Subject: [WSFA] Re: No Metro tomorrow
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
From: Barry Newton <bnewton at ashcomp.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2016 23:03:05 -0400
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

Duration of this shutdown may depend greatly on what they find. It's
supposed to be an inspection; there might be all kinds of things ready
to catch fire.
--
Barry

On 3/15/2016 10:23 PM, Keith F. Lynch wrote:
> 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.
>