The Medical Center Metro station's looming crisis

The June 22 Metro story "Few gains in safety since Metro crash" quoted Metro's board chairman as saying there is a financial conflict between increasing safety and improving service. That is sometimes true but not always.

At the Medical Center Metro station, we can have better service and greater safety at the same time. This station has one set of slow escalators and one small, slow elevator on the west side of Rockville Pike for those with disabilities. This is grossly inadequate to evacuate the station in an emergency and far short of national standards.

A WMATA study found that a bank of high-speed elevators on the Navy campus side of Rockville Pike would improve service for passengers and be two to three times as safe. Additional elevator modifications could make the station compliant with national standards.

But the Montgomery County Department of Transportation rejects this opportunity to improve safety and service. The agency seeks to divert money from transit and pedestrian improvements to build a highway underpass.

This makes no sense. The Medical Center station serves two of this nation's premier federal facilities, the National Institutes of Health and the National Naval Medical Center. Both campuses have undergone major renovation since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to discourage acts of terrorism. The Metro station's ridership is expected to grow more than 50 percent by 2020. Let's put safety back into the mix and invest in making Metro safe and accessible.

Richard Hoye, Bethesda

The writer is chairman of the Pedestrian and Bicycle Committee of the Action Committee for Transit.