7 ms·

I guess the saddest part is that the DC Metro seemed no worse than others I've ridden on as a tourist, such as Atlanta or NYC. The couple of times I've been to

I guess the saddest part is that the DC Metro seemed no worse than others I've ridden on as a tourist, such as Atlanta or NYC. The couple of times I've been to DC, the Metro seemed at least the equal of my home-town (Boston) MBTA which I rode for years as my daily commute. DC's Metro sucks? Yeah, welcome to the US.

ocdtrekkie 11y ago
It's been a long time since I've been to DC, but honestly, when I was in DC, I thought the Metro was among the best subways I'd ever seen. Clean, quiet, smooth. Paris is the only place I've been that had better. But it sounds like DC's has maybe not been kept up as well in the last several years.
- totalrobe 11y ago
  I've lived in the DC area for 2.5 years and even during that short time we have seen a big increase in delays and complete service outages, and have had several electrical fires including an entire substation that has to be replaced. Service after 10 pm and on weekends is a total crapshoot.
- djKianoosh 11y ago
  It is definitely not clean anymore. Or it is not clean in the main commuter stations that you may or may not have seen. The stench is unbearable in some stations like Metro Center, Gallery Place and a few other ones.
TYPE_FASTER 11y ago
That was my impression as well.
timdiggerm 11y ago
I've been a tourist in NYC, and their system is loads better than DC's. It makes me so sad when I get back from New York and find myself on the Metro again.
- _of 11y ago
  The NYC subway works surprisingly well, considering that some of the tech that runs it is 100 years old [1]. :) [1] http://uk.businessinsider.com/this-is-why-the-new-york-city-subway-is-always-delayed-2015-11?r=US&IR=T http://uk.businessinsider.com/this-is-why-the-new-york-city-...
untog 11y ago
Perhaps as a tourist you haven't been traveling at peak times? I've visited DC for work, and been traveling at normal commuting times, and it's been hell. The NYC subway also has a huge list of issues, but when you factor in the respective sizes of the systems, DC's is considerably worse.
- notacoward 11y ago
  It's entirely likely that my experience as a tourist is unlike that of daily commuters. Then again, DC residents' experience of other systems is likely to be similarly anomalous. All we can do is share our experiences, and let readers interpret the aggregate result.
adetdot 11y ago
DC Metro is not that bad. I have rode the metro/subway in NYC, Bay area, and London. DC is clean and easy to get around compared to those areas in my opinion. The knock on the DC Metro might be that it is getting more expensive and it no open as late as NYC or London.
- JPKab 11y ago
  Try being a daily rider. It's miserable. When things go bad, they go very, very bad. The BART sucks too, don't get me wrong. But the DC Metro is simply AWFUL compared to NYC, and it has far less tracks to maintain.
  - adetdot 11y ago
    I was a daily rider on and off for about 14 years and counting. DC Metro is not perfect by any means but I was satisfied most times. I lived in New York for a couple of months back in winter of late 2013 and early 2014. I was ready to get back to DC Metro after that time. This is just my opinion.
showerst 11y ago
The thing about metro is that 98+% of the time it's quite good, but when it's bad it tends to _really_ melt down. When the New York subway has a bad day, you're 20 minutes late. When Metro has a bad day you can be 1-2 hours late. It's also pretty lousy on weekends, especially if you have to switch lines it can be 5x slower than a car.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
JPKab 11y ago
No, as someone who rode the Metro in DC daily for 8 years until I left the region 18 months ago, it is far, far worse than NYC Subway. The reason is simple. It was completely hijacked by a union who turned themselves into a "good old boys club" for people from the poor neighborhoods who were born and raised in DC and educated in it's horrifically bad public school system. The union once treated the management as the enemy, but once there was no more money left to squeeze from the system itself, they began treating the riders as the enemy. Fares were raised every 6 months by the time I left, and the system continued to degrade. The racial statistics of the system are clearly indicative of a racial bias in hiring which is a direct result of the good old boy hiring system. New mechanics are iced out in the same way the new managers were by the salary doubling overtime culture the employees practice. Because to them, a single mechanic working 12 hour shifts is better than two mechanics working 8 hour shifts, despite the former costing the same and doing far, far less than the latter to keep the system operational. I support unions in the private sector. But my experience dealing with the DC Metro has made me loathe them in any public monopoly where consumers have no way to choose a competitor when the union gets out of hand and starts siphoning money from them. My favorite, glaring example which is a tiny sliver of what occurs courtesy of the union: A bus driver, several years ago, randomly pulled his bus over when he saw a person in a "McGruff the crime dog" costume talking to children about drugs. He assaulted McGruff, and then got back on his bus and continued operations. The union forced the WMATA to rehire him, WITH BACKPAY. He still works there, serving the public. He also had a previous felony record.
- greggarious 11y ago
  Do you have a cite on that? Would love to circulate it, but can't without an attribution.
  - SAS24 11y ago
    "But Vaughn, the arbitrator, decided that Brim's actions, although illegal and inappropriate, were not undertaken with malicious intent. Vaughn based his decision on witness statements, including those of the police officer, Tyrone Hardy, Metro officials said. Vaughn reduced Brim's penalty to a 30-day suspension and awarded him back pay for the rest of the time. Farbstein did not know the value of back pay awarded in either case." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/09/AR2010060905926.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06...
dkrich 11y ago
There's a night and day difference between riding the metro on a vacation and on a daily basis during rush hour.
badmadrad 11y ago
I actually liked the Metro. I lived in DC up until early 2014 and found it be smooth when it wasn't rush hours. But maybe it was the fact I didn't ride during rush hour very much that I liked it. That being said, now I live in Chicago and I think the "L" sucks because I have to ride it for rush hours. Its slow and bumpy ride and I am pretty sure it was designed in the Thomas Edison era. In conclusion, riding the train sucks during rush hour.
- ghaff 11y ago
  There are probably exceptions, but I imagine that there are very few people who love their city's public transit system--including European ones--if they have to ride it daily at rush hour.
- jgroszko 11y ago
  As a tourist the DC Metro at least seems much cleaner to me than the Chicago L that I commute on every day. The displays that show arrival times for the next train in DC are slick, but many L stations have those now too.

ocdtrekkie 11y ago

It's been a long time since I've been to DC, but honestly, when I was in DC, I thought the Metro was among the best subways I'd ever seen. Clean, quiet, smooth. Paris is the only place I've been that had better. But it sounds like DC's has maybe not been kept up as well in the last several years.

totalrobe 11y ago
I've lived in the DC area for 2.5 years and even during that short time we have seen a big increase in delays and complete service outages, and have had several electrical fires including an entire substation that has to be replaced. Service after 10 pm and on weekends is a total crapshoot.
djKianoosh 11y ago
It is definitely not clean anymore. Or it is not clean in the main commuter stations that you may or may not have seen. The stench is unbearable in some stations like Metro Center, Gallery Place and a few other ones.

TYPE_FASTER 11y ago

That was my impression as well.

timdiggerm 11y ago

I've been a tourist in NYC, and their system is loads better than DC's. It makes me so sad when I get back from New York and find myself on the Metro again.

_of 11y ago
The NYC subway works surprisingly well, considering that some of the tech that runs it is 100 years old [1]. :) [1] http://uk.businessinsider.com/this-is-why-the-new-york-city-subway-is-always-delayed-2015-11?r=US&IR=T http://uk.businessinsider.com/this-is-why-the-new-york-city-...

untog 11y ago

Perhaps as a tourist you haven't been traveling at peak times? I've visited DC for work, and been traveling at normal commuting times, and it's been hell. The NYC subway also has a huge list of issues, but when you factor in the respective sizes of the systems, DC's is considerably worse.

notacoward 11y ago
It's entirely likely that my experience as a tourist is unlike that of daily commuters. Then again, DC residents' experience of other systems is likely to be similarly anomalous. All we can do is share our experiences, and let readers interpret the aggregate result.

adetdot 11y ago

DC Metro is not that bad. I have rode the metro/subway in NYC, Bay area, and London. DC is clean and easy to get around compared to those areas in my opinion. The knock on the DC Metro might be that it is getting more expensive and it no open as late as NYC or London.

JPKab 11y ago
Try being a daily rider. It's miserable. When things go bad, they go very, very bad. The BART sucks too, don't get me wrong. But the DC Metro is simply AWFUL compared to NYC, and it has far less tracks to maintain.
- adetdot 11y ago
  I was a daily rider on and off for about 14 years and counting. DC Metro is not perfect by any means but I was satisfied most times. I lived in New York for a couple of months back in winter of late 2013 and early 2014. I was ready to get back to DC Metro after that time. This is just my opinion.

showerst 11y ago

The thing about metro is that 98+% of the time it's quite good, but when it's bad it tends to _really_ melt down. When the New York subway has a bad day, you're 20 minutes late. When Metro has a bad day you can be 1-2 hours late. It's also pretty lousy on weekends, especially if you have to switch lines it can be 5x slower than a car.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

JPKab 11y ago

No, as someone who rode the Metro in DC daily for 8 years until I left the region 18 months ago, it is far, far worse than NYC Subway. The reason is simple. It was completely hijacked by a union who turned themselves into a "good old boys club" for people from the poor neighborhoods who were born and raised in DC and educated in it's horrifically bad public school system. The union once treated the management as the enemy, but once there was no more money left to squeeze from the system itself, they began treating the riders as the enemy. Fares were raised every 6 months by the time I left, and the system continued to degrade. The racial statistics of the system are clearly indicative of a racial bias in hiring which is a direct result of the good old boy hiring system. New mechanics are iced out in the same way the new managers were by the salary doubling overtime culture the employees practice. Because to them, a single mechanic working 12 hour shifts is better than two mechanics working 8 hour shifts, despite the former costing the same and doing far, far less than the latter to keep the system operational. I support unions in the private sector. But my experience dealing with the DC Metro has made me loathe them in any public monopoly where consumers have no way to choose a competitor when the union gets out of hand and starts siphoning money from them. My favorite, glaring example which is a tiny sliver of what occurs courtesy of the union: A bus driver, several years ago, randomly pulled his bus over when he saw a person in a "McGruff the crime dog" costume talking to children about drugs. He assaulted McGruff, and then got back on his bus and continued operations. The union forced the WMATA to rehire him, WITH BACKPAY. He still works there, serving the public. He also had a previous felony record.

greggarious 11y ago
Do you have a cite on that? Would love to circulate it, but can't without an attribution.
- SAS24 11y ago
  "But Vaughn, the arbitrator, decided that Brim's actions, although illegal and inappropriate, were not undertaken with malicious intent. Vaughn based his decision on witness statements, including those of the police officer, Tyrone Hardy, Metro officials said. Vaughn reduced Brim's penalty to a 30-day suspension and awarded him back pay for the rest of the time. Farbstein did not know the value of back pay awarded in either case." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/09/AR2010060905926.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06...

dkrich 11y ago

There's a night and day difference between riding the metro on a vacation and on a daily basis during rush hour.

badmadrad 11y ago

I actually liked the Metro. I lived in DC up until early 2014 and found it be smooth when it wasn't rush hours. But maybe it was the fact I didn't ride during rush hour very much that I liked it. That being said, now I live in Chicago and I think the "L" sucks because I have to ride it for rush hours. Its slow and bumpy ride and I am pretty sure it was designed in the Thomas Edison era. In conclusion, riding the train sucks during rush hour.

ghaff 11y ago
There are probably exceptions, but I imagine that there are very few people who love their city's public transit system--including European ones--if they have to ride it daily at rush hour.
jgroszko 11y ago
As a tourist the DC Metro at least seems much cleaner to me than the Chicago L that I commute on every day. The displays that show arrival times for the next train in DC are slick, but many L stations have those now too.