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There is a lot of frustration with the DC subway system. Check out these two (frequently updated!) twitter accounts for example: https://twitter.com/unsuckdcme

There is a lot of frustration with the DC subway system. Check out these two (frequently updated!) twitter accounts for example: https://twitter.com/unsuckdcmetro https://twitter.com/unsuckdcmetro https://twitter.com/dcmetrosucks https://twitter.com/dcmetrosucks One area the streetcar plans to serve is the H Street Corridor. It's currently not really served by the subway system, so supposedly the powers-that-be decided it was a lower-cost solution. At $200m and 10 years though (and counting), I wish a subway system expansion would have been implemented. I would gladly pay more tax dollars for a more extensive (and less sucky) subway network here in DC. Instead, I'm spending that money on Uber, when I find out that the next train comes in 20 minutes. I should add that a monthly pass for the DC metro costs more than twice than NYC's (the 2nd most expensive in the country), and more than triple San Francisco's.

AdmiralAsshat 11y ago
The DC Metro is an abomination. I regularly spend about 40 minutes waiting for my girlfriend at the end of one of the lines as she gets on a trip that should take 20. Everything from "Single tracking on line between EVERYWHERE due to construction" to train inexplicably stopping on tracks for 10 minutes, to trains simply deciding not to run in that direction with absolutely no warning, no explanation why, and no ETL on the next train. It boggles the mind to think how any work gets done in DC when the public transit system is so terrible. Oh, wait...
- smacktoward 11y ago
  The saddest part is that Metro used to be incredible. I first moved to DC in 1993, and back then the trains were on time, the cars were clean, and the fares were low. It was excellent. People routinely pointed to it as the best thing about living in the District. It's taken two decades of neglect and mismanagement to turn it into the horror show it is today.
  - epoxyhockey 11y ago
    IMHO, the turning point several years ago was when Metro went from automated mode to manual mode after having to go from 6 car trains to 8 car trains. Apparently, the automated mode, where the train driver just looks out for anomalies, doesn't have enough precision to handle 8 car trains that consume the entire platform at stations. Under automated mode, you had consistent threshold breaking and acceleration, door opening times, etc. It was a very smooth ride.
    - JPKab 11y ago
      The switch to manual mode was much more due to the fatal Red Line accident than it was due to 8 cars. Either way, it's a symptom of the fact that the WMTA Union has suppressed the number of full-time positions for mechanics to ensure that existing mechanics get plenty of overtime pay. The result is a system where a single mechanic working a 12 hours shift is preferable to two mechanics working 6 hours each and getting something fixed. From the perspective of ANYONE other than the unionized workers, this is not ideal. Any riders can see the results of this on a daily basis. The escalators remain broken for months on end, and disabled riders end up having to go to entirely different stations because the elevators will remain out for months as well. I'll paste a link to a publication that I really don't like, but this particular article is actually very accurate. Sadly, the non-fringe media in DC are afraid to cover this story, despite the fact that anyone who has ever applied to work at the DC Metro can tell you this first-hand, and the data backs it up: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2012/03/29/exposed-dc-metro-subways-racist-willfully-incompetent-policies/ http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2012/03/29/exposed-dc-metro-...
- fintler 11y ago
  As someone who lives in the bay area, I think the DC Metro is absolutely amazing. The idea that your public transportation is always under heavy construction is kinda nice -- at least they're actively working on it. And you know, it actually exists at all.
JPKab 11y ago
I left DC about 18 months ago. I used to be a daily metro rider. Washington DC has some deep issues with a legacy of discrimination and urban decay that created a highly disadvantage population in the cities poor neighborhoods. Unfortunately, they've tried to use government employment to fix these issues by turning certain agencies, especially the metro, into jobs programs for poorly educated and socialized locals. This is the primary problem with the DC metro. It's staffed by a croneyist union who holds none of the employees accountable, and who simply pass any and all wage increases onto riders without even trying to attempt to find cost reductions via efficiency. It's an awful, awful system.
apendleton 11y ago
> At $200m and 10 years though (and counting), I wish a subway system expansion would have been implemented. Nice thought, but not realistic. Firstly, $200 million for full metrorail construction is way low. The NoMA station cost over $100 million, and was an above-ground infill station that required no new track. That was just the cost to build a new station. The Potomac Yard station in Virginia is budgeted in the $210-$270 million range, and is also infill and above ground, but will require a slight track rerouting. An H Street station, if it were even possible (and I'm skeptical because the whole area is riddled with other rail infrastructure) would involve new underground track through newly bored tunnels, and a new underground station. I bet $200 million is off by at least a factor of two. Secondly, even if the city did want to spend the money on it, they wouldn't be able to. DC can't unilaterally spend money on Metro; all new construction has to be divided amongst eight different jurisdictions according to a legislatively pre-determined formula, and the WMATA board (which has representatives from all the jurisdictions on it) has to vote to approve it. This basically never happens for new construction in the city, because DC is a minority on the board and none of the suburban jurisdictions want to pay for core infrastructure, only extensions. DC has taken to replicating more and more of WMATA's services under its DOT umbrella just to avoid having to deal with the bureaucratic nightmare and mismanagement of the transit authority. The (wildly successful) Circulator bus system is an example of this, as it in some cases directly overlaps with WMATA bus service. The streetcar would have been another such attempt. Third: if by some miracle DC could get agreement on justifying new underground metrorail construction and pull the funding together for it, H St. would be nowhere near the top of the list of priorities. Metro has major rush-hour capacity issues that are in dire need of addressing, and a random spur out to H St. wouldn't help with any of them. New construction should go towards an additional Potomac crossing north of Rosslyn, and a separated Blue line running north of the current blue/orange/silver shared track. This has been proposed to run along M, and could conceivably eventually serve Georgetown, Logan circle, and Union station. (None of this is to say the streetcar project isn't a clusterfuck. It is. WMATA just isn't the answer.)
- dajohnson89 11y ago
  I wasn't implying that $200 million would anywhere near cover the costs of a subway expansion, nor that an H street expansion is at the top of my WMATA wish list (that would be the fabled "Purple Line"). But at this order of magnitude of costs/time, we might as well go all in with a subway expansion. It would be a huge boost to the neighborhood; I hear this all the time about H Street and other places in Northeast: "...but there's not a metro stop there".

AdmiralAsshat 11y ago

The DC Metro is an abomination. I regularly spend about 40 minutes waiting for my girlfriend at the end of one of the lines as she gets on a trip that should take 20. Everything from "Single tracking on line between EVERYWHERE due to construction" to train inexplicably stopping on tracks for 10 minutes, to trains simply deciding not to run in that direction with absolutely no warning, no explanation why, and no ETL on the next train. It boggles the mind to think how any work gets done in DC when the public transit system is so terrible. Oh, wait...

smacktoward 11y ago
The saddest part is that Metro used to be incredible. I first moved to DC in 1993, and back then the trains were on time, the cars were clean, and the fares were low. It was excellent. People routinely pointed to it as the best thing about living in the District. It's taken two decades of neglect and mismanagement to turn it into the horror show it is today.
- epoxyhockey 11y ago
  IMHO, the turning point several years ago was when Metro went from automated mode to manual mode after having to go from 6 car trains to 8 car trains. Apparently, the automated mode, where the train driver just looks out for anomalies, doesn't have enough precision to handle 8 car trains that consume the entire platform at stations. Under automated mode, you had consistent threshold breaking and acceleration, door opening times, etc. It was a very smooth ride.
  - JPKab 11y ago
    The switch to manual mode was much more due to the fatal Red Line accident than it was due to 8 cars. Either way, it's a symptom of the fact that the WMTA Union has suppressed the number of full-time positions for mechanics to ensure that existing mechanics get plenty of overtime pay. The result is a system where a single mechanic working a 12 hours shift is preferable to two mechanics working 6 hours each and getting something fixed. From the perspective of ANYONE other than the unionized workers, this is not ideal. Any riders can see the results of this on a daily basis. The escalators remain broken for months on end, and disabled riders end up having to go to entirely different stations because the elevators will remain out for months as well. I'll paste a link to a publication that I really don't like, but this particular article is actually very accurate. Sadly, the non-fringe media in DC are afraid to cover this story, despite the fact that anyone who has ever applied to work at the DC Metro can tell you this first-hand, and the data backs it up: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2012/03/29/exposed-dc-metro-subways-racist-willfully-incompetent-policies/ http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2012/03/29/exposed-dc-metro-...
fintler 11y ago
As someone who lives in the bay area, I think the DC Metro is absolutely amazing. The idea that your public transportation is always under heavy construction is kinda nice -- at least they're actively working on it. And you know, it actually exists at all.

JPKab 11y ago

I left DC about 18 months ago. I used to be a daily metro rider. Washington DC has some deep issues with a legacy of discrimination and urban decay that created a highly disadvantage population in the cities poor neighborhoods. Unfortunately, they've tried to use government employment to fix these issues by turning certain agencies, especially the metro, into jobs programs for poorly educated and socialized locals. This is the primary problem with the DC metro. It's staffed by a croneyist union who holds none of the employees accountable, and who simply pass any and all wage increases onto riders without even trying to attempt to find cost reductions via efficiency. It's an awful, awful system.

apendleton 11y ago

> At $200m and 10 years though (and counting), I wish a subway system expansion would have been implemented. Nice thought, but not realistic. Firstly, $200 million for full metrorail construction is way low. The NoMA station cost over $100 million, and was an above-ground infill station that required no new track. That was just the cost to build a new station. The Potomac Yard station in Virginia is budgeted in the $210-$270 million range, and is also infill and above ground, but will require a slight track rerouting. An H Street station, if it were even possible (and I'm skeptical because the whole area is riddled with other rail infrastructure) would involve new underground track through newly bored tunnels, and a new underground station. I bet $200 million is off by at least a factor of two. Secondly, even if the city did want to spend the money on it, they wouldn't be able to. DC can't unilaterally spend money on Metro; all new construction has to be divided amongst eight different jurisdictions according to a legislatively pre-determined formula, and the WMATA board (which has representatives from all the jurisdictions on it) has to vote to approve it. This basically never happens for new construction in the city, because DC is a minority on the board and none of the suburban jurisdictions want to pay for core infrastructure, only extensions. DC has taken to replicating more and more of WMATA's services under its DOT umbrella just to avoid having to deal with the bureaucratic nightmare and mismanagement of the transit authority. The (wildly successful) Circulator bus system is an example of this, as it in some cases directly overlaps with WMATA bus service. The streetcar would have been another such attempt. Third: if by some miracle DC could get agreement on justifying new underground metrorail construction and pull the funding together for it, H St. would be nowhere near the top of the list of priorities. Metro has major rush-hour capacity issues that are in dire need of addressing, and a random spur out to H St. wouldn't help with any of them. New construction should go towards an additional Potomac crossing north of Rosslyn, and a separated Blue line running north of the current blue/orange/silver shared track. This has been proposed to run along M, and could conceivably eventually serve Georgetown, Logan circle, and Union station. (None of this is to say the streetcar project isn't a clusterfuck. It is. WMATA just isn't the answer.)

dajohnson89 11y ago
I wasn't implying that $200 million would anywhere near cover the costs of a subway expansion, nor that an H street expansion is at the top of my WMATA wish list (that would be the fabled "Purple Line"). But at this order of magnitude of costs/time, we might as well go all in with a subway expansion. It would be a huge boost to the neighborhood; I hear this all the time about H Street and other places in Northeast: "...but there's not a metro stop there".