Metro ridership plunges 11%. PR department blames trees...

[MCL1981]

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System wide ridership in Q4 is down 11%. Rail ridership in June alone was down 13%. Fires, crashes, and derailments. Stories every day of some new major safety concern. The FTA take over of safety oversight. Criminal negligence investigations. A CEO that has proclaimed no confidence in his own inspection personnel. People defrauding and falsifying safety inspections. Rampant crime and thuggery. Breakdowns and offloading every day causing delays. Riders packed like sardines into cars. 7000 series suffering delay after delay.

And the WMATA PR department first blames..... rain and trees.

[mtuandrew]

Can Wiedefeld fire the PR department too, and hire the BART PR guy who live-tweeted that system's woes?

At least this directly affects Congress (or at least staffers), so even the most anti-transit representatives and senators have to pay attention to WMATA's needs. Meanwhile, I wish I'd bought stock in Uber.

[num1hendrickfan]

Rain and Trees, well at least they're not blaming Charlie ( who's still lost somewhere on the MBTA, and he'll never return ). How about looking at your personnel and put the blame where it belongs, oh and perhaps add some redundant track space where possible to actually do repairs and keep services moving.

[MCL1981]

This is the same PR department who's leader tried to spin multiple violent sexual assaults as " misunderstood flirting"

[Sand Box John]

"mtuandrew"

. . . I wish I'd bought stock in Uber.

Uber is not publicly traded. You wouldn't want it if you could buy it because they had second quarter losses exceeding $750 million.

[Chris Brown]

Ridership will return when Metro becomes reliable again.

Metro had a bad day yesterday. A train broke down on the Red line at Union Station. I had to wait 15-20 minutes for my train. Then the train was traveling at low speed for several stops. On my way back I missed my train by 30 seconds. Next train was 20 minutes away. I left the station and took the bus. Oddly.. I was charged for entering after only being there for 3-5 minutes. There is supposed to be a 15 minute "grace period" where you can enter and leave a station for free. I was too annoyed to even bother asking the station manager why my Smart Trip was charged.

Right now Metro is like an abusive girlfriend/boyfriend that keeps apologizing and promising to change, but just when things look good.. they screw you again lol.

[JackRussell]

Ridership will return when Metro becomes reliable again.

Yes, but nobody really expected this to happen overnight.

[JDC]

Ridership will return when Metro becomes reliable again.

Metro had a bad day yesterday. A train broke down on the Red line at Union Station. I had to wait 15-20 minutes for my train. Then the train was traveling at low speed for several stops. On my way back I missed my train by 30 seconds. Next train was 20 minutes away. I left the station and took the bus. Oddly.. I was charged for entering after only being there for 3-5 minutes. There is supposed to be a 15 minute "grace period" where you can enter and leave a station for free. I was too annoyed to even bother asking the station manager why my Smart Trip was charged.

Right now Metro is like an abusive girlfriend/boyfriend that keeps apologizing and promising to change, but just when things look good.. they screw you again lol.

My understanding is that you will be charged for entering/exiting, but then within 24 hours the system erases the charge from your account.