Metro Tries to Mend Its Manners

Whether Passengers Get a Greeting or a Grunt Depends on the Station Manager

Station manager Joyce Mullins calls in a supervisor, Robert B. Trueheart, for help fixing a Metro train's jammed door as passengers watch the proceedings. (James A. Parcell -- The Washington Post)

In the early morning hours at the Union Station Metro stop, station manager Joyce Mullins tosses out flashy smiles and familiar greetings about as quickly as passengers can turn through.

A woman shouts "Hi" and is sent on her way with a "Hi, sweetie, have a good day!" Another rider hands her a newspaper as he passes. "There are two of my favorites," she says, smiling at them as brightly as the gold and diamonds that flock about her ears, neck, wrists and fingers.

"Joyce is the friendliest woman in the system," Ron Perry gushes before handing her a newspaper. (Turns out a lot of people bring Mullins the paper.)

This all happens before things get a bit crazier and she has to race after a man because he forgot his Farecard, jog down the platform to fix a train door, call someone to turn on the fans because the station is too stuffy, walk out of the station and across the street to make sure the emergency hatch works and help an Estonian couple find their way in the confusing confines of underground Washington.

But not all station managers are like Mullins. By Metro's admission, Mullins's colleagues can be surly, uninterested, only grudgingly helpful and occasionally downright hostile. And that's when they're alert.

Rider Doug Walcutt sums up his impression of station managers in a single word: "Grouchy." He said he was verbally accosted by one manager recently when he tried to exchange a Farecard that didn't work. "They're in a customer service position," Walcutt said, "and they need to understand what that is."

Metro officials acknowledged as much last week, announcing that the system's 308 station managers would be retrained in how to be more civil so they're not so grouchy and so they don't keep falling short on customer service. The announcement came after a pregnant woman complained that a station manager screamed at her and her husband, brandished a broom and pushed her husband after they inquired about a broken escalator.

A ride on Metro's Red Line from Glenmont to Farragut North on Friday morning revealed an uneven performance by station managers along the way.

Managers who were asked the same questions about SmarTrip cards gave conflicting, often incorrect, answers. Some said the cards had to be purchased at Metro stores, although many stations have machines that sell them. Most said correctly that the cards cost $5, but one said that they cost $6 and another said $10, possibly failing to note that half of that would be applied as credit on the card. Some said the cards work on only a limited number of buses, even though all buses were fitted to use them this month.

When a manager at the Silver Spring station was asked about a broken escalator, the same question that led to the altercation this month, he snapped: "What's it look like?" He snapped again when asked what had happened to the escalator. "Ain't nothing happened to it; they're just overhauling it," he said, before giving a condescending explanation about how sometimes things break.

Some managers were very helpful, walking around and looking for people to assist. A woman at Gallery Place not only answered every question but asked about riding habits to see if there was anything else she could do.

And yet, not a single manager at any of 13 stations offered a greeting, much less a smile.

Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said the information given out and behavior exhibited by the station managers on Friday was "something that has to be addressed. That's something we can do and will do.

"One of their main functions is to be polite, courteous and professional at all times," Taubenkibel said. "They are also supposed to provide the best level of customer service information at the time they are working."