Transit on Thursdays: Now with Bated Breath
While we sit here tap-tapping our fingers, eagerly awaiting the Metro Board’s next move on our collective fare fate, we will distract ourselves with other traffic and metro related tidbits: metro savings, the ICC goes on and weekend delays.
Photo by philliefan_99
In the world of Metro, it’s safe to say: the more trains, the more room, the more frequency and the more accuracy, the better.
That’s why a little line in a recent Examiner story about shaving off some of WMATA’s $186 million funding shortfall through savings worries us.
Savings where, exactly?
“A Metro spokesman declined to elaborate on what services might be scuttled, but possibilities include fewer new railcars and buses, less security and safety training, and ending extra Yellow Line service.”
Maybe this Examiner reporter was just speculating, but if "ending extra Yellow Line service," or in other words rolling back the off-peak extension of the Yellow line to Ft. Totten that went into effect in January, is based on some possible reality, we really hope Catoe reconsiders. Green line passengers will no doubt agree that the Yellow Line extension is the greatest thing that's happened to them since the Regal Gallery Place movie theater opened up, and we can imagine a small but insistent protest movement emerging should you choose to yank it away from them so soon.
Maybe they can also stream Grey's Anatomy?
Catoe, of course, isn’t just making you wait longer for the sake of money in the bank. He’s also still exploring new ways to rake in the dough, reports WTOP. First it was those flashy, advertising signs in tunnels. Now he says they plan to install more flat screen TVs, like the ones installed outside some station (Chinatown, for example) giving train arrival updates, or public announcements like the weather.
As a side note: This Washington Post reader has some interesting suggestions for what seems like common sense things Metro can do to save some change. Maybe we can learn a thing or two from the Germans after all?
Highways = green? Not really.
Up in Maryland they are still toiling away on the Intercounty Connector, one of those fun multi-billion dollar projects folks have been working on since before this blogger was born.
The Montgomery Council has renewed concerns that the project, which will cut through communities with an 18-mile controlled access toll road, will hurt the environment, reports The Examiner.
Council, please note this almost universal rule about highways: Are they needed? Generally. Are they environmentally friendly? Not so much. Should you have already worked this out since umpteen draft environmental impact reports were released and scrutinized over the last ten years? We're thinking, yes.
Weekend track work, delays
Red Line trains will share a track between Ft. Totten and Takoma stations thanks to track maintenance from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Add up to 20 minutes of travel time to your trip.
Orange Line trains will share a track, also for track work, between the New Carrollton and Cheverly stations from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. To make things faster into downtown, every other Orange Line train will terminate at the Cheverly station and return to the Vienna/Fairfax-GMU station. Add up to 30 minutes of travel time to your trip.
Delays again this weekend on the Green Line thanks to continued new railcar testing. Trains will single track between Greenbelt and College Park from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and you should add 10 to 15 minutes of time to your trip.