It's Metro board day.

Board is starting off by swearing in new Maryland Transportation Secretary Jim Ports. He replaces Greg Slater who took a job heading up tolls in Tampa, Florida.
Could there be more changes ahead to the board?
Gov.-Elect Glenn Youngkin (R) takes over in VA on Sat. He can choose an appointment on the WMATA board. The seat is currently being held by Chair Paul Smedberg (D).
Youngkin spox gave me a "no comment." So will keep an eye on that.
Wiedefeld says Metro has the most COVID cases it's ever had right now. He doesn't have specific numbers on vaccination rates.
Vaccines are mandated and some are heading toward discipline.
Metro board getting a briefing on the budget process, which I believe is mostly a refresher from November. Will tweet any updates, but read this story for background: dcist.com/story/21/11/01…
DC board member Lucinda Babers asks about how WMATA will market new fare incentives ($2 late night, cheaper passes etc).
Metro staff says ads, media etc

For a lot of people, you gotta fix train and bus service levels and reliability before they'll care about incentives.
Would love to see a consumer satisfaction survey over the past few months vs say the SafeTrack time period...
(Note that last comment/observation is mine, not WMATAs.)
Wiedefeld said they'll plan/budget about three years ahead (usually Metro does one-year budgets) but they need to effectively manage what's left of federal relief funding and keep an eye toward how/if/when riders return etc.
Wiedefeld says ridership in recent weeks has dropped on both bus and rail -- both a regular seasonal trend, holidays, but omicron as well.

Bus ridership was about 250k+ each weekday in December, but hasn't broken 200k in New Year.
Board member Matt Letourneau explains his thoughts on why Metro hasn't reduced fares while bus and rail service is severely hampered.

"We know we're going to run out of money (in FY24). Anything we do now may affect what (service) we can provide in the future."
We are now on to committee discussion + preliminary vote on Largo Town Center ---> Downtown Largo name change.

Thread on this from Monday:
WMATA's Lynn Bowersox says they often get a lot of feedback on station name changes because people feel an emotional attachment to a name, especially if it's their home station.
Board member Tracy Hadden Loh asks about costs and how this new name will be displayed in certain places as it's a terminal station.

WMATA says digital destination signs on trains would likely just say "Largo." Physical signage would represent whole station name.
Hadden Loh is pushing back on giving deference to local jurisdiction and development on name changes.

"This is not one of the criteria (for name changes)," she says. "There could be an issue here with a terminus station using the word 'downtown' to describe it."
She's in favor of Largo, which captures the "place" and reduces confusion on what "downtown" could mean.
(I think especially for tourists and people unfamiliar with the system).
Smedberg says he has concerns denying PG County their preferred name since they've given other jurisdictions their preferred name for other stations.

MD board member Don Drummer says it was a long, thought-out process. County strongly wants name, he also supports Downtown Largo.
Smedberg asks if they should maybe revisit the way station renaming is handled.

WMATA's Bowersox said in the past they've looked at station sponsorships, which could be one route. Station naming policy is 10 years old and could certainly look at updating it.
After all that, the committee votes to move ahead with Downtown Largo name 2-1 (Drummer - yes, Smedberg - yes, Hadden Loh - no).

That will now go to a full board vote later this month.
Now on to a Silver Line presentation. Metro is working through testing, closing out issues. Still no announced/set opening date. If things stay on track, it could open later this spring.

wmata.com/about/board/me…
Metro board has wrapped. Unfortunately no word about what's going on with the 7000-series trains. They were sidelined again two weeks ago on Dec. 29. No update from WMATA since.
The 7k and service situation was mentioned briefly by board member Matt Letourneau: otter.ai/s/Ul1DBgSjTMac…
"The board is very attuned to those challenges, we understand the difficulties that riders have been experiencing, it may not always be visible to the public, but we've had many, many discussions with staff and with each other about how to address those the best that we can."
From what I can tell, the public wants to hear these discussions. I get it is complicated with ongoing investigations and whatnot, but people deserve to hear some deliberation about how Metro is handling service.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Jordan Pascale🎙️

Jordan Pascale🎙️ Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @JWPascale

13 Jan
At LEAST another 90 days without 7000-series trains as Metro takes a deeper dive into the cause of the wheel issues.
So that means at the EARLIEST trains wouldn't be back until mid-April.

Meanwhile, Metro says it's working faster to get 6000-series trains, which had coupler issues, back on the tracks to provide better reliability on the system.
Service will not improve during that time.
I have two thoughts here
1. What would the region look like if were not in a pandemic and everyone is used to telework now?
2. What will the region and pandemic look like in mid-April as we continue to deal with decimated transit service?
Read 4 tweets
12 Jan
The original cost was already $5.6 billion and now will increase to $9.3 billion. Opening date now fall 2026, WaPo reports.
Also FWIW, the contract hasn't posted to the Board of Public Works website where these sort of things are usually posted. I'm told it won't post until Friday. bpw.maryland.gov/Pages/meetingD…
Reached out to MDOT/MTA to see where we can read the dang thing. Would be good for transparency!
Still can't find the docs online (these reports were submitted to joint general assembly committees and man those websites are notoriously bad to navigate).

Anyway, posted two reports from MDOT here.
drive.google.com/file/d/1seWlQk…

docs.google.com/document/d/1Fr…
Read 4 tweets
11 Jan
Rough week for Metrobus customers as buses aren't showing up when they're supposed to or not at all, at least according to the interactions with the @ MetrobusInfo customer service account.
Just got a response from Metro: nearly 1/4 of bus routes are having issues with the real-time bus ETA system. WMATA working on a fix.

In the meantime, they suggest looking at the list of routes running (wmata.com/service/bus/me…) and compare it w/ timetable wmata.com/schedules/time… Image
Metro had to reduce bus schedules because a lot of drivers have COVID at the moment.
dcist.com/story/22/01/04…
(MoCo and ALX transit agencies have had to do the same.)

This bus issue is on top of limited train service because of wheel safety concerns with the 7000-series trains.
Read 4 tweets
11 Jan
Earlier today at Commonwealth Transportation Board, Virginia CTB members got an update on the facts from the I-95 snow snafu from last week.
After action report is still being put together by VDOT, VDEM, VSP.

"Our commitment is to improve what we do and protect the traveling public," transpo sec. Shannon Valentine said.

"I am just so sorry that happened to anybody. It was heartbreaking for me."
"From the moment I learned of what had happened along 95, my complete focus was getting that highway opened. It was completely devoted to recovery of that asset and moving those people. There was nothing that could deter us from being completely committed to making that happen.
Read 22 tweets
3 Jan
D.C.'s DPW was down about 40 drivers to operate snowplows going into the first shift of the day. COVID + driver shortages (have also affected transit, trucking, and more), limited the # of available employees. D.C. brought in contracted workers to fill in.
dcist.com/story/22/01/03…
Montgomery County also reporting a snow plow operator shortage: "Due to a high number of COVID-19 cases, there is a regional shortage of snowplow operators and contractors available to address this storm event."
Read 4 tweets
6 Dec 21
D.C. CM Mary Cheh kicking off a roundtable around DPW's booting and towing program, which she says is lax. 500k eligible vehicles to be booted, but only 2 teams booting 50 cars a day.

Watch here: dc.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.ph…
More info: dccouncil.us/event/transpor…
Cheh says:
3,000 vehicles have 20+ tickets
500 vehicles have 40+
1 Virginia car has 180 moving violations, 226 tickets total (including parking)

"These are tickets for dangerous driving behaviors and they are still on our roads... DPW is doing almost nothing to catch them."
Read 23 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(