Dr. Gridlock
Tell Us, Metro: Where Will Trains Stop on the Platform?
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This letter writer has been riding the Red Line for 24 years and for the past 11 has commuted between Shady Grove and Union Station.
Dear Dr. Gridlock:
Metro's inadequate communication continues. All Red Line trains, regardless of whether they are six cars or eight cars long, are now stopping at the far ends of every station.
Metro has not been announcing this change over the loudspeakers or on the electronic signs. Needless to say, the car operators haven't been announcing this change, either. It is beyond belief that Metro can't make simple, yet extremely useful, announcements about the changed stopping locations.
-- Rodger Pitcairn, Rockville
Metro's communications problems are most noticeable in the time immediately after an emergency but aren't limited to that time frame.
After the Red Line crash on Monday, the transit authority took these steps: It put the operators in charge of driving all the trains; it reduced the speed limit on the Red Line to 35 mph; and it required all train operators, no matter how long their trains, to pull to the end of the platform.
All three of those were necessary changes after the crash. But I hope Metro will continue to require trains to pull to the end of the platform for safety reasons unrelated to the crash.
