Saturday, February 18, 2006
For years I have listened to how strapped for cash Metro is. Now the federal government finally is kicking in $20 million for Metro upgrades -- to accommodate a new baseball stadium [Metro, Feb 7]. What a case of twisted priorities.
Does Stafford County need a professional sports team to get the transportation upgrades it needs?
RANDY LEA
Fredericksburg
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I ride Metro regularly from Court House to Metro Center and have seen the shortcomings of Metro's experiment with eight-car trains [Metro, Jan. 31]. At Court House I have experienced long waits, crowded stations and even more crowded trains. Any benefit from reduced Orange Line congestion is lost when riders must endure longer waits between trains, when people must trudge the length of the platform to find a car with space and when operators must stop longer at each station to allow passengers to exit packed trains.
GUS SANDSTROM
Arlington
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A Feb. 10 editorial took Metro to task for the tough transition MetroAccess riders have had adjusting to the new paratransit service provider, MV Transportation. We continue to work with MV to improve service.
The editorial said that Metro did not provide enough lines for its call center. Additional phone lines were installed and tested in December. Unfortunately, it was not until we began to use the lines in February that we discovered that the phone company had not properly configured them; it took five days to rectify the problem.
The editorial also said that "blind passengers and others waiting inside buildings do not know if a vehicle has arrived" to pick them up. Not so. Shortly
after MV Transportation began providing service, we developed a program that allows the
MetroAccess driver to press a switch that triggers an automated call to the customer letting the person know that MetroAccess has arrived. This ensures that nobody has to wait outside in the cold, regardless of whether he or she is visually impaired.
LISA FARBSTEIN
Acting Director of Media Relations
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Washington
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