Of course it was wise for Metro to initiate infrastructure repairs on its lines throughout the human tasking hours of the weekend. Really, how many residents in the region — and our tourists — think of migrating toward the District to sample the Capital’s monuments, museums, restaurants, and various cultural functions during the daylight and early evening hours of weekends?
Road construction and repair takes place in overnight hours, but this is unwise, as sleeping commuters then cannot appreciate the quality-of-life-improving labor.
It has been suggested to me by a handful of Caps’ fans this season that Metro, once regarded as the lifeline toward a filled arena downtown, may today exist as an impediment to going at all. Among those of us who ride Metro to and from work daily, how eager are we to access the decrepit and dysfunctional system again, with our families, in pursuit of pleasure?
After yesterday, when Metro continued its weekend “single tracking” for repairs, I am re-thinking the attack charge of Washington being apathetic toward hockey. If we were able to uproot the entirety of our Metrorail and plunk it down in the middle of Montreal, with the very same management and operators, how many Habs’ fans would make it to games?
Metro cars have three speeds: brisk and efficient — when dark and passengerless and passing teeming hordes of stranded on station platforms, necessarily at rush hour; the far more common halting and mule-ish; and Sunday’s: stationary.
I am fortunate in that during the week I am able to walk to Verizon Center from my office, but yesterday I had designs on meeting a buddy in Chinatown for a pre-game lunch, and I had to access Metro on the Red Line (the red alludes to the color of passengers’ faces) in Montgomery County. The moment I arrived on the station platform I was informed by Metro personnel of the single tracking. They also informed me that consecutive trains — about 11 of them — would run northbound, away from the city. This too I thought wise approximately 90 minutes before faceoff.
A toward-town Red Line car at last arrived at about the time I’d completed the catalogue of Pink Floyd on my IPod. I won’t suggest that Metro yesterday was anti-hockey, but it was certainly anti-lunching by hockey fans. It was an inventive if malicious strategem by the transit bureaucracy to address overcrowded cars: starve passengers into slimmer bodies.
At least Metro initiated the repairs on a Sunday with an unappealing Southeast division opponent facing the Caps, moderating the size of the commuting crowd, and not on a visit by a bitter former Patrick division foe long known to draw sizable supporters of its own to the building, thereby cramming it full.
Next I wondered a ludicrous hypothetical: what if a Washington Capital lived hard by a Metro station, and wanted to run into Verizon Center by rail for Sunday’s matinée. If he needed to be at the rink three hours early for meetings and a tape job, when would he have had to depart?
Saturday. Early.
Single-tracking as Metro did Sunday has a human compressing quality. If you ride the rail at all you know that during the week the trains, should they be operable, run at intervals of every couple of minutes during peak usage and every 20 or so minutes off peak. And on weekends, the schedule is even more spartan: one rail car generally in the morning and another right before closing. So the platforms then tend to teem with humanity. I characterize it this way, once we at last get inside the cars: think of the neutral zone between the Devils and Minnesota Wild, circa 2002. Also, I’m reasonably sure I conceived children Sunday with at least two women strangers to me. And of course Metro has a prohibition against post anonymous coital smoking.
I’m an infrequent rider of the public train systems in New York, Boston, and Chicago, but I do know that late trains there — not broken ones, just late ones — get mayors fired in those cities. It’s long past time I think that we went New York on Metro.
After the September 11 attacks a lot of folks in Washington thought our rail system a target for future attacks. But I believe that terrorists once rode the rail and were terrorized themselves. It is true, however, that a system-wide detonation would bring about delays rivaling Sunday’s.
I have difficulty sommoning outrage for the conditions of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, for I am a daily Metro rider. What of the daily human rights violations within Metro? Shut down Gitmo if we must, but by all means confine enemy combatants to the Red Line. After morning rush hour they’ll clamor for water boarding, and after the evening’s rush they’ll spill their guts in pursuit of liberation.
At least the system’s escalators work.
This weekend I attended two hockey games, one 85 miles from my home and the other 8. Guess which one required more commuting time.
21 Comments
When I lived in the area (and when I visit from Maine) I take the train. They better be done by March, when I try to make it to the Caps-Pens game.
I’m glad I decided to drive yesterday. What Floyd did you settle on?
The southernmost esculator was jammed about 25 minutes before game time. We actually tried to find the stop button because we were worried people were going to get hurt.
This was actually the first time I had any issues with Metro going to Verizon Center.
Sunday was my worst Metro experience not aggravated by a snowstorm, accident, fire etc. I traveled from Md via the Red Line, my brother came from Dagsboro, DE — for the first time he was waiting for me at the Verizon center.
It’s particularly frustrating that the service during the week since Metro Rail price increase has been so shoddy. Way to justify the cost bump, Metro!
My date and I pulled into Greenbelt before noon. I wondered if we would have time to grab food around Verizon Center before the game. By the time the Green Line took us into Gallery Place, the puck had already dropped.
But hey, at least this town has some assemblance of rail travel. Years ago, my father came into Baltimore to see the Ravens play. Living in the city, I could have easily parked at one of the parking garages near the stadiums, but since my father used to work on the railroad, I thought the light rail would be a brief, fun trip. We boarded at Penn Station just after noon for a one o’clock game. Long story short, we sat in Penn Station for almost a half hour (reasons unknown), and then the expected snail pace of the light rail cars through downtown brought us into the stadium past the introductions, coin toss, and kickoff.
I guess the choice of green (i.e. saving gas) quickly turns red (the blood-boiled faces you alluded to). No winners either way!
You want a bad Metro experience?
I have a friend who lives in Glover Park, near the Naval Observatory, and whenever I want to visit him I have to hit the yellow line to Gallery Place, red line to Dupont Circle, and then ride a bus to within a few blocks of his apartment… They print something that looks suspiciously like a schedule for the buses, but is in fact a series of randomly generated numbers that have absolutely no bearing on when (or whether, in many cases) the bus will actually arrive.
I have never, NEVER, made it to his apartment in under 1:45. The record on the high end is 2:30. There have also been several times that I’ve had to sleep on his couch because, after waiting at the stop for over an hour for a bus that was supposed to come every 30 minutes, I had missed the last trains out of the district.
Here’s the kicker - he lives exactly 7 miles from my place in Alexandria. I balk at driving there because parking there is above and beyond atrocious and we’re usually downing our fair share of brews…
I suppose I shouldn’t be overly irate because regardless of how insanely long it takes, it has saved me from many a potential DUI, but sweet merciful jeebus… There has to be a better way.
Thanks for providing some venting space. I’m done now.
Not that I’m doubting you, but I guess I’ve just been lucky! I’ve been taking the Metro into Caps games from New Carrolton for the last 6 years, and it reliably take me 45 minutes (including waiting for trains) to get to Chinatown. Even yesterday it only took me 40 minutes, and that’s from the very end of the orange line to the middle of the city.
I know that some of you have had bad experiences, but I’ve been riding the metro from the very outskirts into the city for over ten years and always found it fairly reliable.
I will say, though, that the situation with the escelators getting backed up was pretty scary and I couldn’t help but notice the metro employee that was just standing up at the top watching what was going on…
I totally agree, and overall I’d apportion 12 percent of the blame to Metro, and 88 percent to the Washington Post’s sports editors.
Oh look….something else to complain about! Yay!
I agree with Dan — BigMedia elites don’t do public transit, therefore the reportage isn’t there, problems fester. 88-12 sounds about right.
I can provide some perspective, being a current NYC resident and former Arlingon resident.
My commute to the game yesterday was about 7 hours roundtrip - blissfully swift and efficient NYC subway ride to NY Penn station, then to Amtrak down to Union Station, DC. However, I would guess that my overall stress level was lower than that of many local suburban fans.
My first reaction yesterday was one of surprise getting into town and onto the Red Line platform at Union Station at about 12:45p. The nice bright schedule noted a 15 minute wait for the next train. Excuse me? On a game day? Even during the most off of off-peak times in NYC, most lines run trains every 5-10 minutes.
If an oft-used line experiences delays for even one morning up here, its big news and generates huge outrage. Of course the volume of ridership is much higher in NYC, but Metro has always been brought out as this great symbol of local government pride - look how clean and efficient our subway is! Well, I’ll give them one of those. (And even then, I saw a PSA in the subway yesterday alluding to the rats in the NYC subway and the ban on eating / drinking in Metro. Well, I’d rather put up with a few rats and get to my destination swiftly and reliably.)
After the game, I recall waiting for the red line towards Glenmont, taking the two easy stops to Union Station. While I waited for that train (about 5 minutes or so) I observed the opposite platform teeming with humanity, ready to spill onto the tracks, with no trains in sight going that direction. Inexcusable. But I’ve never known any DC infrastructure to operate in any other way.
We use the Orange Line frequently, and it usually isn’t bad; the wait for the return trip can be a little annoying. The worst part is paying $3.75+ for parking - and of course, sharing the ride with Penquins fans.
Don’t get down on Metro guys. It will get better. Just keep riding it and I’ll keep finding good free parking a short walk from the stadium.
Took the Metro in for the game yesterday too. Was a bit of a delay at New Carrolton waiting to board and a few stopping points until we hit underground. Put us a little past our usual time of 35 minutes but we were still there in plenty of time to see the puck drop. As frustrating as it can be at times, I certainly prefer it to driving in! Good move on our part? Went and grabbed a great post-game nibble to wait for the platfrom to clear out. Maybe should head in early for a few pre-game beverages next time? Certainly beats the annoyance of being late!
No problems for me on the yellow line. Of course I left three hours early to wait in line at will call..
Looks like this weekend will be just as bad or worse, as they have scheduled repair work at Metro Center Station, and Red, Blue and Orange lines will be down to 1 track.
let me chime in with a little car-free perspective.
i’m a season-ticket holder. much of the reason why i can be a season ticket holder is because the caps play in the verizon center which is accessible not only by metro rail, but by several bus lines. if the caps were still playing at cap centre, there’s no way i’d be able to attend half as many games.
last year, i ventured up to nj to watch the devils play the senators in continental airlines arena. the trip required a great deal of planning, in order to time the bus from the port authority correctly, and as i stood on the bus, devils fans hanging onto overhead rails for dear life, i thought to myself how great the metro was.
is the metro as good as ny’s system? no. it’s got fewer trains and more limited hours. i too have my metro horror stories, but on the whole, having the metro system in place enhances the game-going experience.
metro service could be better, but it’s a heck of a lot better than what’s available in other cities, including those that are noted “hockey towns.”
i’d rather have a slow metro and more fans that no metro and less fans.
We take the Orange Line and were lucky going into the game and going home because we did not have to wait the full 12 minutes between trains that is the Sunday schedule. Going home the train was crowded but at least it was a 6 car train. Metro in its cost cutting wisdom is now running a lot of 4 car trains on the Orange line after games on week nights. One night,the train was so full that folks could not get on the train two stops after Metro Center. Metro’s website has a section to submit complaints about service. PLEASE DO SO, otherwise Metro can continue to ignore the problem. Enough people complained that Metro restored 6 car service to the mid-day weekday schedule. The Post also has a transportation guy, Dr.Gridlock. who has a blog “Get There” and an on-line chat on Mondays that Metro sometimes monitors. No one complained about the Red line service on today’s chat. So you might want to also submit complaints there.
This weekend is shaping up to be just as bad, if not worse, with major rehab work going on at Metro Center:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/getthere/2008/01/major_rehab_at_metro_center.html
I’m going to drive this weekend…and this is from someone who tends to be a staunch supporter of Metro, as the lesser of two evils. I’m beginning to re-think my continued defence of them (of course, the highway-robberish fare increases haven’t helped me continue to defend them).
I’m with Amy; nothing beats a good pre-game beverage, a matinee of puck, followed by a post-game meal. That said though, I have to wonder who has the gaul to bitch, gripe, and complain about the metro when their trip begins and ends in the People’s Republic of Montgomery County. Anyone idiotic enough to live there deserves the socialistic maner in which their customers are served. Stand in line my friend…
Post a Comment