The Weekly Feed: Experimentation Edition
Morning Roundup: Change Edition
Former Blade Staffers Launch 'DC Agenda'
D.C. Unemployment Rate Reaches 11.9 Percent
D.C. Insurance Dept. Denies Birth Control Coverage Meddling
A lot of you have been asking us when the Red Line will start running its normal number of trains and at regular speeds during rush hour, and today Metro offered an answer of sorts: it's going to be another 10 days, at a minimum. WMATA says Red Line riders should expect the same packed trains through July 19, thanks to ongoing reduced rush hour service during the NTSB investigation of the June 22 crash. Between now and July 19, Red Line trains will continue to move one at a time at a reduced speed between Takoma and Fort Totten, which is the source of most of the current Red Line troubles -- fewer trains can move along the line due to the change, and trains can more easily become backed up. The Takoma station will also continue to close at 10 p.m. for at least the next 10 nights as investigators continue their work. There's no guarantee in this Metro announcement that July 19 will be the last of it, either. Merely, word is that July 19 is the best case scenario.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebookTips
Contribute
Latest Tip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSSSLEG_hRk&feature=player_embedded
[more]
I'm surprised that nobody's thought of starting a gypsy cab between Ft. Totten and Silver Spring to pick up the slack. That's it. I'm doing it! Look for me hanging out in the Kiss & Ride in a 1993 Toyota Tercel spray-painted neon green. Save $1 if you mention that you heard about me on DCist!
July 19? WTF?
I used to get on metro at 10 am with non rush hour fare and get to work by 10:20-10:30 (about a half hour on red line), now I have to get on metro at 9:30 and pay the rush hour higher fare, just to get to work at the same time, and suffer a commute twice as long. If metro is going to lower the quality of their services, they shouldn't be charging me more for it. I understand that they finally get it now that they have to be safe after all their years of neglecting safety, but if they can't keep up with reasonable service levels, they should lower the fares.
This is right about when Red Line riders stop being sympathetic about the accident and start getting really pissed off.
I've actually noticed that its been a lot better the last few days. Not nearly as good as before the accident, but way better than last week.
After a major accident, I fully expect to have delays because of a serious ongoing investigation, and if this were any other transit system than Metro I would believe it except that I don't think Metro has the brains or funding right now to do so, as is apparent by the total clusterf**k that has become the red line.
But can we disregard that for a nano-second and just discuss the fact that my fellow riders have turned into incredible @$$wipes? In the week and a half after the accident there would be people (tourists included who are just clueless) just staring at you blankly and unmoving as we tried to push our way off the train, only to be met with the 1.5 million people on the platform waiting to rush the train doors. And when you asked them to move *off the train, as there was no room to move to the center*, (assertively, if not forcefully because they acted as though they didn't understand english) you were greeted with rude and juvenile insults befitting some of DC's finest youth. I watched and experienced this many times and I'm still amazed at how ignorant people truly are.
I admit that I don't have anywhere to go and therefore am not really affected by late trains or waiting for the 2nd or 3rd train to come by with space to get in, so I don't take issue with the delays, but I'm probably the exception here. I do take issue with the increasing circus the whole system has become and is compounded by an accident and full on tourist season.
To be more accurate, your fellow riders haven't turned into incredible @$$wipes. They've always been @$$wipes. It's just that they've stopped trying to hide it.
what pisses me off is that i am a chick and pretty tiny at that, and some dipshit douchebag at union station decided this morning to shove me into the non-moving escalator because he absolutely must catch that train that is coming in 4 fucking minutes. i wasnt even in the way and its not like i had a suitcase or fucking luggage-roller-thing that most people who exit union station have.
he was just blatantly shoving people out of the way to get down the escalator.
meanwhile i feel like i have bruised a rib.
I think a junk punch was called for. Raise the pitch of his voice and teach him manners.
The Red Line could use those ushers with cattle prods that one sees in the Tokyo metro about now.
OTR: i really wanted to turn into a bitch and yell at him for winning the dipshit of the day award, but everyone behind me probably would have shoved me upwards or gotten pissed that i halted the turtle-paced movement of the escalator line.
CD: i have seriously considered buying a "cell phone taser" and using it to people who act like that dude, further known as DIPSHIT (because it makes me feel better to say DIPSHIT)
If that ever happens to me I swear I will starty yelling RAPE! RAPE! RAPE! at the top of my lungs until the entire station comes to a halt. That'll teach those DIPSHITS.
after the fact, i did consider what would've happened if i had screamed something like 'he just grabbed my vagina!!!'
Perhaps some of the red line riders should look at bus schedules. There are a lot of buses that duplicate that service.
Buses are for, you know, the coloreds (except the Circulator, of course).
Excellent suggestion. I just spent a good deal of time on WMATA researching alternate routes to my current client...L1 bus, here I come. The Red Line can suck it.
i found out the 96 picks me up near work and drops me off within 2-3 blocks of my house.
i usually take js to chinatown to green line. phew that shaved off like 20 minutes. except the time i took it the wrong way. good god.
I hate everyone who has suddenly discovered the L1/L2. WE WERE HERE FIRST give me a damn seat.
Yes, I considered taking the bus, and the 42 is now packed with people who would otherwise take the Red Line. And, of course, it still hasn't occurred to WMATA that perhaps now would be a good time to boost service on bus lines that mirror the Red Line, so here we are.
I have noticed that the Red Line seems to have improved over last week. I don't have to ride in the opposite direction one stop just to get some space on the train, and trains were running at 4-5 minute intervals this morning instead of 10 minutes like last week.
The situation does seem to have improved since the holiday period is mostly over and the tourists have left, though God knows what tourists were doing on the Metro at 8 am.
The Red Line is f*cked, yet there are still ding-a-lings taking trains from Judiciary Square to Gallery Place. Or Gallery Place to Metro Center. Clogging platforms and trains along the way, just to go one stop. Locals and tourists are both so programmed to rely on Metro rail for every single little trip. Enjoy the low humidity and shockingly pleasant July - WALK! Or use your morbidly obese scooter device, whatever.
Also, the city invented the Circulator so that white people would use it - please do.
I walk from work (near Union Station) to Gallery Place and take the Green Line home, but only if I know there are serious Red Line delays. Like I said yesterday, if they could alert us before we paid to enter the station, I would walk.
Another thing - I bet most (maybe all) of those tourists don't realize how close someof those stations are and they are better off walking.
Jeez, did I just defend tourists on the Metro? Must be opposide day.
I might try the S9 up 16th street to silver spring instead of the 1 hour ride on the redline. Of course I'm sure hundreds of other have the same idea...
I tried that bus line, and it still takes just as long as the current metro ride.