For some reason - well, because of a discussion in dcwmata - I have gotten interested in deaths on the DC Metro. I did some research, and of course the computer crashed before I saved it. So I reconstructed it, and I’ve listed some deaths here; currently they’re chronologically sorted. I’m curious about how many of them are suicides, how frequently they occur, and whether my perception that the Red Line is the most dangerous line has any basis in reality. (This will be somewhat difficult to determine, because the Red Line is also the oldest line, so of course it will have more deaths going back further than other lines.) All links are to abstracts, and items without links are from the “Historical Washington Post” archives, which are part of the subscription-only ProQuest database. (Many libraries offer this database; you can access it from your library’s website and then you simply input your library card number.) There are two deaths listed as January 1st with “n/a” for much of the information - those deaths were mentioned in one of the other articles, but I didn’t find direct references myself. At least not yet…I will probably keep this research going until I get bored. If I don’t, I might expand to other cities.

There has been another arrest for eating on the Metro, and this time the scofflaw is an adult. Stephanie Willett is 45 years old and works for the EPA, and she was arrested last week after eating a PayDay candy bar inside the faregates of the Metro Center station. The last publicized arrest was that of 12-year-old Ansche Hedgepeth, who was arrested in 2000 for eating fries at the Tenleytown station. Willett claims that she was “chewing” in the Metro station, and therefore didn’t break the law, but Metro spokesperson Lisa Farbstein says that chewing is eating.

[via dcwmata]

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.)

Ryan found an interesting article called What Lies Beneath - it compares and contrasts the underground rail transit systems of New York City and Washington DC. The author makes a lot of excellent points, and I agree with several of them. Being a DC-area native, of course I prefer America’s Subway. I’ve spent some time on the NYC subway too, though, and I enjoy that as well. I wish the DC Metro cost less, but the cleanliness alone makes the price a bit more tolerable. It’s unfortunate, though, that Metro doesn’t run later than midnight (2am on Friday and Saturday) - one thing I love about the New York City subway is that you can get pretty much anywhere at any time.

If this kind of thing interests you too (I’m a railfan), you’ve probably already seen NYCsubway.org - but you may not have seen Carguy’s awesome site about DC transit and its history.

Sometime after carguy’s site about DC Transit systems dropped off the face of the Internet, I went looking for it but had no luck. Tonight I was going through the greens on my ODP dashboard and noticed it was still in the unreviewed of the DC subways category, so I set about trying to find it once again.

To my surprise, the site was back! Now located at clouse.org, it appears the same as it did long ago. It was apparently last updated on 1 Dec 2002, so it’s been around for two months. The site is a truly wonderful resource, with extensive information about the Metro, the old D.C. Transit service, the local heavy rail system, and even the Capitol subway. If it’s not already apparent, I’m thrilled the site is back.

The present my girlfriend got for me finally arrived today - the Metro at 25 book! (She must have gotten it direct from WMATA, too, because for some reason Amazon says it’s not available. Besides, the box didn’t say Amazon.com anywhere!) It looks really awesome, and I haven’t even read the text yet - though I do see many node updates in my future. So now I have hardcover copies of the Metro book and the Union Station book, plus book(s?) on the NYC subway…I’m a happy geek tonight.

It figures that after having a day off I’ll have a few days where I’ve got a lot to do all day. I was supposed to be at the elementary school this morning, but all the “specials” (art, music, etc.) were cancelled so they didn’t need me. I figured I’d go to Landover Mall, but it’s apparently been closed - as of November 2000 it was in bad shape, and by now the only thing open is Sears. So I found a library on the map instead, and headed over…except not half a mile from my destination I got a flat tire. I was driving carefully, but the roads are pretty slick due to constant flurries, and when I turned the wheel to go around a curve…the car didn’t turn. I pulled over, called my parents, and decided (with their advice) to drive to the gas station a lady told me was a mile up the road. Once there, I got the tire changed for $12 - the guy told me I’ll need a new tire and a new rim…great. I backtracked to the library and here I am.

This afternoon I have the high school like usual, except I can’t access the Internet there anymore…I may ask one of the other interpreters for her password so I can get in. (Nobody seems to have a problem with interpreters using the computers while they’re not working, but because most of us aren’t school employees, we don’t get our own logins.) After school lets out, I’ll have to hustle halfway around the beltway to get to the mall, where I’m working 5:30 to close.

To my amazement, a Metro train derailed last night between the Crystal City and National Airport stations. No injuries, fortunately, but it sure is screwing with today’s commutes.

Now this is really, really stupid. I’m planning to go to a brunch tomorrow morning sponsored by the Northern Virginia Sign Language Club, and I needed to know how to get there. WMATA has a “Ride Guide” that, when told a departure point and a destination, gives you suggested routes for how to get there. I plugged in my plans, and got the results.

The first one says to take a bus from the Vienna metro and transfer to another bus. Okay, that makes sense. The second one says to get on the train at the Vienna metro and ride into the city, then get off at Foggy Bottom. This is also reasonable. And then the last suggested route has you board one of Fairfax’s Cue Bus routes at the Vienna metro station. You ride around for 45 minutes, and then get off the bus at - the Vienna metro station. Then you’re supposed to get on the train and get off at Foggy Bottom. How on earth does this make any sense?!

I was looking at the very comprehensive Abandoned Stations of the NYC Subway page, and my girlfriend asked me about the Capitol/White House subway and whether or not information on it was still available after September 11th. I knew nycsubway.org had been asked to take down their track map in the weeks after that date (I saved a copy through archive.org for my own reference), so I didn’t know if the Capitol subway information was still available. I went directly to the ODP’s DC subways category (hey, I run the subways category, I’ll make a DC subcat if I want!) to check out carguy’s site, which is where I had (I think) previously seen information on the Capitol subway. His site was gone, replaced by a GWU notice to try an alternate URL…but that gave me a 404. I immediately went to my trustworthy archive.org, only to find that GWU has a robots.txt that excludes archive.org, and therefore carguy’s site wasn’t there. Ack! As far as I can tell it’s gone, but hopefully I can figure out some way to get in touch with him. I did, however, find that just a couple of days ago choster had put in a new listing for standtotheright.com - finally, somebody is taking up the stand right, walk left crusade! (I don’t especially want to pay $20 for a t-shirt, though.)

Added So far I’ve only found one page about the Capitol Subway, and I wasn’t surprised that it was at nycsubway.org.
Added 1 Feb 2003 Carguy’s site is back!

My mother sent me an interesting article about Metro’s policies regarding people using the restrooms in stations. I’ve heard that station managers are supposed to let you in, and I’ve also heard that they usually refuse to. There’s a quote in the article “Before I leave for the day, I actually have to think about it — Do I go now or can I make it home?” I know exactly how that person feels. I’m amazed to hear that the bathrooms are usually kept clean and pretty. I do sort of understand the employee perspective, though: they feel the bathroom is there for their use, since they’re on duty for several hours at a time. They also don’t want the public coming in and making a mess…presumably the bathrooms are kept clean because there are only a few people using them. Still…I’m just glad to see this in the paper. It’ll be interesting to see WMATA’s response.