The Washington Post - USA (2022-02-13)

C2 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 , 2022

commuter

BY JUSTIN GEORGE

As Metro continues to search

for ways to safely bring 60 per-

cent of its rail car fleet back into

service, the transit agency said

Friday that it is cutting wait times

by slowly adding other trains.

The latest improvement: shav-

ing an average of 10 minutes off

wait times on the Orange, Blue

and Silver lines.

Metro has been forced to run

reduced rail service with longer

waits since Oct. 17, when Metro-

rail’s regulatory agency suspend-

ed all 748 of the transit agency’s

7000 -series cars after a federal

investigation into a derailment.

National Transportation Safety

Board investigators had found a

defect under the derailed car that

pushed the wheels apart by two

inches.

Fleetwide emergency inspec-

tions revealed that about 20 oth-

er trains had the defect, which

makes trains more prone to slip-

ping off tracks.

The suspension of the series

took away Metro’s most advanced

cars, leaving the transit agency

with a limited supply of older

models to operate the 91-station

system.

During the four-month sus-

pension, Metro has shortened

waits on most lines by finding

and fixing older rail cars. Some

date to 1981, while 184 cars that

make up Metro’s 6000 series are

slowly returning after a 2020

suspension for multiple train

separations.

More than 50 trains have been

available on the rail system daily

for the past week, which is a first

since the 7000 series was sus-

pended.

Starting Monday, weekday

waits on the Blue, Orange and

Silver lines will be reduced from a

half-hour to 20 minutes, on aver-

age, matching the frequency of

the Green and Yellow lines, Met-

ro said. Trains on the Red line,

Metro’s busiest, will continue to

arrive about every 12 minutes.

The time between trains on

weekends will be 24 minutes, on

average, on the Blue, Orange, and

Silver lines; 20 minutes on the

Green and Yellow lines; and

12 minutes on the Red Line,

Metro said.

“Our focus on making the lega-

cy fleet available is allowing us to

gradually add trains for passen-

ger service, and I thank our

workforce for their dedication

and around-the-clock efforts to

improve rail service,” Metro gen-

eral manager and CEO Paul J.

Wiedefeld said in a statement.

Metro recently purchased

three inspection stations that

transit officials plan to test in the

coming weeks. Wiedefeld said

Thursday that the purchase

might help to end the train short-

age. Metro has said the reinstate-

ment of the 7000 series won’t

occur before April.

The automated inspection sta-

tions would take measurements

of rail cars as they pass, checking

for defects or malfunctions in the

wheels and axles. Wiedefeld said

the stations will be used to gather

data on the 7000 series and help

find solutions to the defect, but

transit officials hope they can be

used regularly to check the safety

of all cars.

Metro can’t put the 7000 series

back into service until proving it

can do so safely and the Washing-

ton Metrorail Safety Commission

lifts its suspension.

Metro reduces wait time on Blue, Orange, Silver lines

BY LORI ARATANI

Two years into a global pan-
demic, public transportation
agencies continue to face myriad
challenges — chief among them,
how to restore ridership at a time
when customers might be leery of
close quarters with others or
when work schedules no longer
mean five days in the office.
In the Washington region,

Metro faces an additional chal-

lenge: Safety problems with its

newest rail cars, the 7000 series,

have reduced service levels and

further eroded trust in the sys-

tem. Rail ridership is about

20 percent of pre-pandemic lev-

els, and officials don’t expect the

suspended cars to return before

April.

Rob Britton is an adjunct pro-

fessor at Georgetown University,

specializing in marketing and

crisis management. He also spent

22 years at American Airlines,

where two weeks after the 9/11

attacks he was appointed manag-

ing director of advertising and

marketing. Britton, a longtime

Metro rider, spoke with The

Washington Post about how Met-

ro and other transit systems can

lure riders back as more workers

begin returning to offices.

This interview was lightly edit-

ed for length and clarity.

Q: You worked in airlines for

many years, but tell me about

your interest in public transpor-

tation.

A: Growing up in Minneapolis,

where my mother and I rode the

bus and the streetcar, I have

been a public transit rider. I’m

deeply committed to public tran-

sit, both as a personal matter

and as a matter of urban policy. I

want to see [Metro] succeed and

see other public transit agencies

succeed. It’s a hard series of

challenges that they have right

now, because they’re facing is-

sues on a number of different

fronts. I want them to survive.

Q: What can public transporta-

tion agencies do to win back rid-

ers?

A: I, frankly, think that there is

no magic breakthrough. There is

no clever marketing idea, no

clever ad campaign. There is no

quick fix to this at all. I really be-

lieve the return is going to be or-

ganic. We really still don’t know

and, I think, frankly, won’t know

for a long time what the new

normal is going to look like in

terms of offices, in terms of peo-

ple coming back to work and,

therefore, needing to ride the

Metro or other public transit

systems. I think it’s really going

to be organic. It’s just a chicken-

and-egg story, because ridership

is down so much.

Q: If the answer isn’t a slick ad

campaign, what is it?

A: They need to do everything

they can to convince the public

that they run on time and reli-

ably. If I can

put my old air-

line hat on, it’s

a little bit like

when airlines

reduce their

schedules.

They need to

do their best

to operate to

that. And I think that’s really

where Metro needs to be.

As a rider, when there is a delay

and it’s not explained, it makes

me cranky, and it must make

other people cranky. We’re all

relying on Metro to get us

where we’re going. It’s just the

nuts-and-bolts focusing on run-

ning the operation: We’re going

to do what we need to do and

do it reliably. We’re going to

build that confidence with the

hope that, in the “Field of

Dreams” analogy, if you build it,

they will come. If you start to

deliver that service reliably,

then people do pay attention

and that gets augmented by

word of mouth and social me-

dia, saying, “You know, they’re

doing a better job.”

Q: That seems to be a good strat-

egy for public transit agencies,

but does Metro have an extra

challenge because of the safety

issues it’s dealing with?

A: Ridership was up, the reliabil-

ity was up. They were doing all

the right things, and then the

pandemic slams them, and then

they’ve got the issues with the

7000 trains, and they’ve got a

mess on their hands. It’s just

hard. I think they’re doing the

best they can right now under

some very, very difficult circum-

stances.

Q: Metro’s general manager,

Paul J. Wiedefeld, announced

plans to retire this year, so Metro

will soon have new leadership.

Do you have thoughts on what

kind of leader Metro needs?

A: One of the best things they

could do would be to hire a

transportation person who does

not come from public transpor-

tation. I don’t think that’s what

they’re going to do, but, you

know, one of the challenges here

is that you want a fresh set of

eyes. You don’t want to just shuf-

fle the deck chairs within public

transit. I really hope that they

recruit more broadly. For exam-

ple, the former CEO of Delta,

Richard Anderson, ran Amtrak.

Q: As a customer, what do you

want from Metro?

A: I want them to keep to sched-

ule. I want escalators to work.

Paul [Wiedefeld]’s done a great

job on that — escalator reliabili-

ty is much better. I want all the

basic station infrastructure:

real-time information and you

know, fix the 7000-series cars.

Q: With Metro facing a worker

shortage, do you have thoughts

how transit agencies can recruit

qualified workers?

A: I think the place that I would

start is to look at who has fig-

ured this out because some-

where in the world, someone has

figured this out. I think especial-

ly here in Washington, we talk

about best practices, right? Yet

very few people actually try to

figure out what best practice is.

So my counsel to the recruit-

ment people, to the HR people,

is to go find out who’s figured

this out.

A crisis management expert on how M etro can w oo riders: Nail the basics

Rob Britton

BY KATHERINE SHAVER

The fate of a planned trail tun-
nel to carry cyclists and runners
beneath downtown Bethesda fac-
es another round of uncertainty as
Montgomery County officials de-
bate their construction funding
priorities.
Montgomery leaders have
pledged for years to continue
routing the Capital Crescent Trail
beneath busy Wisconsin Avenue
by replacing a previous trail tun-
nel that will become a light-rail
station for the Purple Line. Trail
advocates say a tunnel must be
returned to protect runners, walk-
ers and cyclists on the critical
east-west link in the region’s trail
network.
The tunnel and trail between
downtown Bethesda and Silver
Spring have been closed since Pur-
ple Line construction started in

2017. The timing of the new trail
      tunnel’s construction — and
      whether it will open along with
      the Purple Line as promised —
      became the subject of budget
      fights two years ago after the esti-
      mated cost of the project more
      than doubled to $55 million.
      In his latest budget proposal,
      Montgomery County Executive
      Marc Elrich (D) would delay the
      start of the tunnel’s expected 2½
      years of construction until after
      mid-2028 by pushing funding be-
      yond the six-year spending plan.
      That would delay the opening of
      the tunnel until at least late 2030,
      four years after the Purple Line is
      scheduled to begin carrying pas-
      sengers in late 2026.

Elrich first drew criticism from

trail advocates in 2020, when he

didn’t include tunnel construc-

tion money in his budget. The

county council then added the

money. Last year, after Elrich de-

layed construction funding be-

yond his six-year plan, the council

restored the money to allow the

tunnel to open by mid-2027.

Christopher Conklin, director

of the county’s transportation de-

partment, said the trail tunnel

didn’t meet “readiness criteria”

for a financial commitment be-

cause the current approved budg-

et doesn’t specify where all the

money would come from. Instead,

it depends on receiving $21 mil-

lion in “non-county funds,” pre-

sumably from the state, which is

money that Maryland transporta-

tion officials haven’t agreed to.

Maryland officials have long

said the county is responsible for

the trail costs, including the tun-

nel. The state also is facing its own

cost overruns. The Purple Line’s

significantly delayed construc-

tion cost has grown by more than

$1.4 billion, or almost 75 percent,

over budget with the selection of a

new contractor.

Conklin said the county plans

to apply for a “highly competitive”

federal grant to cover much of the

tunnel costs but won’t know if it

will get the money until later this

year. In the meantime, he said,

Elrich wanted to focus on con-

struction projects that are ready

to go, such as renovating county

facilities.

“The county’s needs and de-

sires exceed the resources avail-

able,” Conklin said. “So if a project

doesn’t meet readiness criteria,

then other projects advance in its

place.”

In the meantime, he said, cy-

clists will be able to use new pro-

tected bike lanes scheduled to

open this spring on Willow Lane

and Bethesda Avenue to access

the trail in downtown Bethesda

near Woodmont Avenue.

The Maryland Transit Adminis-

tration is building and paying for

most of the 16-mile Purple Line.

The state’s Purple Line contractor

is rebuilding the trail east of

Bethesda along the light-rail

tracks at the county’s expense.

The county has planned to build

the trail tunnel separately from

the Purple Line, near the Bethes-

da station.

Montgomery County Council

member Andrew Friedson (D),

who represents Bethesda, said the

trail tunnel is critical to make

cycling and walking safer and to

encourage people to forgo driving.

“This was a major piece of

transportation infrastructure

that was taken away from the

community and was promised to

be returned to them better,” Fried-

son said. “This idea of taking

something out of service and then

not returning it is totally incon-

ceivable to me.”

Peter Gray, a board member for

the Washington Area Bicyclist As-

sociation, said the advocacy group

will push again for the council to

restore the tunnel funding to pro-

vide a safe, comfortable crossing

for trail users of all ages and abili-

ties. Having to cross a major thor-

oughfare like Wisconsin Avenue,

he said, would prevent some peo-

ple from using the trail.

“All things being equal, we want

it to open when the Purple Line

starts running,” Gray said. “We

also recognize there are other

things that need to get funded.”

Elrich has proposed single-

tracking the Purple Line inside

the Bethesda station to make

room for the trail inside it, which

would avoid the need for a sepa-

rate trail tunnel. However, Mary-

land transportation officials re-

jected the idea, saying it would

make the rail line less efficient

and put it at “significant risk” of

not receiving new federal approv-

al.

The county also has agreed to

pay for a new southern entrance

at the Bethesda Metro station to

help passengers transfer more

easily between the underground

Metro and the street-level Purple

Line. Those construction costs are

estimated to have increased by

over $22 million, bringing the to-

tal to more than $132 million.

However, Conklin said Elrich’s

budget proposal doesn’t seek ad-

ditional money for the Metro sta-

tion project because the county is

waiting for a more formal cost

estimate from Metro based on a

detailed design.

Full Purple Line construction is

scheduled to begin this spring,

when the new contractor resumes

work abandoned by the original

contractor that quit in fall 2020.

Trail tunnel planned for downtown Bethesda faces another funding battle

B ILL O’LEARY/THE WASHINGTON POST

Montgomery County and state officials tour the since-closed tunnel beneath Wisconsin Avenue in

Bethesda in 2011. The fate of a replacement trail tunnel for cyclists and runners remains uncertain.

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