Since the huge metro accident last month, service - that was already poor - just went downhill.Last night the commute was especially bad since I took off work 10 minutes earlier to avoid the usual mess.
- Got to the station. There was a train leaving the platform and the sign said another one would come in 4 min.
- I wait. The 4 min appear and disappear from the sign, for about 10 min. Then finally changes to 3, 2 and 1. And it doesn't show up.
- It gets more and more crowded. I look angrily at the metro employee. On the other side, 3-4 trains pass by.
- A few minutes later, the train passes by the station, empty, lights still on. It stops. People get to the doors. Train resumes the trip (wtf?)...
- Sign says next train will be in 3 min. We wait. It gets more crowded.
- Train finally comes, fully packed with people Only 6 cars instead of 8.
- A few individuals come out. Then everyone just shove themselves in. No A/C. No space to breathe.
- 2 Russian young ladies read a book together (which is hard cover and kept hitting me on the shoulder) and giggle, like it's the ride of a lifetime.
- 2 kids (10 years old maybe) roughhouse on the seats, right next to their Mom, who does nothing
- Trip goes on, and I finally reach my destination at 6:00PM, 40 minutes later than it should have been. Considering it's a 30-minute trip (in theory), it took more than twice the time.
And it was short, considering it's taken me more than 90 min at times.
A few considerations about metro:
- a mild delay is about 15 min (for me, a mild delay is about 5 min)
- a delay is about 30 min
- a severe delay is about an hour
- if there's a delay, there's an 80% chance it's on the red line
- e-mail metroalerts will not come out until 20 min after the event occured, which means most of the time you're already at the platform waiting
- if they tell you to "add 30 min to your commuting", add 60
- if they tell you "find alternate means of transportation", you're screwed. Buses only take you to metro stations, never home. You will have to spend $$$$ in a cab
- rush hour fare is 4.50 each way (even when you're late to work and never get home on time), plus 4.75 parking. If they cut service, they won't discount your fare.
- if metro's ridership is up, they raise the fares. If the ridership is down, they have to raise the fares too. The fact that bananas are yellow also causes metro to raise their fares.
- metro employees are extremely rude and think they're there just doing you a favor. If I acted that way at my workplace I wouldn't have a job anymore.
- metro employees don't use metro system. They know it's unreliable. There was a fire in the red line a few years ago and metro personnel was late to work, stuck in traffic on Connecticut Avenue
- metro is unreliable and dangerous - per the Washington Post. The General Manager, obviously, denied.
I have ridden subway systems in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, New York, Paris and London. DC metro is - by far - the worst and more unreliable of all.
