From: kfl@KeithLynch.net   
      
   Scott Dorsey  wrote:   
   > Gary McGath  wrote:   
   >> Keith is always bragging that the DC metro is the worst in the USA,   
   >> but Boston is giving it strong competition.   
      
   I never said the DC Metro system was the worst in the US.  How could I   
   even know that?   
      
   ObFandom:  Indeed, I once posted here that I went to Ravencon in   
   Richmond by taking Greyhound to downtown then walking to the con hotel   
   at the airport.  That walk took five hours.  There was a city bus I   
   could have taken instead of walking, but it would have taken even   
   longer.  Now *that's* a bad transit system.   
      
   What I have done is debunked effusive praise of the DC Metro system,   
   which invariably came from people far from DC, or at least from those   
   who never used the system.   
      
   What might be special about DC Metro is the extraordinarily low ratio   
   of usable service to money spent.  The system is a black hole that   
   sucks in dollars from all over the US and produces nothing in return   
   but faint Hawking radiation, i.e. occasionally when everything goes   
   right it's actually faster to ride than to walk.  Whenever that   
   happens, I'm tempted to report it to the police, given that their PA   
   system, when it's working, constantly announces that you should report   
   anything unusual.   
      
   I'm speaking of the Metrorail system.  The Metrobus system, run by   
   the same organization, WMATA, is so bad that lots of local governments   
   have established their own bus systems, including Fairfax Connector,   
   Arlington Transit, OmniRide, CUE, DASH, OmniLink, George, Ride On, The   
   Bus, Jitney Bus, DC Circulator, and TransIT.  Some of these work well,   
   but of course don't typically cross county or state lines.  (The DC   
   area comprises DC proper, Montgomery and PG counties in Maryland,   
   Arlington and Fairfax counties in Virginia, and the independent cities   
   of Fairfax, Falls Church, and Alexandria in Virginia.)   
      
   > DC is having a lot of problems right now because they are trying to   
   > clean up after years of deferred maintenance.   
      
   What year are you posting from?  They first used that excuse more   
   than 20 years ago.  They then started intensive maintenance that made   
   large sections of the rail system completely unusable for months at a   
   time, but which never seemed to make anything better.  This intensive   
   maintenance *never* *ended*.  It's still going on.  Every year or two   
   they pull a Groundhog Day and use the exact same excuse, i.e. that   
   they are about to "start" intensive maintenance since maintenance had   
   been totally neglected since the system was first built.   
      
   There are track fires that have suffocated passengers to death.  The   
   new 6000 series of train cars had a problem with cars uncoupling while   
   trains were in motion.  The even newer 7000 series of train cars has a   
   problem with wheels coming loose and sliding along the axles, causing   
   derailments.  They never even *tried* to figure out why that was   
   happening.  (Some things were never meant for man to know.)  Instead,   
   they do frequent, intensive, and expensive inspections of all 7000   
   series rail cars to see whether the wheels have come loose again.   
      
   The first part of the Silver Line opened in 2014, *decades* late.   
   Just six years later they shut it down for the whole summer for   
   intensive maintenance and rebuilding.  The second part of the Silver   
   Line opened in 2022.  It turned out to have rotten concrete.  Instead   
   of tearing out and fixing it at the expense of those responsible, they   
   decided to just coat it to keep water out, figuring that that would   
   probably work well enough.  Of course the coating wears off with time,   
   so frequent intensive inspections will be necessary in perpetuity.   
      
   It's not a transportation system, it's a jobs & grift program.  And   
   a fetish object for politicians to pose in front of while boasting of   
   how green they are for giving billions of dollars of other people's   
   money to the system.  It can sometimes be used as a slow and   
   inefficient form of transportation, but that's like defending Bitcoin   
   based on at-home Bitcoin mining being a good way to heat one's house,   
   or like saying that kinky boots designed specifically for porn videos   
   are useful for hiking in.   
      
   There's a myth that ridership dropped during the pandemic.  Well,   
   it did, but the implication that it was highest just before that is   
   wrong.  It peaked in 2008, even though most of the money spent on   
   the system has been spent since then, and even though the system   
   has more stations and track miles than ever before.   
      
   One of the worst things about the system is all the lies.  Lies often   
   seemingly designed to inconvenience passengers and taxpayers as much   
   as possible.  For instance Metro has promised to stay open late during   
   major sports events, only to close at the usual time, stranding tens   
   of thousands of sports fans.  Gotcha!   
      
   "Stesseling" means for an official to tell lies so outrageous that   
   nobody is expected to believe them, but they had better pretend to   
   believe them if they know what's good for them.  It's apparently done   
   mostly as a show of power.  It's named for Metro's former spokesman,   
   Dan Stessel, who was notorious for this.   
      
   I remember one line that was shut down for more than a month just for   
   installation of cell phone service in the tunnel.  They used that   
   excuse twice, a couple years apart, for the same line.   
      
   And now Metro is once again saying that they need subsidy increases   
   far in excess of inflation, or they will be forced to close half the   
   stations, run trains only during peak commuting hours, and run only   
   one or two trains per hour on each line.   
      
   > DC still has plenty of problems.  They still have union issues,   
      
   Indeed.  Driving a Metro train is so simple that any child tall enough   
   to see through the windshield can do it.  (I have a copy of their   
   manual.)  But their drivers, janitors, etc., make six-figure salaries.   
   Even the ones who work only in Virginia, even though Virginia is a   
   "right to work" state (i.e. no closed (union members only) shops).   
      
   I'm not anti-union, but unions shouldn't be allowed to hold America   
   hostage.  Truman, a Democrat, broke the steel union.  Reagan, a   
   Republican, broke the air traffic controllers union.  I think it's   
   time to break the transit union.  Fire everyone and replace them   
   with the chronically unemployed.  They couldn't do any worse.   
      
   > they still haven't got their 1970s vintage automation system working   
   > properly again, and they still have plenty of track issues.   
      
   Indeed.  After a fatal collision due to that system malfunctioning,   
   they "temporarily" shut it down and went to manual control (which   
   has resulted in lots of minor injuries when the train suddenly jerks   
   back into motion immediately after stopping at a station, just as   
   passengers are starting to stand up, as the driver discovers the train   
   isn't in quite the right place.   
      
   That malfunction was 15 years ago, and it's still shut down.  It took   
   less time to put a man on the moon.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)