Lena Sun
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 31, 2008; 11:00 AM

Do you think Metro has grown unreliable and become downright unpleasant? Or are you happy with your commutes on rail and bus? Does the thought of the intercounty connector (ICC) keep you up at night or does it seem like it's long overdue? And what of the moves by Maryland and Virginia to encourage the private sector to build road projects, such as widening the Capital Beltway?

Washington Post staff writer Lena H. Sun was online Monday, March 17 at 11 a.m. ET to answer your questions, feel your pain and share the drama of getting from Point A to Point B.

A transcript follows.

Discussion Archive

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Lena Sun: Good morning folks. Getting to your questions and comments in just a sec. I'm doing the chat solo today because Eric had the nerve to take a couple vacation days. How many of you made it to the baseball games this weekend on Metro? What did you think?

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Bethesda, Md.: I just wanted to say that I took the Metro to and from the Nats game last night and it was a completely painless experience. I had been worried that trains would be too crowded and slow, and that the wait to get on a train would be frustrating. Instead, the trains moved swiftly and on time, and I didn't have to wait long on either end. I was thoroughly satisfied.

Now, if we could do something about the police yelling at us like children (or subjects, some might say) through megaphones as we got off the train, then I would say the experience was perfect. That was a bit too 1984 in Bush's America if you ask me.

Lena Sun: Good to know. Just remember: Metro wants riders to expect that trains will be crowded, especially from those transfer points from Gallery (Red, Yellow and Green) to Navy Yard and from L'Enfant Plaza (Orange, Blue, Yellow and Green) to Navy Yard.

I think about 22,000 people took Metro to the game yesterday.

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Alexandria, Va.: After getting to and from Nationals Park with no problem whatsoever last night, and having had similar experiences with getting to RFK and the Verizon Center, I must give a round of applause to Metro. It drove me nuts when I was a daily commuter, but it handles non-rush hour sporting event crowds brilliantly. A special nod to the Navy Yard Station worker who helped my friend with his round-trip farecard, which somehow was demagnetized during the ballgame.

Lena Sun: So do you think you'll go back to being a daily commuter?:)

Also, if you and your friend are going to be regulars, might be worth the $5 to get a SmarTrip card so you don't have to worry about squashing your fare card in your back pocket or getting it demagnetized.

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Between a rock and a hard place: Thanks for the chat. Has Metro changed the configuration of the new Metro cars -- the ones where the poles are only near the door? I was on one last week and there was no pole that I could get to because the train was crowded. As someone who is 5-1, I either have to be obnoxious and push my way to a pole or not hold on to anything and risk getting hurt (because I can't reach the ones over head). I hope Metro is listening; the last it needs is for people to get hurt and to have to take a train out of service because of it.

Lena Sun: You are correct. The newest rail cars do NOT have the vertical poles near the door. Metro redesigned the cars to get people away from crowding at the doors. But I've heard lots of complaints from us shorter people (I'm 5'2) about having nothing to hold on to.

So one of the goals Metro has put out for this year is installing overhead grab handles on 25 percent of the total fleet of roughly 1,000 plus rail cars by the end of the year. That should help.

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Washington, D.C.: Are there any plans in the District for converting select streets into pedestrian thoroughfares? The absence of vehicular traffic on Mt. Pleasant road, due to its partial closure, seems to me to have made it more inviting for walkers, shoppers, etc. A grid system of streets, such as the District has, would appear to be able to support some road closures, especially in retail areas. It works in other places.

Lena Sun: Unfortunately, no.

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Arlington, Va.: Metro had one of its biggest tests in years, and it failed miserably. Metro, the Nationals, the Cherry Blossom Festival, and all local jurisdictions had been encouraging people to use Metro and Metro ran non-stop announcements saying it was ready. Maybe it was ready to make announcements, but not ready with necessary service.

As far as I can tell, Metro ran its regular service on most lines most of the time. Despite huge crushes of people going to view the cherry blossoms and the Nats, Orange Line trains still came less than every 10 minutes. ANd the trains were 6 cars long.

Most incompetent is that we observed at least two 6-car trains in a row on the Green Line after the Nats opening game. There is NO excuse for this; all Green Line trains Sunday night should have been 8 cars. The only reason they were not is due to incompetence and poor plaining.

I can appreciate Metro's predicament at rush hour when trains cars are limited, but there is no excuse on a weekend, even a busy one. Metro MUST be able to think outside of its normal schedule when it's necessary.

I hope that heads will roll at Metro for this abysmal performance. Metro was unable to perform in a time that it is most needed because of its own poor planning. If Metro can't make better decisions in these completely anticipated situations, I will except the General Manager and Board members who let it happen to be offering their resignations.

Lena Sun: A lot of other riders said they had good experiences, so let's hope you were in the minority. On the 6-car train issue: Metro can not run a whole bunch of 8-car trains in a row. Here is why. The system has to have enough power substations to supply enough power to running longer trains, which require more electricity. The system doesn't have that capability yet, but the agency is upgrading that power infrastructure now.

So for right now, they can only run an 8-car train every THIRD train. So that's why you would see a 6, then another 6, followed by an 8.

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Tell metro the ballgame is over...: and they can stop running endless promos that fans can take metro to the first baseball game in the new stadium.

They were still running the ads this morning on the electronic sign boards.

I want to know when the next train will arrive.

Lena Sun: Good point. I had the same feeling. Let's post this.

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Washington, D.C.: Someone wrote "It drove me nuts when I was a daily commuter, but it handles non-rush hour sporting event crowds brilliantly"

It was great yesterday, I agree 100 percent. However I wonder how well it will run when Metro resumes its maddening and massive delay causing track work on the Red, Blue, Orange and Green lines....

Lena Sun: Well, the even bigger test will come next Monday night when the home game will dovetail with rush hour. Metro is already running as many trains as possible during rush, so they can't add MORE trains before the game.

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Gaithersburg, MD: Just to reiterate a point from last time. The intersection of the spending on war and our underfunded and failing domestic infrastructure is where transit riders MUST call their federal officials to task. We've spent $507 billion on the war. That's more than enough to fund highway improvements, dedicated bus lanes, and light and heavy rail projects in all the top ten most populated and congested American cities. We transit rides have a moral obligation to object the underfunding of our domestic infrastructure.

Lena Sun: Yes, and the earlier posters who complained about Metro not running more 8-car trains goes exactly to this point. It costs millions of dollars to upgrade the power systems to allow for more 8-car trains and to do upkeep on the system. But as you know, Metro is the only major transit agency in the country without a significant source of dedicated funding.

If you have relatives in Oklahoma, you could ask them to write their senator, Tom Coburn, who has put a hold on the dedicated funding bill in the U.S. Senate.

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Fairfax, Va: I think if Metro would offer free parking on weekends a lot more people would be inclined to use it.

The daily parking rate is way too high and is one reason I won't use Metro unless I have run out of options.

Lena Sun: Metro DOES offer free parking on the weekends.

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Silver Spring, Md.: Wow, thanks for the explanation on 8-car trains and power requirements - that's really interesting! I had no idea that electricity was a limit on how many 8-car trains Metro could run. So is expanding that capacity part of the annoying weekend maintenance work?

Lena Sun: They do that work during the weekdays as well as during the weekends. Whenever they can get the track time. But Metro has been hearing a lot of complaints about the weekend work and the disruptions so they are trying to come up with a plan to do more on the weeknights when the system is closed and less on the weekends.

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"Metro had one of its biggest tests in years, and it failed miserably.": I don't understand this. Unless you are sitting on the platform for an hour watching the crowds and the trains, how can you tell Metro failed? It's unreasonable to expect a trip on the subway during a busy weekend with multiple special events to be uncrowded and flawless every step of the way. Sometimes you're going to have to deal with a crowds and a train that comes in after 12 minutes instead of 10.

I appreciated that Metro used the digital signs on the platforms to remind people which stops to get off at, they seemed to have extra staff on hand, and I heard several announcments on the PA system reminding riders how to get to the stadium. All in all, my impression was that Metro did plan.

Lena Sun: Remember, people, there are going to be crowds. This just in: More than half the fans who attended the opening day game took Metro. The subway carried 21,492 fans to and from the newly expanded Navy Yard station. To accommodate the crowds, Metro stayed open until 1 a.m.

Total ridership for Sunday was 332,737. Average Sunday ridership is 207,735.

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Washington, D.C.: So when I go to the game on Monday night should I take Orange/Blue to Capital South and do the 15 minute walk or change trains and go to Navy Yard? What about on the way home, would one be better than the other?

Lena Sun: Anybody out there walk from Capitol South for either the Saturday or Sunday game want to weigh in? I guess it would depend on whether it was a beautiful warm night and you felt like getting some exercise or want to brave the crowds. After the game, Metro will be putting on extra trains on the Green Line so based on Sunday's experience, it would probably be okay to take Metro from Navy Yard.

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Washington, D.C.: I thought Metro did a great job to and fro.

I was a bit surprised that when we got to the Navy Yard stop, that they made no mention that this was the stop for the ballpark.

Lena Sun: I'd be surprised too. But the signs on the walls at Navy Yard do say "ballpark."

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Washington, D.C.: What was Metro thinking? I almost saw several children get crushed to death Saturday at around 1 p.m. while traveling from Virginia Square to Smithsonian on the Orange Line. One train every 12-15 minutes on a day when they knew the crows of people was going to be overflowing? What were they thinking? I think the legal term is negligent.

Lena Sun: Hi. Metro says they had seven extra trains running on the Blue and Orange lines on Saturday. They did have a train break down at Eastern Market around 11:30 a.m., and another train with brake problems at about 12:14 p.m. at Rosslyn. So it's possible you might have been caught up in delays around that.

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Those pole-less trains: They are a recipe for disaster. There is nothing to hold on to, and people end up FALLING! Those first benches in the car--the ones that face foward into the vast expanse of no poles--are dangerous to sit in. Two times in the last two months, I've been sitting on one of those benches, and when the train started to move, someone standing in front of me (with nothing to hold on to), has FALLEN on top of me! Not just a stumble, but an actual complete tumbling over where they end up sitting in my lap. I don't enjoy breaking other people's falls. I'm just glad that I wasn't been seriously injured either time.

These newly designed cars are the epitome of stupidity. I avoid them if all possible, and I'll certainly never sit on the first row again.

Lena Sun: Yes, complaints like these have been fairly consistent. Let's hope that when they get around to ordering the next batch of new rail cars that rider input will have been taken into account.

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Washington, D.C.: Can we get some of those Metro employees with bullhorns to yell at all the stupid tourists standing on the left? That'd be sweet.

Lena Sun: Ah, you know spring has arrived when the regulars get angry with the tourists for not knowing to STAND on the RIGHT.

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Arlington, Va.: I've been on the new cars, and while I'm not a shorter person, it seems to me that the horizontal bars by the doors and the vertical poles on the seats are the right height.

I prefer the configuration because it seems like more people move towards the center of the car, and because the loss of those vaunted vertical poles is also the loss of "that guy" leaning his entire body against them and making them useless.

Lena Sun: I like those vertical poles from the seat backs but I wish they were placed a little bit closer to the outside. Otherwise I feel as if I'm invading the space of the person sitting in the seat.

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Washington, D.C.: I read somewhere that Metro is working to expand cell phone access within the system so providers other than Verizon is included. I hope this isn't taking too much Metro money and bandwidth...I see this as a much lower priority than the safety and maintenance issues. We survived without cell phones for a long time...being without reception for 20 minutes is not a tragedy!

Lena Sun: I've written about the cell phone issue and Metro's idea is for a competitive bid process that will require the winning bidder to pay for all the installation and equipment necessary to do this AND guarantee Metro a certain amount of annual revenue. They don't expect to award the contract until the fall and it will be another 18 months or so, at least, before they get the main downtown stations wired to allow all carriers to get signals.

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Arlington, Va.: I had the misfortune of being on an Orange line train this morning that over-ran the platform at Rosslyn. I could tell by how fast we entered the station that something wasn't normal. So, we continued on to Foggy Bottom without being able to get off at Rosslyn. What causes this? Is it operator error? Computer trouble? How often does it happen? Are they required to report every instance that it does happen to some one?

Lena Sun: Could be operator error or computer system on train not working properly or a problem with the black boxes on the tracks that communicate with the trains. And yes, it is most definitely reported. If you look at the service report on Metro's website for the previous day's service, there is a listing of delays and platform overruns is one of those categories.

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Capitol South: The walk from Capitol South wasn't bad, but I'd make sure there were others walking too. Part of the walk is otherwise fairly deserted and not sure it would be safe without others around (there were plenty last night though). There are even signs (though not quite enough) to point you in the right direction.

Lena Sun: Thank you for that input. So bottom line: if you're gonna walk, better to walk with a crowd.

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Silver Spring, Md.: Spent last weekend in Montreal, which has a subway system that was created for Expo 67 and expanded since.

Compared to Metro, it is dingy as all getout, but seems to have fewer problems. We had precisely one problem in four days...but the announcements were in French only so no idea what it was.

Lena Sun: Interesting...their average daily ridership is about 700,000, a little less than the 730,000 average weekday ridership for Metro.

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Arlington, VA: What is the latest news in Virginia regarding transportation funding in Northern Virginia? The silence has been deafening while we sit in traffic!

Lena Sun: Lawmakers are scheduled to return for a special session later in April and there is some talk about dealing with the transportation issues for NoVa.

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Silver Spring, Md.: Cherry Blossoms

My family spent Saturday downtown and had a great time at the Tidal Basin and the Kite Festival. We drove with my 81 year old mother in law and, after dropping her off, found the parking on Haines Point to be not much trouble.

I do question the closing of the parking lot next to the Tidal basin. Yes, it produces terrible traffic in that area during peak areas so this decision makes sense in that way.

Do you know if they considered two alternative options:

1. make the parking lot handicapped only for the duration of the festival

2. only close the parking lot during peak periods when it tends to jam the area. This would make it available during the many hours when it is not a problem.

Lena Sun: Don't know but we are checking with the park service. If they change their rules, we will definitely let folks know. Probably wouldn't hurt for others out there like yourself to call the park service as well.

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Lena Sun: Sorry folks. That's all we have time for today. Will try to get to the unanswered questions next time. Thanks for chatting.

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