Frustrations over subway and bus conditions in the Washington D.C. area often boil over onto social media, compiled on Twitter accounts such as @unsuckdcmetro, @Metrofailinfo and @DCMetroHotMess.
During my 10 hour trek on Monday to all 91 Metro stations, I wanted to find out what frustrates riders most and how they would fix the system if they were in charge.
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Nathan Gentry, who commutes from Vienna, Va., downtown to Federal Triangle, said he’s had issues with delays ever since a September transformer fire affecting the Orange, Silver and Blue lines. “I don’t know of a long-term solution. I think they need to do better maintenance on their trains, have backup plans in case things fail,” Gentry told the Washington Examiner. He criticized Metro’s communications with customers when things go wrong, saying he often has to turn to Twitter to figure out what’s happening.
Another Vienna rider was frustrated with the fare system. Unlike the subway systems in New York City and Boston, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) charges a higher fare for riders travelling longer distances. She said she could put up with bad service if she paid closer to $2 per trip, like in those systems. Instead, she pays almost $6 one-way. “I expect to get more for my money,” she said. “I pay all that but I’ve been sitting here waiting for the train to leave.”
A frequent theme in rider complaints was inconsistency. “The time it takes me to get into work varies so much every day, it can be from an hour to two hours,” one rider at Wiehle-Reston East told me. “I’m late almost every day because it’s completely unpredictable.” She said fares are already high, but hopes that additional federal regulators will help.
Riders expressed similar frustrations at the first public meeting of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Riders’ Union.
“Increasing lack of reliability” is Ilsabe Urban’s biggest problem with Metro. “The way it’s been going and with the current Board set-up it hasn’t exactly been moving forward,” she told the Examiner. “Anything that anybody does to try and make a positive push towards change, as opposed to just complaining in the comments section, has got to be an improvement.” She mentioned that two weeks ago it took her two hours to get from the Library of Congress to Dupont Circle. “I could have walked home in that time period.”
The riders I spoke to during my trek were short on ideas for how to fix Metro, but attendees at the Riders’ Union meeting had plenty of them. They ranged from small scale (use social media more effectively) to large (alter the congressional compact that created WMATA). Some passengers called for more federal subsidies, while others want the option of purchasing a monthly pass. When Metro breaks down and riders aren’t able to go anywhere, some want the option to enter and exit the station without being charged.
One idea for how to fix Metro caught my eye: Performance tied to salaries. Most of the ideas were a simple concept of “Metro should just do this,” but performance-pay would give Metro management bigger reason to improve the system. What if Metro’s General Manager’s salary varied depending on the number of trains and buses that arrive on time, or ridership numbers? What if station managers were paid more for having clean, safe stations with well-maintained equipment and great customer service?
Such performance pay would have to be structured carefully. It wouldn’t make sense to cut a train operator’s pay if a train arrives late, because it’s generally not his fault. Operators follow the safety signals given to them, and paying them more if they ignore signals and endanger riders is a terrible idea.
On the average weekday, Metrorail has 725,770 riders, as of May 2013. With more than 1,500 members, the WMATA Riders’ Union represents only a small fraction of those riders. Their growth, however, is impressive, as all those members have joined in the last six weeks.
“I think this is what’s finally going to get WMATA fixed,” Chris Barnes, founder of the Riders’ Union, said at the meeting. “I think this is what has to get WMATA fixed.”
Metro riders should coalesce around a brief list of WMATA reforms that would improve the system. Building public support for a few reforms could force WMATA leadership to either implement them or explain why they wouldn’t work. Without a focused campaign to enact specific changes, WMATA can simply brush proposed reforms aside and maintain today’s unacceptable status quo.
The reforms also need to be specific, rather than just “be more accountable.” Be more accountable how? Performance pay is one idea.
This is part two of a series on WMATA. Click here for part one and here for part three.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
