A reader reports:
“The Waterfront metro has had two of its six gates out of service for well over a month, with no sign of repairs any time soon.
One gate broke months ago. The other followed about a month ago. Of the working 4 gates, one is a very very slow handicapped gate. So in rush hour, most commuters have to line up to use the one standard working gate.
Does WMATA have any plan to fix the broken gates? Or is this just the new normal for Waterfront?”
A reader reports:
“Smoke in tunnels, fare hikes, and now this? Metro- I’m done with you!!!”
Happy Halloween!!
Photo by PoPville flickr user nevermindtheend
From WMATA:
“Reconstruction of the Metrorail system will continue over the weekend of October 30 – November 1 with service adjustments on all six lines beginning at 10:00 p.m. Friday and continuing through system closing on Sunday.
This weekend, trains will operate as follows:
Red Line trains will operate every 18 minutes.
Yellow Line trains will operate every 24 between Huntington and Mt. Vernon Sq only.
Green Line trains will operate every 16 minutes on Saturday only, regular weekend intervals on Sunday.
Orange, Silver and Blue line trains will operate every 24 minutes.
Metrorail late-night service info for end of Daylight Saving Time
Daylight Saving Time will end at 2 a.m. Sunday, November 1. At that time, clocks will “fall back” to 1 a.m. (Eastern Standard Time).
Metrorail will remain open until its normal closing time of 3 a.m. “new time” (Eastern Standard Time).”
Photo by PoPville flickr user Messay Shoakena
You can spot John on the Red Line commuting between Brookland and Bethesda. “MetroHaikuDC‘s daily transit musings are brightening DC’s metro tunnels, 17 syllables at a time. I started writing a haiku a day on my 40 minute daily train ride to and from work. It passes the time and keeps things lighthearted in some of the metro’s darkest times.”
Please enjoy Unwanted DJ this week:
His headphones booming
Today we’re all listening
To this guy’s music
Photo by PoPville flickr user wolfpackWX
From WMATA:
“Two Metro employees are being called heroes this weekend after subduing a robbery suspect armed with a loaded semiautomatic handgun aboard a Green Line train.
The incident began shortly after 4 p.m. Saturday when the victim, an adult male, was approached by the suspect at Anacostia Station. The suspect flashed a gun in his waistband and demanded the victim’s money. The victim complied and handed over approximately $40.
The suspect then boarded a northbound Green Line train where he got into an altercation with other passengers. Two Metro Rail Operations employees–one male and one female–were riding aboard the train, noticed the altercation and attempted to intervene. After a struggle, the male employee was able to restrain the suspect by pinning him to the floor of the railcar while the female employee radioed the Rail Operations Control Center to dispatch Metro Transit Police.
During the physical altercation, the male employee noticed that the suspect was reaching in his jacket pocket. The employee asked the suspect, “Do you have a gun?” When the suspect responded “yes,” the employee grabbed the weapon and placed it out of the suspect’s reach on the floor of the train. (more…)
Photo by PoPville flickr user Jim Havard
From WMATA:
“Reconstruction of the Metrorail system will continue over the weekend of October 23-24 with service adjustments on five of six lines beginning at 10:00 p.m. Friday and continuing through system closing on Saturday.
Trains will operate as follows:
Yellow Line trains operate regular Saturday schedule between Huntington and Mt. Vernon Sq only
Red Line trains will operate every 18 minutes.
Green Line trains will operate every 16 minutes.
Orange, Silver and Blue line trains will operate every 26 minutes.
There will be no track work on Sunday, trains operate at regular service frequencies.
5AM Opening Sunday for Marine Corps Marathon
Metrorail will open two hours early, at 5 a.m., on Sunday, October 25, for customers traveling to the Marine Corps Marathon. The closest Metro stop to the start of the race is Pentagon on the Blue and Yellow lines. Riders may want to consider using Pentagon City as an alternate station due to potential crowding at Pentagon.”
You can see a map of the route here.
Photo by PoPville flickr user Eric P.
“Dear PoPville,
This isn’t the most exciting news on the planet, but does involve something that could torpedo WMATA’s budget.
ADP, which a lot of private sector companies use to handle employee benefits, sent a notification out yesterday that they will no longer support commuter spending accounts starting in 2016. This means that employees can’t have money taken out of their paychecks pretax and then used to pay for bus and train use. ADP hasn’t been able to work with WMATA on fixing this, so the IRS is essentially shutting it down.
This is not only going to mess up the Metro budget, but is going to wind up costing commuters more money since they can’t use pretax funds.
Here’s the email that ADP sent:
IMPORTANT UPDATE: Commuter Spending Accounts in the Washington, DC Area (more…)
From WMATA:
“Metro has published a project webpage to keep customers and the community informed about the effort to rebuild the Traction Power Substation outside Stadium-Armory that was heavily damaged in a fire on September 21.
Following a full week of equipment testing, the project remains on track for completion this calendar year — about three months sooner than originally projected. Metro will restore normal service on the Blue, Orange and Silver lines as soon as the substation is returned to service.
Riders can view a video [above] and get details about upcoming project milestones by visiting here.
Certainly there are bigger fish to fry but it is indicative… A reader writes:
“It took me two phone calls to convince WMATA that having “Farragut” spelled wrong in their Next Train feature on the website was a problem they should be embarrassed by. All the “next train” apps pull from this site, so it’s spelled wrong when you pull up the station info in the app. It gets better. It’s also wrong in the arrival signs in Union Station, so everywhere …”
One week later:
“Ok. Farragut is still spelled wrong.”