There is a lot of talk about how the DC Metro is not keeping up on it maintenance. I had occasion to ride Metro to gain impressions on this topic. The last time I rode Metro is getting on more than 20 years ago. Now as then I regard the stations with their cast-concrete vaults as architecturally pleasing. As the system opened in 1976, my last, prior trip was midway between its opening and now.
That said, I want to say that it remains my favorite mode of transportation to get around the greater Washington D.C. area. The train line is a walk-across-a-pedestrian-bridge from Reagan National airport. It took me to within 10-minutes walk of where I was staying in Virginia, which was a comfortably walkable hotel-shipping-restaurant district along with the businesses and agencies served.
The trains accelerate briskly and smoothly. Don't know if the ride is as smooth as the proverbial Pullman car, but apart from some jiggle perceptable by sitting at a car end, the ride was steady and the suspension soaked up rolling over crossover switchpoints. Remembering the roar of the subway in Chicago, these train cars are remarkably quiet.
But the visual appearance of the train cars, ouch! What were once bright brushed-surface metal panels are now steeped in grime. The insides can only be described as dingy. For Metro's vaunted enforcement of a no-food policy -- Fawn Hall, secretary to Iran-Contra schemer Ollie North, was reported in the news as being issued a ticket to pay a fine for eating a banana in that pristine transportation jewel of our nation's capital -- there was chewing gum ground into the carpeted car floors. Whereas the stations were kept clean, I saw graffiti inside some subway tunnels -- how did it get there? As to the under-the-hood condition affecting safety that has garnered recent news coverage, I took as good a look as I was safely able from the platform and I thought I saw a "patch job" on a section of 3rd rail.
Besides the calls for better management supported by adequate funding, I guess the logical call would be to purchase newer train cars? Maybe there are maintenance or reliability concerns with the age 40 train cars, but as a passenger, they ran smoothly and quietly and I don't know what new cars would do apart from cost a lot of money people don't have.
Would it be possible to clean the cars? Yes, that costs money too, but how much? Could the brushed-metal outside panels be rebrushed to restore their original flat-coat luster? Can the gum be extracted from the carpets and can the insides be cleaned, or is the dingy yellowed look backed into the plastic trim? If they cannot be cleaned, can carpets and wall paneling be replaced? Or is this too expensive a proposition, the trains run fine and provide good service, and any money should be devoted to the mechanicals affecting safety.
Oh, and one more thing. I don't remember the farecard system 20 years ago as being anywhere nearly as confusing to new or every-20-year riders. Prior to arriving, I checked the fare to where I was going as $2.95 one way (peak -- peak vs off-peak times of day are not explained). When I got to the airport station, the fare was quoted as $3.95 -- no big deal to me, but it got me off my game. A transit station-keeper helping other puzzled airport-arrival first-time riders helped me, and I put in 8 dollars into the fare machine and got 10 cents change to pay for a round trip at 2 times 2.95 plus a $2 deposit for the plastic fare card.
The fare card is also transponder equiped that you just wave it over the turnstile. Don't know if I created as much a stir as Secretary Clinton's photo op of riding the subway in New York and trying to figure out how to get past the turnstile, but the last time I rode the DC Metro, I thought you paid an exact fare for a paper card with a magnetic strip, there was no deposit, you actually fed the card into a slot to enter or leave, and when you used up the fare, the machine took your card away from you. Another person attending the same meeting as me who participates in these meetings on a regular basis told me he has a deskdrawer for plastic fare cards at home carrying the 2 dollar deposit that he keeps forgetting to bring with him on his trips to DC.
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
A postscript on my two main points: 1) the threadbare look to the train cars and 2) the confusing fare options to "newbie" riders.
A gritty, grimy transit system might be OK for New Yawk or Chicaguh (I grew up riding the one in Chicago and have ridden New York's and other cities). A transit system isn't supposed to be an Eight Wonder of the World, it is utilitarian, it is a tool for people to get places around a bustling city.
But DC is our nation's capital, the capital of a great nation. I have e-rolled my eyes on many occasions on this web site with respect to the recurrent argument that it is somehow a national disgrace or a shame that this great nation lacks, say, a shiny high-speed intercity of comparable performance and quality to those of our major trading partners. On the other hand, if there is a place for a "showcase" train, DC Metro is it. I think this was recognized early on and embodied in what was then the "modern" industrial design of the trains to the architectural design of the stations to the no-food policy and making a public example of Ollie North's secretary eating a banana on a train platform.
Especially with respect to encouraging inexperienced transit users, of which Metro receives many owing to DC rightfully being a tourist destination regarding our national heritage and memories and a destination for petitioning our government, whether for a cause or to seek funding to carry out its governing functions beyond its city limit, or to participate in the Federal legal process.
To encourage the neophyte users, you want a pleasing environment, which Metro once had when I joke to friends about it being the "Moscow Subway", which at least during the Soviet days I am told was treated as a showcase decorated with art treasures, and back in the day the Soviet police engendered enough respect of the State that you didn't disrespect it by littering or vandalizing anything. I don't know what the Moscow subway looks like these days, but DC Metro has lost its showcase aspect, and the fare system has gotten more complicated.
DC Metro, to my mind, was intended not only as a showcase system to make DC welcoming to its many national and international visitors, but also as a showcase to the merits and efficiency of a modern transit system to influence urban planners and urban residents through our country. It was part of the "pendulum swing" back from complete reliance on road transport the got its start back in the 60's.
Money and budgets are tight, but if anything can be done to "freshen the look" and keep it friendly to us fly-over people coming to DC, I support this.
Montreal METRO aka STCUM METRO (almost as bad as the name SEPTA in Philly) during the Hot Quebec Summers is dusty dirty and hot on both stations and onthe train. The Rubber Wheels generate a lot more dust then the steel wheels and the venulation system for the cars is way outdated.
Paul MilenkovicOn the other hand, if there is a place for a "showcase" train, DC Metro is it. I think this was recognized early on and embodied in what was then the "modern" industrial design of the trains to the architectural design of the stations ...
The day they opened the system I was there on a class trip with the Transportation Program, and it looked dingy and dim. Its style was the sort of architecture that looks dirtier and more awful if any aspect of maintenance is ignored ... this in a city that has perennial low-rent problems outside of the parts maintained as islands of privilege with Federal dollars.
Take the WMATA system out from under the DC administration, and extensively redesign it esthetically, and put in lots and lots and lots of LED lighting, and you might be able to get rid of some of the intrinsic dinge factor. But do you really expect that all that is going to occur?
What is the DC Metro Tax Base? With most of land non taxable gov and NGO property whats left to tax to support rail and local services?
Metro is currently recieving new 7000 series cars and retiring and scrapping the 1000 series.
Paul Milenkovicthe last time I rode the DC Metro, I thought you paid an exact fare for a paper card with a magnetic strip, there was no deposit, you actually fed the card into a slot to enter or leave, and when you used up the fare, the machine took your card away from you.
Your memory is good. Back in the late '70s when I last took DC Metro, it looked to me like they used the same card readers as SF BART did. Newbies and tourists always have trouble with a new system so hopefully there is more than one working machine per station. More than likely some 'consultant' convinced *cough* DCM management that the new RFID fare cards were the solution to replacing paper tickets on buses and rail. As we've seen here in Los Angeles county, there are many, many ways to bungle that changeover and the consultants just kept cashing in.
As for the dingy carpets, that is surely a sign of incompetent management and/or a coddled union with narrow work rules. The exact same insane issue has existed on the original BART cars for 40+ years. Carpets should be replaceable with rubber mats as part of a routine maintenance cycle - WTH is so hard about that?
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NorthWest Metro is currently recieving new 7000 series cars and retiring and scrapping the 1000 series.
Why? The older cars appear to run and ride just fine -- are there maintenance problems with age? That is, have these cars outlived their "economic life", meaning, specifically, that the annual repair bills exceed the loan payment on new cars?
If getting new cars is to replace cars with the appearance of being worn out, can the interiors be gutted and replaced with fresh carpet and wall panels?
They are aging, but the main reason is that they do not do well in crashes. Metro has stuck them in the middle of consists to try to placate the public, but the physics remain the same.
The 7000s are due to replace the 4000s as well (eventually).
As you may know, regular railroad passenger equipment must meet specific compression tests, and the 1000-series cars date from a time when transit was exempt. Today, transit has its own compression test rules.
I think it is 700,000 b. for regular passenger cars, and 400,000 lbs for rail transit vehicles.
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