WMATA puts L8 Metrobus on chopping block in doomsday budget

A major bus route connecting Aspen Hill and the Friendship Heights Metro station is among 67 Metrobus lines WMATA is proposing to eliminate under its "doomsday" budget. The L8 Metrobus travels along the Connecticut Avenue corridor between Aspen Hill and the Chevy Chase area. It is the top bus route along that corridor; I rode this bus almost every day in high school. Governments and transit agencies often release doomsday budgets prior to asking taxpayers to shell out more to avoid the painful cuts proposed.

 

All East County Metro Red Line stations to close this weekend

This weekend will be terrible for Metro riders in the East County. Every Red Line Metro subway station between and including Glenmont and Takoma Park will be closed Saturday, February 1, 2020 and Sunday, February 2.

Two free shuttle buses will operate all weekend during the closure. One will run between Glenmont and Fort Totten in the District. This bus will not stop at the Takoma Park station; it will stop at Glenmont, Wheaton, Forest Glen and Silver Spring stations.

A second bus will run exclusively between Silver Spring and Takoma Park stations. For more details, see the WMATA website.

Wheaton Metro robbery suspects still at large (Photos)

WMATA is downplaying a violent robbery aboard a Metro Red Line train nearing the Wheaton station Sunday afternoon, referring to it merely as a "strong-arm robbery." But these robbery suspects allegedly did more than twist arms.

In reality, around 5:40 PM Sunday, the alleged robbers didn't simply threaten violence or twist the victim's arm. Instead, the four suspects approached a man, and one sat down next to him and demanded the victim's phone. When the victim declined to cooperate, he was savagely beaten with fists.

"Give me that damn phone!!" one said as they beat the man, and also picked his pockets. The four assailants ran off the train at the Wheaton station, and remain at large. Their victim was hospitalized. These attacks happen frequently in the District, but not very often in Montgomery County, making this something that needs to be nipped in the bud. 

Don't expect our low-energy County Council to do anything about it; they have yet to comment on any of the gang-related shootings in Wheaton over the last three years.

If you can identify any of these four suspects, Metro Transit Police would like to talk to you. Call them at 301-955-5000, or text MyMTPD, and reference case number #2017-07929.

METRO TESTING NEW 7000-SERIES RAILCARS ON RED LINE (PHOTOS)

WMATA is finally on something of a timetable to restore automatic train control to its subway system, and the Red Line will be the first route to have it, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. In October, some Red Line trains will begin operating automatically, and all trains will do so by next March, according to the Post report. That long-overdue positive sign wasn't the only big Red Line news this past weekend. Metro tested new 7000-series railcars on the Red Line Saturday and Sunday, between the Twinbrook and Shady Grove Metro stations.

I caught one in action at the Rockville station on Sunday. The train was not accepting passengers during the test run. The 7000-series are manufactured by Kawasaki.

We simply must improve the service and reliability of Metro, if we are to even begin to manage future growth in places like downtown Bethesda, White Flint, Silver Spring and Rockville. Scarce transportation dollars need to go to the projects where they impact the most people, such as 8-car trains for Metro, more capacity on the Red Line (especially north of Grosvenor), and a new Potomac River crossing to relieve congestion on the Beltway and I-270.

TIME FOR MARYLAND TO DEMAND CHANGES AT METRO

The farce that was the last 48 hours of Red Line service on Metro is not the last straw. Whatever the last straw was (I think most riders and employees have lost count at this point), it happened a long time ago. Yet Metro continues to slouch forward, its leadership locking arms with apologists in local government and media. The result is that, in the customer's experience, there has been no positive change whatsoever.

Metro has been a good subway system in the past. Sure, there have always been issues, but nothing like that of recent years. Metro can be at least that good again with the right leadership, and adequate funding.

We've heard a lot about the "aggressive" changes in maintenance, safety and service. Riders have suffered through endless weekend station closures, closures that - along with punitive fare increases - have sent some riders back to their automobiles.

But those inconvenient closures have produced no tangible results. There continue to be delays, derailings, and even another fatal accident that killed an employee. Does anyone call this an improvement?

Yet Metro truly has a Teflon leadership. No matter what happens, it's never held accountable. But riders have leverage beyond their farecards: asking their local and state government officials to tell Metro's leadership enough is enough.

If our elected officials don't take action, we should take action at the voting machines in DC, Maryland and Virginia.

Furthermore, the state of Maryland should consider doing what Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell did three years ago: decide what substantive leadership, operation and safety changes they believe should be implemented, and withhold Maryland's Metro funding until those are enacted. Should that be the first and only means of bringing about real change? No. But if all else fails, is allowing one of the best subway systems in the world to continue to decline an option?

I'm certainly open to other suggestions of how Montgomery County and Maryland specifically can apply pressure on Metro on behalf of their beleaguered residents; feel free to leave a comment below.

But we can't continue to be told that change is just around the corner. When's the last time your train was automatically run, rather than manually operated? How many years have gone by without fixing that problem? I don't even hear Metro, the media or politicians talk about that issue anymore.

I'd like to see politicians show the same animation and fury they generate about plastic bags and trans fat on behalf of an unacceptable level of subway service for their constituents. And, if they don't, they should be replaced with people who will.

We can't go on like this.