Transit on Tuesday: The People Skills Edition
Metro, you know that we love you, and that sometimes, life isn't fair - after all, you've had kind of a rough year so far, and us transit buffs, we understand that. But you surely can understand that when we start seeing comments like, "I'm planning to go back to car pooling. Really. I'm getting fed up with this," we worry. Because for all your wild successes this year in getting people to the new baseball stadium and being able to cope with a huge uptick in riders - the general public tends to lose sight of them when incidents involving heat-bent tracks and derailments come into play. Which is why yesterday's dissemination of information relating to the commotion on seemingly every line of the system - not your fault, by the way; a power outage caused by faulty Dominion Power feeders is what knocked out power to the Dunn Loring station - is so potentially damaging to the good work that you do.
For example, as commenter Mainland pointed out yesterday, Metro's apocalyptic warning message to riders commuting home:
Metrorail is currently experiencing a service disruption at All Stations station.Disruption details: Due to a system-wide signaling problem. All metrorail trains are experiencing delays in both directions.
Rail line(s) affected: All Lines.
We understand holding some things back so you get it right, but it's very easy for non-Metro enthusiasts to look at this, roll their eyes, and scoff that mass transit has "failed" again. Whereas a smidgen of information that would assist people to get home might just turn the tide of public opinion to Metro's side.
Photo by DMM 88.
Our own food writer Jamie Liu was stuck in the mess on the Red Line at the converging center of the city:
I was stuck at Farragut North trying to go toward Shady Grove. After three trains passed me going the other direction, and the crowds were only getting denser, I hopped it to Gallery Place where it was completely empty. I waited five minutes for a train that had some seats left. By the time we got back to Farragut North, I saw some of the same people from when I had left.Not everyone is as crafty as Jamie when it comes to navigating the Metro, but something that really could have assisted in a scenario like this is communication of available information. When the electronic scheduling and signaling system goes down at every station, Metro workers and train operators should be used as conduits of information for customers. It's damage control, if you will. Would Metro have prevented immediate frustration by telling customers that conductors needed to manually phone in their locations to headquarters? Maybe not, but long-term faith and goodwill toward transit has got to begin with transparency and communication.
The Weather Isn't The Only Thing That's HOT: Well, well, this should be so much fun. Adam Tuss has the lowdown on the work that the Virginia Department of Transportation is undertaking for the next 18 months to install HOT lanes on the Beltway. Although the work is being conducted mostly in the late evening and early morning, there's always that potential for something to go awry, so we're advising cautiousness on the part of Virginia drivers. The full construction of the HOT lanes is expected to be completed in 2013 - an outline of the project so far can be found here.
Engines and Cabooses: Orange Line not the only one with major delays this week - VRE experienced significant backup this morning, due to a system failure on the part of CSX's rails... An accident involving a Metrobus slowed the Connecticut Avenue rush hour commute yesterday afternoon... Arlington to raise cab fares; new fare structure goes into effect August 1... Arlington bus drivers are on strike, so some supervisors have taken over driving duties... More fun with Chevy Chase traffic cameras: woman is charged twice for similar infractions, files appeal to be able to choose which ticket to pay.