacostia River. Commuters on the eastern side of the region are worried about the impact of shutting down the bridge for this work during July and August. Vehicles will be detoured to the 11th Street Bridge, but even though traffic declines by 12 percent during the summer, congestion is likely. The District Department of Transportation is hoping that its public information campaign and its "Bridge Bucks" program to encourage use of transit will ease the impact. Now, Metro will make its own adjustments in its bus routes to accommodate the shutdown. Specifically: Metro will temporarily change the routes and fare for Metrobus routes A9, P17, P19 and W13,...

By | May 24, 2007; 07:42 AM ET | Comments (2)

Metro Deals With Brush Fire

During a Live Online discussion today, readers asked about a rail situation and a road situation, and we have some updates for you. One chatter told us this: "I was on the Blue Line train today that encountered the brush fire on the side of the tracks ... The operator was professional and stopped our train and tried to extinguish the fire. I'm glad we were going northbound because the fire was on the southbound tracks." Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel provided details about the incident: The incident started at 10:29 a.m. outside Van Dorn Street Station on the outbound Blue Line track. A Blue Line train operator on the inbound track reported the brush fire to the Operations Control Center, stopped the train and used a fire extinguisher to put it out. However, the brush was still smoldering. The control center told him to continue on with the train. Metro...

By | May 7, 2007; 02:29 PM ET | Comments (7)

Donating Metro Farecards

Several people wrote in after seeing my Sunday column in which I mentioned that Metro is considering a plan to collect low-value Farecards for donation to charities. Readers said they knew of some local charities that collect the cards. If you are aware of any others, send a note to me at drgridlock@washpost.com and I'll wrap them into a list in an upcoming column. Dear Dr. Gridlock: Isn't there an organization that collects these cards for veterans who need to find jobs? It seems that the Post carried an article on this sometime last fall. Rita Lombard Columbia Good memory. On Nov. 22 last year, Metro columnist John Kelly wrote about Dave Mortlock of Arlington, a former Marine who helps fellow veterans get to job interviews and training courses by collecting donated Farecards and putting their value onto SmarTrip cards. He gives them to Ignatia House, a veterans assistance center...

By | April 30, 2007; 08:10 AM ET | Comments (5)

Bad Experience at Metro Station

For the second time this month, I've gotten complaints about how Metro communicated with customers during the evacuation of a station. I wrote about one in Sunday's Dr. Gridlock. Now, a letter writer tells me about the Monday afternoon incident at Bethesda. I'll probably respond to this letter in an upcoming newspaper column, but would like to share it with you first and hear from anyone who also experienced this situation. Dear Dr. Gridlock: I was on my way home from Metro Center on the Red Line Monday. We arrived at Bethesda at about 4:10 pm, people got off and on and then we sat for a few minutes. Out of the blue we were told that the train was going out of service and we must exit the train but another train was right behind this one. We stood on the platform for less than a minute when an...

By | April 26, 2007; 06:10 AM ET | Comments (80)

Metro Explains Rail Car Fire

Steve Feil, Metro's chief of rail operations, told the transit authority's board of directors this morning that "the system is safe to operate" following an investigation into the cause of Sunday's rail car fire. He said it a software problem aboard the train failed to prevent a voltage surge that built up heat in an electrical component in the undercarriage, and that led to the fire in one of the 6000 series cars, the newest in Metro's fleet. The passengers on the Green Line train were evacuated at the Waterfront-SEU Station. No injuries were reported. With the help of the manufacturer, Alstom, Metro has fixed the software problem in most of the 190 cars that have this version, but still has more than 40 left to repair, Feil said. That should be done by Friday or Saturday morning, since it takes half an hour or less to make the fix...

By | April 12, 2007; 11:58 AM ET | Comments (2)

Transit Riders Invited to Metro Workshop

Metro and its Riders Advisory Council will hold a workshop tonight at 7:30 during which people can comment on improvements they would like to see in Metrorail service. The session will be on the Lobby Meeting Room of Metro's headquarters, 600 5th St. NW. The riders council, a group of people drawn from across the region that Metro serves, could benefit from your experiences with the trains and buses. Also, the more people who contribute suggestions, the more credibility the council has in getting Metro to pay attention to the ideas. You can get to Metro's downtown headquarters by train or bus: It's near the Gallery Place-Chinatown or Judiciary Square stations on the Red Line, and Gallery Place on the Yellow and Green lines; also, Metrobus routes D1, D3, D6, P6, X2, 70, 71, and 80 will get you there. You can stay in touch with Metro's public meetings --...

By | April 11, 2007; 08:15 AM ET | Comments (6)

Metrobus Problems at Friendship Heights

During a Live Online discussion Monday, a reader asked about bus service changes in Northwest Washington related to the problems with the low ceiling at the Friendship Heights terminal. Later, Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel wrote in with an explanation of some temporary measures Metro has taken and how they will play out. I thought I'd post that for everyone. This was the reader's question. Friendship Heights, D.C.: There seem to be unpublicized bus service reductions between Friendship Heights and Tenleytown. Several times I've been on Wisconsin Ave and gotten on a northbound 30-series bus, labeled for Friendship Heights, and the driver stopped at Tenleytown, saying his route ended there because he was driving a natural gas bus. The bus schedule doesn't indicate that any runs stop at Tenleytown, and neither does Metro's Web site. Why can't they continue until the stop right before the FH bus terminal, or barring that,...

By | March 13, 2007; 04:55 PM ET | Comments (12)

Should Metro Riders Have Bill of Rights?

Is this a fair comparison? When Metro riders were commenting in the entry below about the big service disruptions Monday afternoon on the Orange and Blue lines downtown, I was thinking about how JetBlue's management reacted to its storm delays and cancellations. The airline managers practically eviserated themselves in shame over their failure to provide service to their passengers. You can go to JetBlue's Web site and hear David Neeleman, the CEO, apologize for the poor service and promise that it would never happen again. He announces a specific set of service changes to back up that promise. Posted on the Web site is a passengers' bill of rights explaining what the airline will do for you if it fails to deliver the service a customer paid for. From time to time, Metro fails to provide the service passengers have paid for, as happened Monday afternoon when a report of...

By | February 28, 2007; 08:42 AM ET | Comments (61)

Complaints on Monday's Metro Disruption

I've gotten a couple of complaints today from riders affected by Monday afternoon's service disruption on the Orange and Blue lines downtown, and I'm wondering if any of you had similar experiences. The writers are complaining about a lack of information, as well as about the disruption itself, which followed a report of smoke in the tunnel between Federal Triangle and Smithsonian. Dear Dr. Gridlock: It is rush hour, 6:30 p.m. on a Monday, a large and restless crowd is on the platform at Metro Center downstairs. For almost 15 minutes no information displays on the monitors, no trains pass by (4 the other way), no announcements of any sort and the Manager loitering on the platform knows nothing. Even better, he informs a concerned customer that he has no way to communicate with the office - no radio, only shoes for walking there. Good thing there wasn't an emergency...

By | February 27, 2007; 02:01 PM ET | Comments (31)

Metro Testing New Rail Car

When Metro introduced its newest type of rail car last year, riders were worried -- especially riders within a few inches of 5 feet in height. They didn't like the new design that eliminated the poles at the front and rear of other cars so that riders would move toward the center rather than congregating around the doors. Eliminating the jam of passengers around the doors was a fine idea in principle, they said, but in practice, everybody knows that trains often stutter to a stop at platforms, and people need something to grab onto. Preferably, something besides each other. Few liked the idea of trying to reach up for overhead railings. New cars introduced last year, minus the poles. (Robert Thomson) Today, Metro is going to begin testing one rail car along the Green Line that just might please riders put off by the new design, but there's only...

By | February 7, 2007; 06:53 AM ET | Comments (82)

Metro GM Wants Delay on Fare Plan

Metro's new general manager, John B. Catoe Jr., plans to ask the transit authority board of directors for more time to review Metro operations before he offers his own set of proposals on fares and service. He is scheduled to present that request at board committee meetings on Thursday. The original plan offered by Metro management in December called for the board to agree this month on the schedule of public hearings necessary before fare and service changes could take place at the start of Metro's budget year in July. This new recommendation does not mean we're spared from fare increases and service cutbacks. Catoe just got started last week and wants a chance to look things over and present his own ideas. Here's how he puts it in his written recommendation to the board: "Fare adjustments and service reductions should be viewed as actions of last resort in the...

By | February 6, 2007; 08:19 AM ET | Comments (6)

Metro's Latest Problems

Some greeting for Metro's new GM. At the controls only a week and the new toy keeps breaking down. Some ride for Red Line passengers. You see the new T-shirt on the cover of The Post's Style section this morning? "I Rode the Red Line in January and it was Smokin' " Could be a big seller, even in February, if someone decides to produce it. Lena Sun wrote a story for today's Post about Metro's troubled Wednesday, which involved a bomb scare a small fire at Farragut North for the second day in a row and a fire aboard a bus for the second day in a row. With an excellent sense of timing, Metro also announced a new feature on its customer service phone line that allows callers to get more information about incidents likely to cause significant delays. The transit authority put out a lengthy statement about...

By | February 1, 2007; 08:05 AM ET | Comments (16)

New Metro Chief Introduces Himself

The new guy looked pretty good: John B. Catoe Jr., the D.C. native who took over as Metro's general manager last Thursday, held his first press conference this moring to talk about his initial impressions and plans regarding the transit system. Nothing horrible has happened during his five-day watch, so this wasn't hardball. Still, he did many of the things that suggest his skills as a manager: Respect for his staff, a vision of what he can do to improve its performance, a focus on his customers, powers of observation and a sense that he's responsible for how this all comes together. His initial attention to the transit system's safety shows not only a good sense of priorities but also of timing, since the recent deaths of track workers and the derailment of a train are so prominent in the minds of transit workers and customers. Catoe said he wants...

By | January 29, 2007; 02:31 PM ET | Comments (10)

More Information From Metro

Metro is going to launch an information program in a couple of weeks for those of us who actually want to know why the train got stopped and how long it's going to stand still. The program that Lena Sun wrote about in Sunday's Post reminds me of those AM radio broadcasts that police or highway departments use to tell us why traffic is stopped on the highway and whether we can do anything to get out of it. For Metro, it will be a phone call to the customer service line that gets us the information about the delay. Now, I know what you're going to say -- or at least the first thing you're going to say. If train operators or station managers were sharing information, or if all the announcements were clear, we wouldn't need this. And it's true. Another thing you'll point out is that if...

By | January 29, 2007; 05:30 AM ET | Comments (5)

Metro's Problem-Plagued Cars

Metro and the National Transportation Safety Board have not determined the cause of Sunday's derailment at Mount Vernon Square, but it's interesting to note that it involved the troublesome 5000 Series of railcars. The transit authority bought 192 of these cars, which were the first to have the red, white and blue color scheme (although by now, many other cars also have that color scheme). They began to enter service in 2001 and last of them started running in 2004. The cars were built by CAF Inc., a Spanish manufacturer that was hoping to enter the U.S. transit market. The cars has troubles all through the construction process, plus there were many mechanical and electronic problems once they entered service. They were involved in four derailments in less than 18 months. There was a debate within Metro over whether the design of the cars was a contributing factor, but they...

By | January 8, 2007; 08:22 AM ET | Comments (12)

Many Metro Disruptions This Winter

Now that the holiday season is over, Metro is resuming its weekend track work, which will be with us for the foreseeable future, the transit authority says. This weekend, track maintenance and rail car testing on the Green and Yellow Lines will cause delays of 15 to 20 minutes, according to Metro, because the trains will be sharing a single track. Click here to see the full details on Metro's Web site. This is just the beginning. During the winter, major track renovations will affect service on all lines. During the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend-- the weekend after this -- Metro will close Arlington Cemetery Station to replace a rail switch. During Presidents Day weekend -- Feb. 16 to 19 -- Metro will close Cheverly Station to replace an