Metro Seeks Better Ways To Get Word Out to Riders

Rail controllers can make announcements in stations via the public address system and speak to train operators and repair crews via radio. But there is no easy way for them to speak directly to train passengers because the radio has only one channel. So if they are talking directly to passengers, those trying to fix the problem can't talk to each other.

During rush hour, trains run two to three minutes apart downtown, so "controllers have only about 30 seconds" to figure out what to do and talk to operators and crews, said Deputy General Manager Gerald Francis. Nevertheless, live announcements can be made quickly, he said, so Metro is considering adding employees whose jobs would be to pass information from controllers to passengers in easy-to-understand language.

Station managers receive limited information because they don't have radios. Only some of the 107 kiosks have one-way scanners that allow station managers to get updates, but they don't always work. Alternately, they have telephones with direct lines to the control center. But there is no way to alert all station managers without calling each separately.

Station managers often have to call the control center or rely on announcements over the much-maligned public-address system.

"Half the time, I can't hear what they're saying," said a station manager at Farragut North last week, stepping out of his booth to answer a passenger's question about an unintelligible announcement.

Some of the speakers are more than 30 years old and were installed in the concrete arches of the stations, creating echoes that make announcements hard to comprehend. Metro has replaced the systems in a third of its 39 underground stations with speakers closer to ear level. Officials said they hope to finish the rest by June 2009.

Sound problems are exacerbated when announcements aren't clear or loud enough.

At L'Enfant Plaza, which has an old system, Michelle Vaca was reading on a bench last week when a jarring, garbled sound forced her eyes from her book.

"May I have your attention, ladies and gentleman," a muffled voice began. With her ear cocked, Vaca turned to try to hear the message and managed to make out a single, crucial word: "Vienna."

"I kind of understood there were delays, but I had no idea what line they were talking about," she said, awaiting a Blue Line train to Federal Center. "But I heard, 'Vienna,' so once I heard 'Vienna,' I said, 'Okay, that's not me.' "

Staff writer Elissa Silverman contributed to this report.