Monday, April 6, 2009

Insane on the Train: Addendum

Just wanted to chime in here on E Murf's piece, partly because I'm an attention whore and partly because I wanna say she's dead on. In fact, I think we should go further. Metro itself is the source of too many transgressions lately for us to give them a pass.

First and foremost, especially in the context of the record fare increases E Murf mentioned, I want someone to explain to me why the christ I should ever be waiting more than four minutes for a train during peak hours. If it is between 3p and 7p and I'm being charged the maximum fare, there's no fucking reasonable excuse for me to have to wait ten minutes just to board a train to Rosslyn, where I will inevitable be crammed into an overcrowded train full of stinky bastards. One morning, I watched four Vienna-bound trains pass by before one New Carrolton train came. I can't remember a day when the escalators at all points in my commute -- all three stations -- actually worked. This wouldn't be such a huge problem if Metro wasn't so inept as to fail to label broken escalators and prevent people from trying to walk up AND down the same ones. Furthermore, I can't believe how terrible some of these drivers are. Why the fuck is it necessary to lurch forward inch-by-inch when there's another train stopped ahead, inducing nausea in all the passengers and making them fall all over each other? Why not just, ya know, fucking stop for a minute and let the train ahead move before you start moving?

An administration as inept as Metro's current one is never going to fix all of these problems, but I've got a suggestion for a good start: replace all the drivers with computers, and re-train the drivers as E Murf's suggested "pollution policemen." That way, everyone keeps their jobs, Metro makes money, and less people want to vomit during rush hour rides. As for the other problems? I got nothing. But that's not really my schtick, is it? I'm just here to throw my hands up in the air, bitch about it really loudly, and hope that somebody with a more actionable degree does something about it.

P.S., to E Murf: re: people playing their iPods too loud... I think the early 90's said it best: if it's too loud, you're too old!

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