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Happy Friday
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Dan Tangherlini Hi. I've been here two weeks and have been out riding rail, bus and MetroAccess, meeting riders and employees alike. One thing I've learned is that everyone is passionate about the Metro system--regular daily commuters, visitors, people who use it occasionally, and the employees who keep the system running. It's incredible.

I was on a 6:40 a.m. Yellow Line train from Mt. Vernon Square to Huntington and back to Gallery Place yesterday morning with many of you. Why? I was listening to the first test train with the new "Doors Closing Voice" recording on it. From what I observed, most riders seemed to notice the change, and that's why we made the change--in hopes that people would heed the advice of the voice of Woodbridge resident Randi Miller as she instructs people to move to the center of the railcars and step back to allow the doors to close.

We also had some very positive news come out of our Board briefing yesterday in which we told the Board that the reliability of our rail fleet has been improving--which means better service for everyone! The fewer mechanical problems, the fewer delays. Pretty basic.

Enough from me. Let's take your questions.
Reserved Parking Policies
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hopeful Hello - I'm new to this forum and don't know whether this topic has been previously addressed. I submitted an application for reserved parking at East Falls Church metro, where many reserved spaces are regularly available at 10:00am (at which time they become open to all parkers).

A month later, having received no response from Metro regarding my application, I called to follow up and was told that I am almost 300th on the waiting list! Apparently, only 60 reserved tags are rented out per month. With all those spaces available and with such a huge waiting list, could Metro consider increasing the number of tags it allows?

Better communication would really add to the efficiency of the system. Is it Metro's policy to contact applicants when they rise to the top of the waiting list to make sure they are still interested in a space, or does Metro automatically issue a tag? Also, I would suggest that applicants be advised when they are placed on a waiting list, particularly because many, such as myself, provide a credit card number in order to be billed on a recurring monthly basis.

Thanks for your attention.
Dan Tangherlini I was just learning about this sytem in a briefing last night. We have a long-established policy that holds reserved spaces to only 15% of the total. This policy and other policies related to our management of parking warrant a good hard look and I plan to do that with our Board of Directors and Riders' Advisory Council.
Ads need to be removed from Metro
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ADFREEMETRO Instead of improving service on Buses and Trains and Metro Access, WMATA is buying more advertisements many of which have supported the war in Iraq (Lokheed Martin, General Dynamics, BP, FOSE...) , along with animal cruelty (Ringling Bros.) or they are selling addictive products (Starbucks Coffee, Mc Donalds...) (also not you are not allowed to eat or drink on metro yet they are promoting food and drink) Also these new ads are slowing down service so they can install them, rather than having normal service and people being able to get home or to work on time! The money these ads might generate will likely be going to pay Richard A. Whites over bloated salary he gets for leaving Metro after leaving a path of screw ups and stolen money. Also we need to keep in mind that most of the money the Metro receives in from the states and cities (taxes and other monies) and fare cards. I ride Metrobus and Rail all the time and am tired of broken elevators, broken escalators, train delays, late or no show buses and drivers that have no respect for the riders, adverts covering much of metro, buses not allowed on metro at certain times even though the cars are not very crowed, less than helpful station managers, broken turnstyles and deadly train accidents! If Metro will not fix it self than we the people must force them to do it. "The establishment people tell us that if the work
Dan Tangherlini I have to say that we are kind of on opposite sides on this one. Advertising revenue (we SELL ads) helps pay for the system and keep fares low - we are proposing no fare hikes in our next year's budget. We need to find as many ways as we can - within the bounds of reason and good taste - to make revenue to keep this system running, improve service and make it more attractive. I think we strike a pretty good balance.
Installation of tunnel advertising
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nashpaul I know this was scheduled before your arrival as General Manager, but can you please comment on the single-tracking that is happening on the Red Line to accommodate the installation of advertising in the tunnels between Metro Center and Judiciary Square? (http://www.wmata.com/about/met_news/story.cfm?ID=589)

It's bad enough that passengers have to suffer through single-tracking for track work directly related to the safety and operation of the system. But it seems inexcusable to inconvenience passengers for the installation of advertising, which has NO direct impact on the operation of the system.

That portion of Metrorail is closed for 5-6 hours every weeknight. Why can't all of the work be done during those hours? If it takes longer for the ads to be installed, so be it. Or the advertisers can pay for additional staffing. Inconveniencing paying passengers during normal service times should not be an option.
Dan Tangherlini I got caught up in single tracking last night myself. We're just about done with it, though, for the ads. The track work and other maintenance will continue. I think the idea has merit as a way to raise needed revenue, but we should look at the operational impact of these things a bit more closely in the future.

As a side note on this advertising issue, a friend of mine sent me some photos from the Kiev subway system and we have a long way to go to catch up to them in terms of ads!
Low floor buses on the C-2, C-4.
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jbgroup1 Why are low floor buses being used on the C-4 which is supposedly the fastest growing bus line in the system? The low floor buses have fewer seats and apparently narrower aisles for people to sit and stand. The C-4 already is standing room only with the buses that are/were currently on the line. It does not seem like a good idea to put these low floor buses on this line unless there is to be more frequent service.
Dan Tangherlini This is an interesting take on the low floor busses, because we are moving more and more in this direction. We are trying to imrove the accessibility of our busses, making it easier for the elderly or the mobility impaired to use them. We also are moving forward on plans to reduce overcrowding by adding or restructuring service. Together, these actions should make the C2 and C4 busses a better experience. Although, I will ask our bus folks to look some more at these lines.
The R-2, R-5 Calverton Loop.
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jbgroup1 Why can't there be a note on the schedule or the schedule actually reflect that the last R-2 and R-5 buses continue to all stops beyond Plum Orchard Drive and Broadbirch Drive as far as Cherry Hill Road and Powder Mill Road? I have written about this for several years and still cannot get the last R-2 or R-5 to ride around to the southbound portion of the loop especially when I usually get on within the loop from the Z-6, C-7 or the shopping center on Beltsville Drive. I have been told many times by Metro officials that the last R-2 and R-5 buses are supposed to continue to serve all stops as far as Cherry Hill Road and Powder Mill Road regardless of whether they are in revenue or non-revenue service. A Mr. Larry Glick even sent me a copy of the Metro loop policy yet I can only get operators to continue on the loop if I argue with them about it. One operator actually will not let me go beyond Plum Orchard Drive and Cherry Hill Road anymore after doing it twice. My house is almost a mile away from that stop and it is very inconvenient to walk that distance especially since the bus goes in that direction anyway. Please consider putting a note or making the portion between Plum Orchard Drive and Broadbirch Drive revenue service for all R-2 and R-5 buses by putting it on the schedule.
Dan Tangherlini OK, let me get this over to the bus folks to get addressed.
Dan Tangherlini Hi. Mr. Tangherlini allowed me to use his password to respond to this in more detail, so this answer probably looks like it is coming from him, but it is coming from the Bus Department. I hope you find this helpful.

On the low floor buses on the C2 and C4: Montgomery will have 97 of its 163 buses with low floor by the end of the summer. They will have 15 articulated buses.

Every low floor bus has less standing room than high floor buses and generally less seats even though the number of seats in low floor are getting closer to high floors. Yes, we continue to reduce capacity in the fleet with each low floor bus. Other systems have compensated to buy more than 1 for 1 replacements to offset the capacity loss. This has not been formally addressed at WMATA.

Low floor buses are the newer buses (2000 and 2006) at our Montgomery Bus Division and the best and most reliable, not considering capacity.

PID signs
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BDK One of the major improvements that Metro made with regard to information was the installation of the Passenger Information Display Signs (PIDS) that announce the arrival of the next three trains and the number of cars for each train. HOWEVER, the signs are useless if there is no information provided.

I take the Orange line from Landover into DC every morning between 8:25 - 8:40am. The sign that is located on the platform headed into DC rarely contains information regarding train arrivals. It is incredibly frustrating to come off the escalator and look up at the sign to see when the next train will arrive, only to see a blank screen (although the headers are there) - especially when it is very cold standing on the platform. Meanwhile, the sign that is located on the opposite side of the platform (towards New Carrollton) works properly. On several occasions, I have seen people board the train heading to New Carrollton in an effort to get out of the cold and to get a seat at New Carrollton because they don't know when a train will be arriving at Landover.

Who is responsible for entering in this sign data? Is it someone located at Landover or New Carrollton or is it done from a remote/central location? Is someone responsible for monitoring the signs? Don’t the trains run on some sort of general timetable out of New Carrollton? If the trains are set to run every 3-6 minutes, why can’t that information be displayed?

This past Tuesday (2/28) the board would run the message about the track maintenance on the Orange & Red line. However, when it switched back to the arrival information, it was blank. In fact, the sign never registered any arrival information, even when the train was physically entering the station. Today (Thursday, 3/2), the sign was blank when I came up on the platform. A few minutes later, the sign did display the arrival times for the next three trains. However, less than a minute later, when the train was pulling into the station, the screen went blank again. It’s like, if you blink, you miss the information.

I have called the Blue/Orange line team several times to register my complaint. Right after that, the signs will work properly for a few days. But then it’s back to the same-old, same-old -- every morning. The signs do not consistently provide accurate information.

All I’m asking for is information. If the next train is due to arrive in 10 minutes, just let me know that. I don’t know if other stations are encountering the same problems or if it’s limited to the one sign at Landover. I know that when I enter the Metro Center station in the evenings, the boards are always providing arrival information.
Dan Tangherlini I understand that this is an issue with how the PIDs work - the train will not "show up" on the PIDs until it leaves the rail yard. But this gets to some bigger issues with the PIDs that I was just talking to folks about earlier today. My "beef" is that we don't have next train information outside the fare gates, so that's something I'll work on too.
Red Line on 2/25
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BrianInVA Hi Dan -

Last Saturday evening, I was on an outbound red line train heading from Metro Center to Silver Spring. First off, the train held at Metro Center for several minutes due to a "schedule adjustment." We then stopped for several minutes prior to Judiciary Square, at which point the operator said there was a disabled train at Union Station. He then proceeded that the train we were on would continue to Glenmont rather than terminating at Silver Spring. When we pulled up to Judiciary Square, he then abrubtly told us to exit the train as it was going out of service (in order to push the disabled train to the yard). Fine. What happened next was the most frustrating part: the next red line train was 10 minutes away. As it pulled into the station, it switched to the other track, leaving roughly 150 people on the wrong platform. As soon as I noticed what was happening, I led the rush to the other side, removing the barricades that blocked the east side mezzanine in the process (since that side's closed on weekends). Very few of us got on the train before the operator started closing the doors. One set of doors was forcefully held open for a few minutes, giving a few more people a chance to board. The operator was very rude and yelling at us through the PA system and fewer than half the people eventually got on the train - there was sufficient room on the train for everyone. I'm glad I got on, because I knew that it being a weekend, the next train was not coming anytime soon. Why did the station manager not alert us to move to the other platform ahead of time? Why did that operator not wait 2 extra minutes to allow everyone to board? When he realized that some people were going to hold the doors open, he should have just opened all the doors to let people in. All he did was make a bad situation worse. I realize that incidents like this happen and I certainly don't fault Metro for this, but I do fault them for how they handled the situation and the lack of communication. Thanks for any feedback you may have.
Dan Tangherlini I am really sorry that you had this experience, we need to do much better than this. I will share this experience with our operations chief and our red line manager so we can make sure that everyone does a much better job next time. I appreciate your continued patronage of the system.
Holding trains at Vienna for too long
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archers44 Hi Dan,

I ride the Orange Line from Dunn Loring to Metro Center daily. I know that the 8 car trains mean that the trains come less frequently but is there any way they can be spread out a little more evenly on the line rather than having them hold at Vienna for so long.

Regularly the trains arrive at Dunn Loring full. If they are 4 or 6 car trains, the standing room is even crowded already. If they are 8 car trains then there are usually seats but they are quickly filled up. I know no one is ever guaranteed a seat but it seems like people more than 2 stops in should have a chance more than once in a blue moon.

Thanks and good luck - I know many of us have our fingers crossed for you!
Dan Tangherlini We are piloting the eight car trains - we're figuring out how to run them ourselves, sorry if there are some growing pains. I will pass your experience on to the folks who are running the project and make sure that they work to address the problem.

Why So Many Diesel-Electric Buses in P.G. County Only???
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TheCritic I was driving the other night and happened to pass a C2 bus going toward Greenbelt. I was shocked to say the least when I realized it was on of those new CNG diesel-electric buses. My first reaction was Metro has got to be out of their minds because I know that those buses do not seat as much as the regular buses that are normally deployed on the C2. Things became all too clear a few minutes later when I also saw one on the C4 line. Thats when I put 2-and-2 together and realized that Metro was once again doing what has been stated so many times in public forums and online...Metro is taking the much nicer and bigger buses and removing them from lines in Prince George's County that really do need them (i.e. C2, C4, K6, F4, F6, etc.) and putting them in the more affluent and contrasting race demographic Montgomery County and to a lesser extent, the District of Columbia.

I remember when I used to ride Metro I had to call Metro and literally BEG them to put those articulated, accordion-type buses on the C4 because it was busting out of its seems even though those buses ran more frequently than any other route i've ever seen in P.G. Metro eventually did see a need for them and deployed them on limited runs. Now Metro's solution is to downgrade and replace all the bigger, standard buses with those lower capacity CNG buses because...what? P.G. county is not worthy enough of having nicer equipment? Or is this more another more controversial, pressing, age-old issue that I don't think I need to specifically mention? There is at almost no point in which those CNG buses can even begin to address the lack-of-capacity issues on lines such as the C2, C4, F4. The F4 always made me upset because once that bus hits P.G. Plaza Station headed towards New Carrollton, it's ALWAYS standing room only, but somehow Metro loves to utilize those smaller Diesel-Electric buses on this route.

Something tells me that Metro is going to be receiving A LOT of flack for this decision. I understand the "cleaner air" concern but there is something wrong when you almost never see any of these buses in Montgomery County but everywhere in Prince George's. There is something wrong when out of the plethora of bus routes that originate/terminate at Silver Spring Station, the only route that I ever saw utilizing a Diesel-Electric bus was the F4/F6 which just so happened to be one of the only routes serving P.G. County from Silver Spring.

Your comments, sir.
Dan Tangherlini The new hybrid busses were sent to Prince George's to replace much older diesel busses - its actually a "good" thing. These hybrid busses are the newest in our fleet, clean and accessible for the elderly and the disabled. They do have less seats, though, so I will look into your routes and the overcrowding issues you are experiencing.
smoking on Metrobus platforms
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Metrobus_rider Hi Dan,
Will you comment on why Metro does not prohibit smoking at Metrobus station platforms -- for example, at the Pentagon bus station? According to Metro's smoking policy documents, "smoking is prohibited in all WMATA vehicles, facilities, and workspaces, including ...public areas" and "smoking may not occur within a 25-foot radius of any entrance, exit, or passageway that is an entrance or egress for a WMATA facility."

Why doesn't Metro enforce this smoking policy, especially at the Pentagon bus station platform? Metrorail station platforms are free of secondhand smoke, yet Metrobus station platforms are not. This is discrimination against Metrobus riders. There is no way for Metrobus customers to escape secondhand smoke exposure while waiting in lines at the Pentagon bus station platform which, as you know, is enclosed by a roof and by glass partitions on one side.

Metro's policy also states that "smoking is prohibited throughout the Metrorail system to include the kiosk, the paid area, the free area, and on or about the escalators." So why are there ashtrays located at the bases of escalators in the Metrorail system?

The EPA classifies tobacco smoke as a Class A carcinogen, meaning that there is no minimal level of exposure to it that is considered safe. Any amount of exposure is unsafe. This is the same classification as asbestos. Metrobus customers should not have to be exposed to this while waiting in line on a bus platform. I've been asking Metro to address this issue for nearly a year.
Dan Tangherlini That's an interesting idea. This issue continues to get more and more attention - I am a non-smoker, so I can't see a problem. However, it is the kind of policy issue that should probably be discussed by the Board and the new Riders' Advisory Council.
Defective SmarTrips, Defective Replacement Policy
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SBR Welcome to the conductor's chair at Metro!

My SmarTrip card simply doesn't work very well. This morning it hit first time at Foggy Bottom, but other times bus and train personnel have told me the card's dead and should be replaced at Metro Center.

I called the info line and learned what I hope is too silly to be the correct policy: if the card is completely dead, I can go to Metro Center to have it replaced on the spot. If it's merely limping along, then I must mail it to WMATA-HQ and wait for a new one to be mailed back. Metro Center is not on my regular commute, but a week or more without the SmarTrip... let's just say it's become as indispensable as Metro had hoped.

Do you recognize the incentive for me to take a magnet to the card and kill it forever? And why can't the Pentagon or the mobile customer centers address SmarTrip concerns like these?

As long as you keep making it easy, I remain a Metro customer.

SBR
Dan Tangherlini I can't advocate the murder of a poor SmartTrip card. I do agree that we aren't as customer-friendly as we need to be for this kind of thing. Right now, we need to verify the "dead-ness" of a card before we replace it. By the end of the year we will have that capability at all sales outlets. But I was also talking to folks just this morning about expanding our points of sale into familiar retail stores as well as improving our sales outlets and their hours - so stay tuned
Dan Tangherlini COOKIE!

This one is hard to answer because I haven't had lunch yet.

But seriously, we want to do cookies and are working to set it up. We want to do it, though, in a way that allows those who want to have them to get them, and those who don't not to.
Evacuation Drills
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FanoftheMetro Hello, first I want to wish you good luck with your new post. My question is, have you considered hosting subway car evacuation drills? As a rider I am very concerned about the Metro as a terrorist target, and the only thing guiding me and my fellow passengers out of the train is a little map near the door. Alternatively, have you thought of training private citizens to take the lead during a crisis and help people out of cars, stay away from the third rail, etc.? FanoftheMetro
Dan Tangherlini We do conduct drills at our Carmen Turner facility in Landover. The Metro Transit Police train private citizens through the Citizen Emergency Response Team (CERT) program which you can join by signing up with your local juridiction. If we don't have a link to the local CERT programs on our web site, I'll get it added on.
Lunchtalk Follow-up
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I. Michael Snyde... Dan,

This forum and other forms of communication with WMATA ridership is what will allow us to move forward in correcting the “lack of openness” that has plagued Metro for way too long.

I believe in “open communication and dialogue” and feel that events like this one can get everyone to pull together to achieve the common goals of better regional transportation.

I believe that all Metro Staff must ask “Are we communicating effectively, have we followed-up, and have we provided feed-back to all interested parties”?

Prior to my participation in this forum, today … I went back and read prior posts. You said that you’d get back on some of the inquiries made at your last Lunchtime forum. But, only one has feedback from your staff.

Please provide ALL your riders the opportunity to hear your responses and ask staff to follow-up, here on this forum, to those questions you said you’d look into.

Secondly, I’d like to let riders know that all Riders Advisory Council and committee meetings have an open comment period, and we’ve had WMATA staff present to answer your questions. Thanks for your being at our last RAC meeting.

Michael Snyder
Member Riders Advisory Council

I. Michael Snyder
Applicant for RAC
Rockville, MD

Dan Tangherlini You are right, all the "i'll get back to you-s" should have had replies posted. I will get that taken care of. Keep reading and keep riding!

Merchandising...
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Matty Why doesn't Metro sell Merchandise as a form of revenue? T-shirts, hats, etc... just like the London Underground?

My apologies if I'm posting in more than one place, but the forum isn't very clear on where to post questions...
Dan Tangherlini You are right. Again, I was talking to the people who do that stuff for us this morning. We can do WAY better.
I have to go, sorry
Author Message
Dan Tangherlini I have to go out to visit some employees at a rail yard, now, but I am going to go throught the rest of your questions over the weekend. Thanks for joining in and thanks for riding Metro.

Our next forum will be the 7th and I hope to have a special guest star from our operations side (rail or bus) along to answer questions, so stay tuned to hear who it will be.
Trip Planner
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KrazyDawg Improvements could be made to trip planner. If I had to enter in West or South it would have to be entered in as either W or S. A cookie file to hold your address for future searches would save people time. Take a look at mapquest's site and you'll notice addresses saved when planning a trip.
Dan Tangherlini Hi. We had a technology glitch earlier and this response was posted elsewhere in the chat. Sorry about that. Here is the response, right where it belongs!

COOKIE!

This one is hard to answer because I haven't had lunch yet.

But seriously, we want to do cookies and are working to set it up. We want to do it, though, in a way that allows those who want to have them to get them, and those who don't not to.

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