The heavy schedule of single-tracking around work zones at off-peak hours on weekdays and weekends also will continue through the year.
Trains, buses, escalators
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Metro’s capital budget report for the current fiscal year lists achievements that include the purchase of more than 100 new buses and the rehabilitation of 100 older ones; 21 miles of new running rail, for smoother and more reliable rides; and the rehabilitation or replacement of 43 escalators and three elevators.
The capital budget for fiscal years 2013-2018 includes 300 new rail cars to replace the oldest ones in the fleet; restoration of the automated train controls, which also would contribute to smoother rides; rehabilitation of 32 miles of track; and replacement of 550 buses and refurbishment of 600 others.
Significant changes from previous plans include the decision to replace, rather than rehabilitate, 94 escalators and 18 elevators. Metro has come to the conclusion long accepted by many riders that this problem-plagued equipment isn’t worth rehabilitating. Similarly, Metro now wants to replace the 100 rail cars that make up the 4000 series, rather than have them go through a midlife rehabilitation.
Both the capital and operating budgets reflect preparations for the Silver Line in Northern Virginia. Construction is scheduled for completion in summer 2013. Metro is buying the 128 rail cars and setting up the staff to operate the first segment of the line out to Reston.
General Manager Richard Sarles said that, with the exception of the preparations for the Silver Line, most of his budget is about restoring and upgrading the system rather than expanding its capacity. Beyond the Silver Line acquisitions, the rail car program replaces parts of the fleet. It doesn’t expand the number of eight-car trains but maintains the current goal of 50 percent eight-car trains overall.
That doesn’t mean half the trains on your line are eight cars long, as you’ve probably noticed. The morning peak schedule on the Red Line calls for 20 six-car trains and 21 eight-car trains. On the Orange Line, it’s 18 sixes and 12 eights. On the Green Line, it calls for 10 sixes and 10 eights. On the Blue and Yellow lines, there are no eights scheduled. The Blue has 23 sixes, and the Yellow has 10 sixes.
The total during the morning peak is 81 sixes and 43 eights.
Is it getting better?
Sarles said yes. For example, on-time performance is getting better. But riders will see the improvements in “incremental, small steps,” he said in an interview. When he presented his spending proposal to Metro board members this month, he said: “This budget is one step along the way of rebuilding Washington Metro.”
It’s a long view that riders have difficulty seeing. To them, Metro’s effort doesn’t break down into a phased effort to fix this, then fix that, then the ride gets better. To them, it’s just one problem ride after another.
A D.C. rider named Andrew Holtz put it to me this way.
“A day doesn’t pass without some form of Metro headache,” he wrote. “It can be any of the following unacceptable occurrences: train delays, track work, elevator/escalator down, no information posted on train arrivals, broken fare gates, trains that stop and sit on the track for no reason, trains that can’t seem to brake without tossing riders into each other, overcrowded weekend trains, the 20-minute wait for a train when it isn’t 6 to 8 a.m. or 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. and the non-stop fare increases.”
What’s your view? Can you wait for a better ride?
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