“Dear PoPville,
This is Farragut North at K Street this morning. Three escalators: one going up (packed), one broken (empty), and one going down (empty). However, there is a huge line all the way down through the turnstiles to the train platform to exit the station. Yesterday, the station manager actually had to shut down the turnstiles and force people from this exit because it was too crowded. Seems like a real waste. No one is working on the broken escalator (gee, wouldn’t that be a useful staircase!) but there are four metro employees standing around escalator drinking soda. Wouldn’t it also be possible to turn off the down escalator and let people walk up/down since there are so few people entering the station? While today and yesterday were particularly bad, the escalator management at this station is a daily issue (and if you met the station manager, you wouldn’t be surprised why). There have been mornings where two of the escalators are going down with no one on them and one going up with a long line. It’s this sort of poor management that again demonstrates to me that without cleaning house at the station management level, we’re throwing good money after bad.”
Side note: Metro GM appoints new chief operating officer:
“Metro General Manager/CEO Paul J. Wiedefeld today announced the appointment of Joseph Leader as the new Chief Operating Officer (COO) in charge of rail, bus and paratransit services, effective August 1. Leader will also provide executive management of Metro Transit Police, parking and support services. (more…)
