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My mother sent me an e-mail with a link to Benjamin Forgey’s article The Selling of the Subway. I have several issues with Mr. Forgey’s opinion.
For whatever reason, WMATA is cash-strapped. Maybe it was poor management earlier, maybe it’s just not enough riders - whatever. WMATA doesn’t have enough money. They already raised fares and parking fees recently, and now they’re talking about running two-car trains and cutting jobs. We already have some of the highest subway fares in the nation, and I talk to people fairly often who are surprised by our sliding scale, where how much your rail trip costs is based on how far you travel. NYC, by comparison, charges $2 whether you’re going one stop or fifty.
Has Mr. Forgey not noticed the ads that are already throughout the Metrorail system? There are big light-up ads in the stations, and both large and small ads in every rail car. NYC’s subway cars already have “headliners” and they look just fine to me. I don’t have a problem putting them on Metrobus vehicles, either. What Mr. Forgey doesn’t seem to understand is that the advertising is planned to keep fares affordable. Nobody wants to pay five bucks for a single one-way commute. Yes, it’s too bad advertising has inundated public spaces (which WMATA-owned property, incidentally, is not), but it’s a fact of American urban life. If Mr. Forgey wants to stay away from advertising during his commute, he can drive his car. (But only if he turns off the radio and doesn’t look at any billboards.)
Comments
American rail companies, whether metropolitan commuters or Amtrak, have never seemed to grasp the simple concept that in order to make money, there need to be MORE trains, MORE routes and MORE service. People drive cars because they’re convenient. They’d take trains if they were equally so.
When I look at Europe and Japan, where trains run CONSTANTLY and between population centers of almost every size, I am again reminded of how ridiculously scanty our country’s rail service really is, and how short-sighted its operators are.
I completely agree with you. I am so deluged by ads each day that a few more wouldn’t bother me. Heck I kind of like the ads they have on the metro as it gives me something to do while riding. Metro is short on funds running the system and who know how they will afford to extend it out to dulles. If advertising helps, I am all for it. Besides that Yoda car is pretty cool.