Wednesday, April 09, 2014

Metro Breaks for Blossoms

Once again this year Metro has decided to suspend its weekend maintenance schedule during the Cherry Blossom Festival. So there is no weekend track work going on at all any where until April 13. After that it’s back to the unending delays, interruptions and near chaos of weekend service.

I blogged about this last year. In general my overall opinion of Metro has not changed all that much.

I was very impressed with the way they dealt with the passenger who had a heart attack on the train I was on. Their response was quick and immediate. They moved quickly to figure out the situation and then get people out of the way. And to get help to the man as quickly as possible.

The main problem with Metro seems to the problem it has always had. It rarely seems to be able to communicate in a timely fashion what exactly is going on. Delays seem to have few if any announcements. When stations are closed over the weekend (when buses replace trains), finding out where to get the shuttle bus always seems to be a hassle. Metro people seem to be few and far between. I will admit they have gotten a little better at this. Rhode Island Avenue was closed twice so far this year. On both occasions I took the Metro and they had enough people out to tell you where to go to get buses.

This does not extend to when trains are single tracked through stations. This can get confusing again a simple announcement saying the train now pulling into the staying is going in the direction of would be more than adequate to help people out. And nothing can confuse people more to have a sign saying all trains board on one side of the platform. Then have a train pull in on the side where trains aren’t supposed to be running.

Ah well. At least for a couple of weekends there won’t be any track work. And the cherry blossoms will be out. I guess that is enough of a reason to smile.

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