Speak Up, Metro, So Your Riders Can Hear You

The day this letter came in, I was on a rush-hour train stopped at Union Station for what seemed like a long time. Announcements were being made on the platform and in the train, but it was impossible to hear them. The voices sounded fuzzy, and the volume was low.

I pulled out my cellphone, checked Metro's e-mail alerts to customers and discovered that a disabled train was causing delays. The e-mail alert is a fine service, I thought, but why must I use it to figure out what's happening to the train I'm already aboard?

One positive note about customer communications: The transit authority staff plans to spend a few months talking to riders and reviewing their thoughts about the Blue Line split before returning to the Metro board with a refined proposal. Metrorail riders boarding at King Street, Van Dorn Street and Franconia-Springfield are among those who will be consulted.

But they aren't the only ones who should get in on this. Blue Line riders on the Largo side and Orange Line riders from Vienna also would be affected by a new train pattern and probably would have ideas about how best to designate trains to avoid confusion.

Baseball in Transit

A major transportation challenge is coming to the District in the spring: how to get travelers to, from or around the new Nationals Park on South Capitol Street.