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From UnsuckMetro Blog- Is Rush+ Over on the Orange Line?From Brian: Just an open question from an Orange Line rider (East Falls Church station). Over the past few months, it seems like the frequency of trains going into DC has slowed. I get on around 7:30 a.m. each day, and lately I've gotten onto an already crowded train that's 5-6 minutes after the preceding train, and the monitor shows another 5-7 […]
- Dating Via Emergency Intercom? Photo via @nevermindtheend From Jim: I saw the STRANGEST thing this morning! I was at the back of the very last car on a train from Silver Spring to downtown. At one of the next stops, a guy gets on, presses the emergency intercom button at the back of the car and starts chatting up the train driver. "Hey, baby, this is Cooper. Remember Cooper? Yeah, s […]
- Does the Transit Subsidy Make Metro Worse?From Steve: I live in Arlington and commute to DC on Metro daily. So does my roommate. I pay every cent of my Metro costs out of my pocket. No pretax discount, and my employer doesn't chip in a dime. My roommate, on the other hand, is a federal worker and doesn't have to pay a single cent of his own money for his daily commute on Metro. Our levels […]
- Is Rush+ Over on the Orange Line?
- Greater Washington
- Focus transportation on downtown or neighborhoods?by David Alpert and Rahul Mereand-Sinha Should the design of major roads and our big transit projects favor moving large numbers of people in and out of downtown? Or should DC focus on making streets feel more like neighborhood streets, and transportation investments that help people travel within and between neighborhoods? Photo by Roger Wollstadt on Flickr […]
- Community supports bike lanes around H Streetby Tony Goodman DC transportation officials would like to help cyclists avoid the streetcar tracks, heavy car traffic, and pedestrians along H Street NE. Yesterday, the transportation committees of both Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (ANCs) along H Street supported a plan to let cyclists ride in both directions on G and I Streets, while keeping car traffi […]
- Breakfast links: Stereotypesby David Alpert Photo by Michael Hänsch on Flickr."Gentrifiers" aren't all white: A new report identifies "gentrifying" neighborhoods based on trends in property values. New residents are more affluent and often younger, but in several neighborhoods, they're same race as longtime residents. (WBJ) Bad apples lead to viral videos […]
- Focus transportation on downtown or neighborhoods?
Category Archives: Safety Incidents
Two Year Anniversary of the deaths of Jeff Garrard & Sung Oh
[I meant to post this on January 26. Somehow it was left as a "draft" and not posted.]: Today, January 26, 2012, is the two year anniversary of the completely avoidable and incredibly tragic accident that killed my former coworkers … Continue reading
Posted in Management Follies, Safety Incidents, The Metro Hall of Shame
Tagged Safety hazard, The 51st State
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Metro Admits Liability for June 22, 2009 Wreck
I’m glad to see that after over 2 1/2 years Metro has finally done the right thing and admitted liability for the June 22, 2009 wreck — even if it was for legal expediency. It is unclear to me why … Continue reading
Posted in Inadequate Training, Malfunctions, Management Follies, Public Opinion, Safety Incidents, The Metro Hall of Shame
Tagged automatic train control, backup alarm, gross negligence, metro employees, ntsb accident reports, rail trucks, Reliability, Safety hazard, The 51st State, Waste of money
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Broken Rail
One of the most common problems automatic train control (ATC) techs face is a ‘down track circuit(s)’. That is, a track circuit that is showing false occupancy — it looks like there is a train in that section of track … Continue reading
Sleepy
“Sleepy” was our nickname for a guy who was on Midnight shift at Shady Grove Yard (A99). You could hear sleepy approach before you ever saw him. He was so tired he couldn’t lift his feet to walk. He would … Continue reading
Trains to stay in manual mode for several years
According to this Washington Examiner article, Metro plans to have the train operators run in manual mode (often referred to as “mode 2, level 1″) for the foreseeable future. I don’t even play an Automatic Train Control (ATC) engineer on … Continue reading
Posted in Management Follies, Safety Incidents
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Three (3) red signals passed in one day, in one train yard
[The following is an email exchange I had with a coworker last year. Names have been changed. "A99" is Shady Grove Yard]: The tower called this afternoon and reported switches 63 and 77 out of correspondence. Sam went to the … Continue reading
Two more Metro train operators ran through red signals
Well, what do you know – two more operators ran red signals recently. As I said in my previous post about this topic — contrary to the statement by Metro’s chief safety officer (“…red signal overruns [are] a “very rare” … Continue reading
Metro workers and Overtime
Metro employee overtime (OT) is in the news again. Greater Greater Washington (GGW) mentioned this last Monday which led to this reply from ATU Local 689 president Jackie Jeter. I’ve written about this issue before — here and here: Quote: … Continue reading
Train Operators Running Red Signals
In the news recently was a story about two (2) train operators running a red signal at Brentwood Yard (B99). What surprised me wasn’t that they passed a red signal but rather that it was reported at all. Ever since … Continue reading
NTSB releases transcript of interview with operator of hi-rail truck that struck and killed ATC techs in January 2010
Well, here we are almost 16 months after my coworkers were killed as a direct result of Metro’s negligence and there is still no NTSB report. They have released the docket however. The most recent addition is the transcript of … Continue reading
