
How the Washington D.C. Metro got so bad - pwthornton
http://www.washingtonian.com/blogs/capitalcomment/transportation/why-does-metro-suck-dangerous-accidents-escalator-outages.php
======
sageabilly
Living in the DC metro area I see two big issues with Metro service: 1- there
are four different jurisdictions (VA, MD, DC, and the Feds) all trying to
agree on every little thing and all trying to get their piece of the pie, and
2- people _have to_ use Metro. Traffic on I-66/495/395 is so ungodly bad that
even when Metro is single-track for repairs it's still on par or even slightly
faster than traffic. And that's on a _good_ traffic day; it's worse when it's
raining. Not to mention the standard issue with finding and paying out the
nose for parking once you've driven into DC. Metro doesn't have a huge
incentive to provide better service because even with ridership being down 5%
it's probably not going to dip much further since Metro riders have no
alternative.

I think DC is also semi-unique in the makeup of its commuters since inside the
beltway is such a hub for employers and a large number of employees are happy
to have an hour+ commute each way. The cost of real estate is so ridiculously
high around here that you don't start seeing 3+ BR townhomes becoming
accessible on anything other than a VP+ salary until about 15 miles out from
downtown DC. If you want a freestanding home over 1000sft the affordability
distance becomes 20+ miles.

From what I've seen a vast majority of people will do whatever contortions
they need to in their personal lives to get and keep a government/ government
contractor job because those jobs have incredible stability (contractor not as
much as working directly for the government, however that depends on what
contractor you work for). Once you've got the coveted federal job you're happy
to live in a basement 20 miles from the city on your entry-level pay tier
because if you can just grin and bear it long enough you'll be almost
guaranteed employment for life. Those employees can, do, and will continue to
use Metro despite every problem it has because sitting in their car on I66 for
an hour is not a viable alternative.

~~~
JPKab
"Once you've got the coveted federal job you're happy to live in a basement 20
miles from the city on your entry-level pay tier because if you can just grin
and bear it long enough you'll be almost guaranteed employment for life. Those
employees can, do, and will continue to use Metro despite every problem it has
because sitting in their car on I66 for an hour is not a viable alternative."

This is completely true. Let's also not forget that these employees quickly
become unemployable in any other sector. They are literally trapped in the
region, because most of these jobs are simply a part-time task for a single
worker in the private sector, or completely automated. This further drives up
home prices, because even if you hate the area, you're going to buy whatever
you can afford since you know you aren't going anywhere.

DC: The weather of Philadelphia, the home prices of the Bay Area, the traffic
congestion of Honolulu, the hostile to newcomers attitude of Seattle, and the
not-so-bright but got rich off the system anyway culture of Wall Street.

What a place.

~~~
greggarious
I've heard DC described as "Northern hospitality meets southern efficiency",
which probably sums up Metro as well.

~~~
hitekker
Wait a second, the south is known for its hospitality, and the north is known
for its effi... ha, excellent!

------
GVIrish
Count me as another DMV resident who now avoids the hot mess that is the
Metro.

For me, the scary thing is that the multitude of issues the Metro has almost
weekly means that another fatal incident can happen any day now. After the
2009 crash the trains all went to manual brakes so they could sort out the
automatic braking system that failed. To my knowledge that _still_ isn't
fixed. That indicates to me that they're still way behind on getting safety
under control, much less making the organizational changes required to avoid
another fatality like the L'Enfant incident.

WMATA embodies the cautionary tale of an organization that has allowed
incompetence, selfishness, and indolence to metastasize and paralyze a big
organization to the point that it is killing people. It's going to take a
whole new cadre of leadership to root out the blight at WMATA, not to mention
the boatload of money that will be needed to pull out of the death spiral.

It's a shame, I bought my damned house partially because of its proximity to a
Metro stop and now I avoid taking it.

~~~
eli
I'm less worried about a train derailment or crash. Metro has well-documented
safety failures, but if you look at the numbers you're far safer riding a
Metro to work than riding a bike or driving a car.

That said, I really think it's a matter of time before overcrowded rush-hour
platforms lead to someone falling on the tracks or getting stampeded. I fought
thought this crowd this morning:
[https://twitter.com/wowindc/status/676761566751105025](https://twitter.com/wowindc/status/676761566751105025)

~~~
GVIrish
Yeah my rational mind tells me that with 600k people riding the Metro every
day, the chances of me actually running into a dangerous incident are fairly
small. However, the chances of me running into a lengthy delay are pretty
high.

The crowding thing at rush hour is a huge pain, usually on the evening
commute. Haven't actually ridden Metro since Silver line started up but I
can't imagine that has lessened the crush.

------
notacoward
I guess the saddest part is that the DC Metro seemed no worse than others I've
ridden on as a tourist, such as Atlanta or NYC. The couple of times I've been
to DC, the Metro seemed at least the equal of my home-town (Boston) MBTA which
I rode for years as my daily commute. DC's Metro sucks? Yeah, welcome to the
US.

~~~
JPKab
No, as someone who rode the Metro in DC daily for 8 years until I left the
region 18 months ago, it is far, far worse than NYC Subway.

The reason is simple. It was completely hijacked by a union who turned
themselves into a "good old boys club" for people from the poor neighborhoods
who were born and raised in DC and educated in it's horrifically bad public
school system.

The union once treated the management as the enemy, but once there was no more
money left to squeeze from the system itself, they began treating the riders
as the enemy. Fares were raised every 6 months by the time I left, and the
system continued to degrade.

The racial statistics of the system are clearly indicative of a racial bias in
hiring which is a direct result of the good old boy hiring system.

New mechanics are iced out in the same way the new managers were by the salary
doubling overtime culture the employees practice. Because to them, a single
mechanic working 12 hour shifts is better than two mechanics working 8 hour
shifts, despite the former costing the same and doing far, far less than the
latter to keep the system operational.

I support unions in the private sector. But my experience dealing with the DC
Metro has made me loathe them in any public monopoly where consumers have no
way to choose a competitor when the union gets out of hand and starts
siphoning money from them.

My favorite, glaring example which is a tiny sliver of what occurs courtesy of
the union:

A bus driver, several years ago, randomly pulled his bus over when he saw a
person in a "McGruff the crime dog" costume talking to children about drugs.
He assaulted McGruff, and then got back on his bus and continued operations.

The union forced the WMATA to rehire him, WITH BACKPAY. He still works there,
serving the public. He also had a previous felony record.

~~~
greggarious
Do you have a cite on that? Would love to circulate it, but can't without an
attribution.

~~~
SAS24
"But Vaughn, the arbitrator, decided that Brim's actions, although illegal and
inappropriate, were not undertaken with malicious intent. Vaughn based his
decision on witness statements, including those of the police officer, Tyrone
Hardy, Metro officials said.

Vaughn reduced Brim's penalty to a 30-day suspension and awarded him back pay
for the rest of the time. Farbstein did not know the value of back pay awarded
in either case."

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2010/06...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2010/06/09/AR2010060905926.html)

------
rayiner
> This situation might have been less crippling had Metro’s original
> architects built an additional track. The older systems in New York and
> Chicago both have four in places. Here, it was deemed too expensive. As a
> result, 40 years later, the only way for trains to bypass active work areas
> is to single-track around them, worsening delays.

It's incredible how short-sighted the D.C. Metro planners were.

~~~
lmm
NY and Chicago were lucky enough to inherit metro systems built back when
labour was extremely cheap (and safety standards for construction workers much
lower), and also to have easy access to solid bedrock (at least in NY's case).
Two tracks is normal in most of the world; when you compare the frequency of
works with the costs of an additional or larger bore 4-tracking is very rarely
worth it.

~~~
kjdal2001
The land that Chicago was built on was very swampy before it was drained. I
assume thats why the oldest parts of the El system are above ground, not
below.

~~~
ghaff
Though the Green Line in Boston is underground through the Back Bay which is
all landfill. (As is Amtrak.)

------
Smirnoff
Yeah, Metro administration in DC always infuriated me because they gave zero
f*cks about quality, contracts or safety.

1\. One time, they stopped working with a startup (which provided payment
cards/passes via direct paycheck/deposit) without giving any warning. So I was
stuck with $465 on my card, which I couldn't really use now.

2\. There also have been several cases when some drunk/high/angry people would
assault passengers in the evening. Ok, that happens in other places too.
However, one time I went and complained about it and they told me "Sorry, we
can't do anything. They left, we can't stop them now" Ok, how about you look
at your cameras so that you can stop them next time or increase number of
police? Yeah, their employees didn't really care about it.

------
antongribok
Long time listener, first time caller... Want to use the opportunity that this
story is on the front page to advertise
[http://wmataru.org/](http://wmataru.org/)

If you live in DC, please join. I think wheat they're trying to do is a good
thing. They are trying to focus on a few key areas to put various kinds of
pressure on WMATA officials.

I'm not affiliated with them in any way, except that I went to their first
public meeting. To say that it was "eye opening" would be an understatement.
I've lived in the DC metro area for over 25 years and I thought I knew all of
WMATA's problems, but some of the stories I heard at that meeting made me
realize how lucky I am to live within walking distance to an Orange Line stop.

------
cmurf
Look at the plus side? It's cleaner than NYC's subway system. By a lot.

~~~
djKianoosh
I have the exact opposite opinion.

~~~
badmadrad
NYC is dirty city. When there's trash on the streets all the time its hard not
to feel like everything is dirtier.

That being said, I feel like it depends on the stations. I would argue that
the dirtiest stations in NYC are way way more gross. You got some pretty
gnarly rat situations in some of the stations.

------
Yhippa
I haven't been to many other subway systems in the US other than Chicago,
Atlanta, and D.C. I would say in the US that D.C. seems to be the worst from
the sense of long times between cars, full cars that stop but you can't get on
because it's completely full, and making it difficult to add value to a stored
value card.

Including European systems I feel that I can tell if a system is good or not
if it impedes the travel part of my day. Can I notice that the system is
actively getting in my way?

------
officialchicken
Flawed by design. There are only 2 sets of tracks instead of 3 or 4 like most
cities; in DC, trains can't pass each other except in unusual circumstances.
There are no sidings or passings at stations. They can not run express trains,
use skip-stop, etc. As usual, the DC-centric view is that it's a political /
will-power issue when the reality is the analog of bandwidth - you can't fit
more trains on the track no matter what control "protocol" you use.

~~~
cballard
> you can't fit more trains on the track no matter what control "protocol" you
> use.

This is false, CBTC has greatly increased L train capacity:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automation_of_the_New_York_Cit...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automation_of_the_New_York_City_Subway#Canarsie_Line_CBTC)

The Canarsie line is two-tracked and doesn't have any mechanism for passing
besides single-tracking (also, no tail tracks at the Manhattan terminus).

~~~
officialchicken
L-train capacity was increased due to Sandy renovations of the tracks and
switches, not just signal improvements. Same as G.

------
mjevans
At least D.C. has a metro/subway system. Seattle's own efforts are anemic,
noisy, and above ground most of the time; in addition to being incredibly
slow, expensive, and doing nothing to ease a complete lack of urban planning
that has lead to a vast sprawl of suburbs and expensive rent in anything like
city areas.

------
binxbolling
Would also love to see an in-depth look at how the MBTA got so bad. A couple
fancy new/remodeled stations and 3rd rail replacements can't hide the fact
that it's an utter shitshow right now.

