Washington's Metro Rail Woes

[BaltACD]

QUOTE: Originally posted by RudyRockvilleMD

This is for Balto ACD
You are right a Metro cop did arrest a girl for eating a candy bar as she entered a Metro Rail station. Metro does not allow food consumption on its trains or in its stations so in this case the cop was on firm ground.

While he may have had one foot on firm legal ground, the other leg was in public relations quicksand for the manner in which acted.

[RudyRockvilleMD]

This is for Balto ACD
You are right a Metro cop did arrest a girl for eating a candy bar as she entered a Metro Rail station. Metro does not allow food consumption on its trains or in its stations so in this case the cop was on firm ground.

[BaltACD]

I seem to recall a Metro cop arrested a school girl for the sacrilege of 'eating a candy bar' on a Metro train. I could be mistaken.

[RudyRockvilleMD]

2004 will go down as the year Metro Rail’s management would like to forget. It’s kind of like they were” The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.” During the year many incidents occurred, and many problems arose which cast Metro Rail in a bad light.

The most recent incident happened yesterday, November 3, when an empty train on the Red Line apparently lost its brakes and started rolling backwards down a 4% grade, and it crashed into a standing train which was picking up passengers in the station. The tracks in that area are supposed to have some type of an automatic stop device to stop just such runaways, but it didn’t work. Fortunately few were injured, but none seriously or life threatening. The NTSB is looking into this accident. In late October there were two incidents of cracks in rails both of which disrupted service.

Here are some of the other incidents and problems:

An internal audit in February uncovered the fact that the parking lot contractor’s cashiers were skimming $1 million dollars a year from the parking receipts.

A fire on the Red Line in March during the morning peak hours forced riders off the trains.

In June the Metro‘s board, made up of appointees from Metro’s service area, suggested Metro should only run 2 car trains late at night. This led to massive overcrowding so Metro went back to its standard 4 car trains after 10 PM in July after many complaints.

In June to get around the problem of cashiers skimming parking fees the Metro board forced those who park at the rail stations to use “smart cards to pay for their parking.” Only trouble was there were not enough Smart Cards to sell, and there was no hope of getting enough of them in the near future.

Part of the ceiling in one of the underground stations collapsed in July as well.

In August a train derailed in the Silver Spring station, fortunately there were no injuries, nevertheless the line was closed. Also a control room in the Silver Spring station was flooded in August after heavy rains. Some of the control equipment which was on or near the floor was damaged.

In September, workers in one of Metro Rail’s stations ignored sprinkler alarms, and the station was flooded. In the same month Metro did not run enough trains after a Sunday night Redskins football game in September which stranded and delayed many travelers.

A Metro cop arrested a pregnant woman for talking too loud on her cell phone. Trouble was there was no definition of how loud was loud. Metro had to drop the charges; a law suit may be pending. A Metro station manager screamed at a pregnant woman, and pushed her husband after they asked about a stopped escalator. This resulted in having to have to send Metro Rail’s station managers back to “charm school.”

All of these incidents and problems reflect poorly on Metro Rail’s management or its ability to adequately serve the traveling public