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Sarah Krouse at the WaBizJo reports that Metro authorities will meet on Thursday to discuss a 4 to 6 percent fare hike and other uncomfortable features associated with balancing the budget for fiscal year 2011. That discussion comes after a holiday weekend over which WMATA didn't make any new friends. Metro authorities are defending their decision to close three critical Metro stations in Northern Virginia for the holiday weekend, saying that the decision was planned well in advance. Labor Day was slapped on the calendar in 1882, but never mind that. Premeditation only enhances the crime in the eyes of frustrated Metro users, would-be mall shoppers, and diverted travelers.
Choose your poison: Both #metrofail or #metrosucks have any number of 140-character harangues to offer on the Twitter. This is bread-and-butter material for Unsuck DC Metro, who's compiled a best-of collection of complaints about We Must Aggravate Travelers Again.
With all that said: Is there some justification for Metro's bold decision to close Crystal City, Pentagon City, and National Airport for the Labor Day weekend? Metro says that this Labor Day means staycation for District residents, so planning track work for this holiday weekend will disrupt fewer Metro users. However, fewer people leaving the D.C. area might very well mean more people shopping in the city -- if they can reach shopping hubs like Crystal City and Pentagon City.
Metro says that if they didn't have this three-day weekend to do the work, they would've had to slate four consecutive weekends of laborious single tracking. This second option sounds far, far more preferable. First of all, I walk into any given Metro station on any given weekend day expecting delays. I know I would hardly notice if there were four consecutive weekends of delays because I'm unlikely to travel by Metro over four consecutive weekends. Nevertheless, those people who do frequent the Metro on the weekend would probably agree that single tracking serves them better than closing the station entirely.
Further, people value their time more highly on a holiday weekend than they do over a regular weekend. Travelers make late and even last-minute decisions to fly -- decisions they don't clear beforehand the WMATA site for dramatic maintenance interruptions. And it's not just people who appreciate holiday weekends. Cities take the time to plan holiday events -- like the Arlington 9/11 Memorial 5K this evening -- that aren't easily rescheduled for a non-holiday weekend.
If Metro officials decide to kick up fares on Thursday, they might consider waiting a few weeks to announce the fact. Maybe at a time when hundreds of users don't feel burned by a decision that seemed to come from nowhere. And someone should ask the question during the meeting: Why does Metro hate teh workers?
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I don't like that the stations are closed for three consecutive days, but with their budget troubles I would like them to do 3 days of work versus 8 days.
I don't think it's a simple matter of 3 days versus 8 days. It's 3 days of massive inconvenience over an important holiday versus 8 days of relatively minor inconvenience over less important days.
Really, Kriston, you think this holiday is all that important? Enough to prefer an extra five days of inconvenience over "less important days"? Really?
Either you don't ride metro very much or your patriotism is clouding your judgment.
It is one three day weekend. Out of plenty. Take a cab and get over it.
If you take Metro at their word (a stretch these days, I realize), then this was the least busy of the 3-day holiday weekends. So there may actually be some logic to their decision. I guarantee more people would be up in arms if they had to shut down stations on regular weekdays.
I've always thought of Labor Day weekend as a driving holiday anyway (see Chesapeake Bay Bridge). So it makes some sense that this would be a better holiday for Metro to do the work.
There was never any suggestion about closing those stations on weekdays. The alternative was single-tracking on several weekends.
Plus, the decision didn't come from nowhere. My boyfriend, who lives in Crystal City, heard about the closings at least a month ago, and planned accordingly (to be out of town).
Where do you get that the alternative was 4 weekends of single tracking? From Metro's press release, “By completing this work during the Labor Day holiday weekend, we will save more than $1 million in late-night maintenance costs that would have resulted in 150 days of single-tracking.”
Plus, if you need to get to the closed stations, free shuttles are available.
And since when is Crystal City a major shopping destination?
From the article:
"Had we not used a three-day weekend to do this, it would've required four consecutive weekends of very long, lengthy single tracking," said Steve Taubenkibel, Metro Public Affairs.
meh. what are we going to do if they hike the prices - mass protest and not take metro at all? wmata is going to do whatever they want despite us griping and complaining about it. they are going to hike the prices whenever they want, they are going to close the stations whenever they want. i think those of us who take metro quite often (i take it at least twice a day, everyday, not including my multiple bus trips) i say go ahead and shut the shit down on labor day. i dont give a snort if i am inconveniencing the out of towners. keep the tourists away!!
WMATA should fire its customer service reps before raising fares. Metro obviously doesn't do anything with rider complaints, so why bother keeping the staff?
I do wonder what the receipts will look like for this weekend at Pentagon City Mall. I'd be tempted to swing by to see how busy they are, but as I depend on Metro to get around, I'm loath to make a special trip.
Trips that I took between Alexandria and College Park and between Alexandria and Archives were each delayed by about 30-35 minutes, which was less of a delay than I had anticipated.
The worst delay I encountered involved being loaded on a bus at Pentagon, then being reoffloaded. There were too many passengers for the first bus, so Metro brought in a still-crowded articulated bus, rather than having some passengers wait for another bus.