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WMATA Forum   » Question & Answer with WMATA guests   » Focus on Metro (10/21/05) from noon to 1 p.m.  
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Welcome to the chat
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Richard White Good afternoon and welcome to another chat. A big day yesterday. We moved 750,728 on the rail system, which is one of our highest days. Plus, we shared some interesting (and good) news with our Board yesterday about what our riders think of our service. A regular telephone rider survey conducted between July and September found about 90 percent of Metrorail passengers and 85 percent of Metrobus passengers said they were satisfied with Metro service. That’s 3 percent higher for rail and 9 percent higher for bus compared to the same time last year.

The amount of daily rail riders who didn’t have a train delay was nearly 98 percent between July and September of this year. That’s down about a half a percent from the same period last year and can be attributed to delays from police incidents, including reports of suspicious packages and persons. However, riders experienced fewer mechanical breakdowns between July and September versus the same period last year. Crime and complaints also were down, while the average weekday ridership increased by 40,646 to 707,381, or 6 percent.

While a satisfaction rating of 90 percent for rail and 85 percent for bus is a “solid score,” we are going to do our best to continue to improve our service. We know that the bottom line is that improved reliability is what will increase the level of our customers’ satisfaction. And that’s what we are aiming to do, continue to improve reliability of our service.

People looking at their gasoline bills might want to make a visit to our Metro Cost Calculator (see the link on our home page). If you enter your gasoline cost, mileage to your destination, and your automobile’s mpg, you can compare that to your cost to take Metro. It’s an interesting online tool that shows the cost differential between driving and taking Metro.

Now let’s get to the chat.
Metro Savings Calculator
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BDK While I applaud the inclusion of the Metro Savings Calculator on your website, it vastly overstates the amount of those savings. There are a couple of flaws in the design of the calculator:

1) The GSA rate already factors in the price of gasoline. However, the calculator uses both the GSA rate AND the actual cost of gas (based on the price per gallon and the vehicle MPG).

2) The Metro section doesn't take into consideration those of us who have to drive to a Metro station and park. For example, my office is 35 miles away from my home; however, I drive 26 miles to get to the Landover Metro station. Yet, those 26 miles aren't a part of the equation when calculating my transportation costs.

Yes, there are savings to be had by using public transportation. When I put in my own parameters, the driving cost was $882.27 versus $172.00 for Metro - an astounding savings of $710.27/month. However, when calculated properly, my savings are $157.60/month.
Richard White Hi. You’re right, and that’s something that our folks are already working to correct. By mid-afternoon the changes will be made. We will have dropped the calculated gas costs and use only the GSA mileage rate that includes gas. We'll also add costs of driving to a Metro lot. As you’ve already pointed out, Metro is probably still a less expensive way to travel, although the calculator will probably show that the driving expense is somewhat lower once the adjustments to the calculator are made.
Yellow Line Service
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Alexandria On Wednesday, 10/19, I waited for a Yellow Line train to Huntington at the Archives Station, around 6:25 p.m. I saw three 6-car Green Line trains pass (although a gentleman next to me said there were four) before finally a 4-car Yellow Line train arrived. Obviously, such a short train after such a long wait was packed. But since the arrival sign at Archives only reports ETA times for Branch Avenue Trains, and I didn't know how long it would be until the next Yellow Line (someone nearby said 20 minutes, which would cause me to miss my last shuttle bus connection), I joined the throng and packed the sardine train.

1. Is Green Line ridership so much more than Yellow that it necessitates 3 Green Trains to every Yellow? The third Green Train I saw was nearly empty.
2. If Yellow Lines DO run less frequently, can they be given 6 cars to avoid such dangerous overcrowding?
3. For months the ETA sign at the Archives Station in the direction of Virginia has only reported "Branch Avenue, Branch Avenue, Branch Avenue." The Huntington Train information just suddenly appears when it is practically already in the station. Can this be fixed to provide accurate information for all trains?

Thank you for your reply.
Richard White Hi. This is going to be a long answer. Let me start by saying that the intervals between trains at 6:25 p.m. is seven minutes on the Yellow Line, not 20 minutes as you said that someone else on the platform incorrectly claimed.

The delay on the Yellow/Green Lines that evening started with a train that experienced brake problems at Prince George's Plaza (headed in the direction of Branch Avenue). We had to take that train out of service. As we were doing so, we had another report that the train was experiencing problems with the brakes on a different railcar and it was again stopped at Georgia Ave-Petworth to allow the operator to take care of that. This caused an additional delay to the Green Line trains that were behind the problem train. Because crowds using the Green Line are larger than those using the Yellow Line, we decided to use a Yellow Line train as a Green Line train to reduce the delay to the customers on the Green Line, because that impacted more passengers. So a Yellow Line train at Mt. Vernon Sq was diverted to the Green Line.

Then a train operator for a Yellow Line train was late in arriving, causing another delay on top of the one related to the brakes. This delay allowed the train that had the brake problem at Prince George’s Plaza to arrive at Mt. Vernon Sq before the Yellow Line left, and the two other Green Line trains that were directly behind the problem train passed Mt. Vernon Sq before the Yellow Line train left.

So the combination of changing a Yellow Line train to a Green Line train to lessen the delay on the Green Line and the operator missing his train at Mt Vernon caused a gap in service on the Yellow Line. Sorry about the delay!
Bus layout...
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W McGee I've finally gotten a chance to ride on those new natural gas buses, and they're really nice. I've noticed though that they have a lot of extra vertical space in the front 2/3 of the passenger seating area. Now, that the Dulles bound 5A route -- originally proposed as a reverse commute bus-- has become incredibly popular with folks catching a flight, has there been thought given to modifying the design of the natural gas buses to hold luggage racks?

Also, has an agreement been reached to increasing frequency on the route.
Richard White Thanks for being a loyal bus customer. The 5A was established in December 2000 to provide direct, low-cost service for District of Columbia residents to access jobs in the Dulles corridor. It hyas subsequently become popular with suburban residents who commute to the District, and with airline travelers. We have considered equipping the buses with luggage racks, as we did for the B30 route to BWI Airport. However, this would reduce the number of seats available for passengers at times when the number of air travelers is relatively small. We would like to increase service on the 5A to accommodate the demand, but there is currently no funding for this kind of increase in our budget. CNG buses will be assigned to the 5A route as more are placed into service over the next five months.
Bus routes in PDA format
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jbgroup1 Why can't all bus routes be available for PDA's.
Richard White Hi. The simple answer is expense. The problem is that creating PDA friendly timetables is labor intensive.. The existing workflow is designed for printing timetables, in fact, we can print 50,000 timetables for the cost of making one timetable downloadable to a PDA. The good news is that our scheduling system is one of our business systems that is being re-engineered and, when completed, it will allow us much more flexibility in altering the way that we can provide schedule information.
Millions More Movement Service
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Biker on Rail I have several questions about the decision to run rush hour service for the march on the mall on Saturday, October 15.

I know of no other time in WMATA history that full rush hour service ran on a Saturday. Neither presidential inaugurations nor July 4th celebrations require that much service. I rode the subway Saturday and it was very empty, normal or slightly extra service would have sufficed for the demand at that time. Clearly, all this extra service costs money, and someone has to pay for it. Was it paid for by the march organizers, or from another source? I don't think it is WMATA's responsibility to pay for extra service like that. I know you don't pay for the early openings before events such as the Race for the Cure.

Also, if you could, please describe the decision process that resulted in your deciding to run weekday service on that Saturday.

Thank you.

Richard White Hi. We decided to operate extra service on Saturday to help handle the anticipated crowds. We did not offered offered a typical weekday service based on our conversations with the event organizers.

Being in Washington, DC, means that there are major events happening virtually every weekend. Some are events like festivals, fairs and races/marathons. Others are “free speech events” like last weekend’s Millions More Movement. You’re right, we do charge event planners if they want us to open early or close late (like last night’s late closing for the Terrapins football game in College Park), but we do not charge for additional service to/from events considered “free speech” events where people are exercising their constitutional rights such as for a protest or hold a major march. We usually put out the level of service that we anticipate will be needed to handle the crowds.
Shift changes on bus line 42
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J. Holm I ride on bus line 42 almost daily. In the evening, when the drivers are changing shifts, the bus stops at Dupont Circle to switch drivers. This often involves waiting between 5 and 10 minutes for the passengers to board, the "off the clock" driver to get off, the "on the clock driver" to get seated, and the doors to close. Some times, I have waited up to 15 minutes while the "end of shift" driver waited for their replacement to show up.

Why does Metro swap drivers in the middle of the route? This is *very* inconvenient for passengers. The 42 route starts at either Metro Center or Farragut Square, so drivers could easily switch at the start of the route instead of mid-way through.
Richard White Bus operators are paid for travel time between their report location at Western Bus Garage, near Friendship Heights, and the relief point for Route 42. Moving the relief point from the middle of the route at Dupont Circle to the route terminals at Farragut Square or Metro Center would increase operator travel time and, therefore, increase our operating costs. However, with that said, we will conduct an analysis of the impact that this would have on costs in comparison to the improvement in service reliability that could be achieved to see if it would be wiser to alter the way we are doing it now.
Orange Line
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MDW11 For the past two weeks the Orange line has been a mess in the mornings. I get on at Va Square and the trains going into the city are coming 7 and 8 mins apart and every single one is packed. However the trains going to Vienna are coming every 3 to 4 mins and have about 5 people in each car. Why is it that you have the trains to go in the direction no one is going but you don't have the trains where they are needed?
Richard White I'm an Orange Line rider myself, and I can assure you that during the peak hour of our rush hour, trains are scheduled through Virginia Square roughly every three minutes. If trains are running 7-8 minutes apart, that's a sign of a disruption in service, which we apologize for. The trains going out to Virginia are operating on their normal schedule. But I will keep an eye out for problems on the line during my travels on the Orange Line in the days and weeks ahead. Thanks.
Evacuation Planning
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I. Michael Snyde... Mr. White,

I apologize for not being online at the time of this question as I have a schedule conflict, but I look forward to your response.

What steps has WMATA and the Metro Transit Police taken to plan for disaster or major service disruption at a metro train station. I was personally impacted by the Woodly Park incident last year and would hope that with the events in London and the scare in New York, that Metro has taken steps through the station managers to better inform customers at each location.

Are the station managers trained in how to respond and inform customers?

Is information and material available on evacuation from each station, steps to be taken, and shelters or meeting locations for the evacuated?

Is there information on local buses to assist with continuing on your commute, or on return to your point of origin?

It’s fine to have a personal plan, but it’s not possible for an individual to plan for each of the 15 or more stations one might be passing through.

When I was impacted, I knew that if I walked over to Adams Morgan, I could get a bus to go pickup the Green Line. However, no one else seemed to be aware of this option, as the bus I picked up was practically empty, while 100’s of people continued to walk down Connecticut Ave.

I was hoping that since a year has passed, some progress will have been made in evacuation planning.

Thanks,

I. Michael Snyder
Applicant for RAC
Rockville, MD

Richard White Hi. We recommend that people take advantage of our tools for planning ahead of time. We have an emergency preparedness page of our web site (http://www.wmata.com/riding/safety/emergency_preparedness.cfm) That you can use to help plan ahead in case a station is closed. During emergencies we communicate directly with customers through station announcements, train announcement, and the passenger information display signs. In addition, we have a group of Metro employees who drop everything else they’re doing for immediate deployment to problem sites to assist. There is no set place where shuttle buses can be set up because it all depends on specific incident, where the local fire and rescue vehicles are parked, and where the first responders will decide it is safest for our shuttle buses to be to move people.
Panhandlers/Loiterers In Friendship Heights Station
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H2Oh! Can anything be done about the fact that there are panhandlers/people sort of lurking in Friendship Heights station, in the mezzanine-level hallways that lead out to Mazza Gallerie, Hecht's, Friendship Centre, etc.? Especially at night, their presence makes me nervous. Some are aggressive, though it's never risen to the level of assault. This is an ongoing issue - they are there almost all the time - so I doubt that going all the way back down into the station to report this to the manager would be the solution. (Part of the reason the situation makes me nervous is that the station manager is so far away - no one to see/hear if anything happens, esp. late or early when few people are around.) What about having Metro police patrol that area frequently?

- A faithful Red Line rider
Richard White Hi. Thank you for letting us know about your concerns. The Metro Transit Police respond to many similar calls for service throughout the Metrorail system. It seems to peak as the weather becomes colder. I will discuss your observations with the MTPD/District One Commander for resolution. Please feel free to contact the MTPD directly by calling our police dispatchers at 202-962-2121 to report any suspicious behaviors or unlawful activities. We will send an officer to resolve the complaint.
Customer Satisfaction Ratings
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SH I saw the customer satisfaction survey on your web site. What do you think of the results?
Richard White Hi. The results of the customer satisfaction survey say a lot. People are generally rather pleased with our service, giving us high satisfaction ratings, as I pointed out in my introductory comments. However we will continue to do what we can to improve our service and thus improve our satisfaction ratings. My opinion is that it’s about continual improvement and the area that we have to improve the most is customer satisfaction with escalators.
Millions More
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SH Did you carry a lot of people last Saturday for the Millions More events?
Richard White Hi. We moved 394,924 on Saturday, Oct. 15, the day of the Millions More Movement events. It was somewhat higher than a typical Saturday, but certainly nothing overwhelming.
Status of Fare Increase Next Year
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skcomm According to the document available on the WMATA web site, the WMATA Board voted on a proposed resolution for the budget guidance for Fiscal 2007, starting in July of next year. That resolution did not say anything about a fare increase. Does this mean that there will be no fare increase? If a fare increase is still "on the table" can you tell us what options you are considering to avoid one?
Richard White Hi. We are not proposing a fare increase for next year. As you pointed out, the resolution on guidance did not say anything about a fare increase and so we will be preparing a budget without a fare increase.
SmartTrip Farecard Machines
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Neno8403 Mr. White I would like to know why it takes such a ridiculously long time for transactions to process on all your farecard vendors and more specifically your farecard vendors that also allow you to add value to SmartTrip cards. It takes sometimes more than a half minute for the vendors to process your payments if using a credit or debit card. That is crazy! I went to a gas station that other day and before I could even get my credit card back in my wallet, my transaction had been approved. These farecard machines are unconceivably slow. And this is a big problem for me during rush hour in particular because I miss a train usually waiting for that lengthy transaction to be approved. You'd be surprised at what an extra 20 seconds will allow you to do. Are you all going to upgrade those stone-age era vendors in the forseeable future and make approval times lighthing fast or what?? Thanks.
Richard White Thanks for your question. Our processing times are dependent on several factors, including transaction network traffic, our server load, and the number of simultaneous transactions placed, especially during the holidays. We are replacing a switch that will help processing times, and we are reviewing our server load-handling strategies to prevent over-capacity problems. So the bottom line is, help and improvements are on the way!
Future Riders Council solicitations...
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W McGee I missed the chance to apply for the riders' council. Will there be another application process next year after the term is up for the current members? How will membership rotation be handled?
Richard White Hi. Glad to hear you’re interested in our Riders Advisory Council. Next fall seven seats will be available. The terms are three years each, but for the first group of Council members, terms will be staggered. Seven will have one-year terms; seven will have two-year terms and seven will have three-year terms. Then each year seven will come up for turnover. We had about 940 people apply for the Council this year.
Time of Train Layovers at Each Station
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Neno8403 Mr. White I do have another question. I've read before that during rush hour metrorail train usually stop at station for no more than 10 seconds (I think i've ever heard 8 seconds referenced before). But I ride the Green Line in the mornings around 8am and I cant you how many times the Green Line has sat at a station with its doors open for more than 30 seconds and thats being extremely generous with the time. I must admitt that I havent rode the Metro in a while I just started again recently. Did you guys revise the time that the doors remain open due to complaints or am I just ill-informed with my information?
Richard White Thanks for your follow-up question, Neno. We encourage our train operators to move in and out of our stations as quickly as possible. However, if your train is in the station for a long period of time, it may be because of a problem with the train directly in front of yours, or because the train in front of yours is servicing the platform at the next station, thus requiring your train to be held. And we would rather hold trains in stations than in tunnels.
Parking
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dpete47 Why does METRO charge so much for parking at it's stations? VRE lets commuters park free at all it's stations every day. The only station we can't park free is Franconia/Springfield because of METRO. The lots are paid for by the governing jurisdiction they're in. When VRE first started they charged, but years later it was voted to stop charging for parking and their are no plans to start charnging either.
Richard White Parking revenue is an important element of balancing our operating budget each year. As you may know, almost half of our annual financial needs are paid for by local governments. The balance is from passenger fares and fees (including parking), and other revenue such as advertising. If we lower one item, something else has to go up.

When we look at how full our lots are each day, it is pretty convincing evidence that the parking rates are at an acceptable level for our customers.
Two out of Three Escalators
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KSilver I understand that in stations where there are two escalators and one is out of service, the other is also taken out of service. However, I have twice been in a situation where there are three escalators, one of which was out of service. In one case, both of the remaining escalators were going down; in the other case, they were both going up! It would be much more logical to have one going up, and one going down. I received a response from Metro about this stating that it depends on the "flow of traffic" of Metro riders. However, even though there may be more riders entering the station than leaving (or vice versa), I still don't see why riders who are going "against the flow of traffic" have to be inconvenienced. I still feel that if there are two working escalators, they should not both be going the same way. I also agree with a person who had posted previously requested signs warning riders of out of service escalators. Thank you.
Richard White Each station has an "escalator plan" outlining which way escalators should be going. We are currently reviewing the plans for each station to be sure that they meet the needs of our customers. As part of this effort, we want to give the station manager greater flexibility to make decisions on escalator flow when one (or more) is out. Once this effort is complete, we will publish the escalator configuration for each station on our website.

Capitol South Lighting
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dpete47 I see the lights in the meeze area (between fare gates and escalators) have been fixed and is nowvery well lighted. Thanks. However, the lights next to the tracks on both sides are very dim or burning out and need to be replaced for more lighting like at L'Enfant Plaza lower level. It seems at Capitol South they dim fast, just a few weeks after being fixed. Will they be fixed soon?
Richard White We know we have a problem with dim lighting along the platform edges in several of our stations. In fact, in our current FY 2006 budget, we have included additional positions for workers to replace the bulbs in those light fixtures on our platforms and in our stations. I will make sure the folks who do this work pay special attention to Capitol South. Thanks for passing this information along to us.
Bicycle riders
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gkArlVA Any chance of adjusting the time restrictions on bringing bicycles aboard MetroRail? At 9:45 am on Thursday, I was prohibited from bringing my bike aboard even though there were fewer passengers aboard the train than when I normally ride at 6:30 am. I feel that 7-9:30 may be more appropriate and prove less inconvenient to riders like me. Thanks!
Richard White The hours for allowing bicycles in our system are set based on when our trains and stations are the least crowded, system-wide and not on any particular train or line. At the same time, as you know, our ridership continues to grow. I honestly don't see us being able to change the bike-on-rail hours any time soon for that reason. Thanks for asking.
See you next time
Author Message
Richard White Well folks, time has flown by today. Let me remind you that we have track work on the Green, Orange and Red Lines this weekend, so plan to build about 10 minutes into your trip to get to your destination on time. Please check our homepage if you’d like more information on the specific work being done at those locations.

Our next chat is on Friday, November 3rd.

Have a great weekend!

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