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Metro’s definitely seen better days. The Washington Post had a lengthy piece in Sunday’s edition documenting the massive problems facing the system: aging infrastructure, missing leadership, a broken safety culture, amongst others. Metro’s been trimming the fat to balance budgets for a while, and it now looks like they’ve been cutting into the bone and Continue reading A day in the life of Metro Today’s snow storm means Metro’s been limited to their underground service map only. Given that buses are out of commission, this low level of service is the only real way to get around town. It also means there’s plenty of time to spend in the stations waiting for trains. So, while waiting at Potomac Avenue, I Continue reading Station cleaning – the end product Given the heavy (and ongoing) snowfall, Metro is only operating rail service in select underground locations, in order to prevent trains from getting stranded as accumulating snow makes it difficult to maintain contact with the third rail, and also to use existing tunnels to keep rail cars dry and operable, rather than buried in snow Continue reading Metro snow operations I had a chance to stop though Judiciary Sq’s north mezzanine today, the one with the new lighting scheme. My concern from the initial photos was that the lighting along the escalators, where the coffered vault has less headroom, requiring direct overhead light rather than the indirect lighting in the rest of the system, was Continue reading Lighting, again Following up on recent discussion of Metro’s lighting, it’s important to understand how much the surface that’s to be illuminated matters in Metro’s indirect lighting scheme. Earlier, I noted that Metro is currently going though a process of deep-cleaning several stations in the system – replacing light bulbs, cleaning the walls, etc. The Washington Post Continue reading Let there be light Metro’s signature indirect lighting scheme is getting a little brighter. Over at GGW, Matt Johnson notes upgrades to the Judiciary Sq Station mezzanine as a means of better illuminating the darker areas of one of the darker stations. Judiciary Sq Station I haven’t yet checked out the new mezzanine lighting in person, but Matt’s photo raises Continue reading Warming up Metro From mindgutter on flickr (Post title with apologies to Pink Floyd) Matt Johnson, over at Track Twenty-Nine, noted that with MARTA’s official conversion over to a color-based naming system for their rail system, more than half of America’s rapid transit systems (including Metro) use a color-based system. Starting in 1965, Boston started referring to lines by color. Continue reading Any Colour You Like Streetcars We’ve got more details on DC’s streetcar plans. BeyondDC has more details on the plans (at BDC/GGW), and Yonah Freemark chimes in with comments at the transport politic. And, just for fun, this is a great reason to link to the old map of DC’s streetcar system circa 1958 (matching many of DDOT’s historical photos). Metro Extensions In Continue reading Transit Expansion Express subway service is one of those burrs in the saddle for DC folks measuring themselves and their city against New York. Over the past week, there’s been a lot of talk about express train service. First, in a GGW point/counterpoint, posters weighed the merits of the current Silver Line proposal versus a hypothetical line along Continue reading Express yourself This past weekend’s extensive track work has come and gone. I was riding the system through L’Enfant Plaza on Monday, and caught a few images from the work. Yellow line to Stadium-Armory. Track work equipment under the northern mezzanine of L’Enfant Plaza’s upper level. Directly behind me was a flatbed car full of old switch tracks that Continue reading Metro track work  |
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