From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] No Metro tomorrow
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2016 22:23:56 -0400 (EDT)
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

If any of you commute by Metro, be aware that the whole Metrorail
system will be shut down all day tomorrow (Wednesday) for emergency
inspection and repairs.  They hope to have it running again on
Thursday.  (Of course they'll be paid just the same even if it
stays shut down for a month.)

The original idea when the system started was that the system would
be shut down for several hours every night, which would give ample
time for inspection, maintenance, and repairs.  (And would also keep
homeless people from moving in and never leaving, as I've heard
happens in New York City.)

This worked fine for nearly 30 years.  Even on 9/11, when they had a
good excuse to shut down, the system was running better than it has on
almost any day in the past decade.  My only complaint was the fares,
which were high and increasing faster than inflation.

Then in 2004 they said they'd need to catch up on deferred maintenance,
and that some lines would be single-tracking over the next few weekends.

I figured okay, so I'll put my social life on hold until it's done.

But the "few" weekends stretched into months, then years.  Fares
continued to increase, even as service got worse.  Single-tracking was
supplemented by complete weekend-long shutdowns of individual lines.
But the service didn't get any more reliable.  Quite the opposite.
A trip with less than 15 minutes of delays became the exception.

It's been 12 years of wretched service now.  In my experience, there's
a delay of at least a half hour at least half the time, a delay of
a full hour at least a quarter of the time, a delay of at least 90
minutes at least an eighth of the time, etc.  Even six hour delays
aren't unknown.

This January, for the first time ever, they shut the whole system down
because of weather.  Just two months later, they're shutting the whole
system in good weather.

The new manager recently said that there will be no fare increase this
year, but that over the next few years fares will go up 80%.

What's the point?  It already costs more than driving.  If it costs
more than a taxi, who will ride it?  They might as well shut the whole
thing down and fire all its managers and employees.  It wouldn't be
the first time a subway system had been shut down in the US.  It
happened in Rochester, for instance.  At the very least, the credible
threat of a shutdown may get the employees and managers to get the
system working.  As long as their paycheck is the same regardless
of ridership, it's actually in their interest that there are as few
riders as possible.

Better yet, privatize it.

On the positive side, they're claiming that in a few months they will
make it free to leave a station if you enter and give up because no
trains are running.  On the other hand, they made the same claim
several years ago.