|
|
| Re: WMATA Observations (1345155) | |||
 |
|||
| Home > SubChat | |||
|
[ Read Responses | Post a New Response | Return to the Index ] |
|
||
|
Re: WMATA Observations |
|
|
Posted by WMATAGMOAGH on Tue Mar 24 22:21:10 2015, in response to WMATA Observations, posted by italianstallion on Tue Mar 24 17:37:43 2015. The conductor announcements are just as unintelligible as those in NY.They have gotten worse recently but part of that can be attributed to the lack of solid consists following the Fort Totten crash in 2009. 3. The newer cars have digital signs inside, but all they say is the line name -- RED, GREEN, etc. Can they be programmed to show station names? Ditto, the front digital signs only say the line color. They are supposed to show the next stop and which side the doors will open. However, they won't work in mixed consists with 1000 and 4000 series cars, and even in solid consists of rehabs or 5000s or 6000s whether they work or not seems to be hit or miss. 5. On weekends on the Red Line, it seemed that trains randomly had either 6 or 8 cars. Now the digital arrival signs tell you how many cars are arriving, but it seems silly not to have some uniform system. At one of the major downtown transfer stations, a 6-car train stopped at the far front end of the platform. Problem was, the transfer escalators were at the back end, where dozens of transferring pax were waiting. This resulted in a mad dash to stuff into the last few cars of the train with resultant delay. Why couldn't the train stop further back nearer the escalators? Prior to the Fort Totten crash, the trains were centered on nearly every station platform. As a result of using manual operation since the crash, and because the safety system that would prevent the operator from opening the doors on an improperly berthed 8 car train (or train of any length for that matter) has been deactivated since 2008 or so due to electromagentic interference caused by third rail power upgrades and has yet to be fixed, all trains now pull up to the end of the platforms to ensure that no cars are left in the tunnel. It is a problem at some stations, especially Gallery Place. 7. Many stations seem to be extremely deep-bore. Is there that much infrastructure under DC's streets that necessitated such deep stations? It has more to do with the swampland that DC was constructed on than existing infrastructure. 9. I don't like the typical entrance-exit setup from the mezzanines to the platforms. At each end, or sometimes only at one end, there is one narrow escalator down to the platform, and another one going up. I can imagine that when a packed rush-hour train empties out at, say, Dupont Circle, there is quite a jam-up getting up that sole escalator. It isn't so bad in my experience, though I often make a point of riding in the car that opens at the escalator I need. Remember that many busy stations in downtown have two (or more) exits so not everyone needs to use that single escalator. 10. Also, after you enter fare control, it's not abundantly clear which escalator goes up and which goes down. Tourists were constantly heading for the wrong one, but since the up and down ones are always in the same relative position, you catch on quickly. At some stations, the internal traffic pattern has changed on account of the trains pulling all the way up to the end of the platform. At the downtown stations, the down escalator is almost always the one closest to the faregates at stations with side platforms and the various signs indicate this fairly clearly. They installed LED indicators at the downtown stations that used to lack them entirely at some point, it used to be harder to tell which way the escalator was going. 11. The digital train arrival signs are accurate, but there is only one on each platform, so if you are far from it, it's very hard to see. Those were added in about 15 years ago, the newer stations have multiple displays. 12. I hate the zone fare system. Regulars have fare passes, so they don't care, but occasional users require 6 steps to buy a fare card: find their destination station on a list, see the fares, determine if it's peak or off-peak time, calculate the round-trip total, pay, and take their fare card. Then you need to insert it into the turnstile on entering and exiting for each leg of your journey. If you add wrong, you have to pay an "exit fare" to get out. What happens if you have no more money? Are you stuck like Charlie on the MTA? Distance based fares (there aren't zones) are more equitable than flat fares for the distances WMATA travels. The way passes are priced, they are rarely economical even for regular riders. I just load a large amount of money on my card and with Smartrip, I have autoreload so I don't ever have to go to a fare machine or add value. The system isn't THAT complicated. You can get out via the emergency gate with permission if you don't have any money at all. Per WMATA's own ridership statistics, fewer people exit the system than enter each day. |
|
|
|