Tuesday, January 22, 2013

How'd Metro Do?

Via: @lizessley @wmata employee helping elderly woman down stopped escalator #Metro #inaug2013 pic.twitter.com/DxKIawm1 

Inauguration is Metro's Christmas, New Year's, Chanukah and Kwanzaa all rolled into one day,  and it comes only once every four years.

Last time around, they moved a record number of people and gave themselves high marks. They reminded us about it for about three years.

This year, if early guestimates are to be believed, Metro carried about a third fewer people than 2009. (Some say it was 50 percent lower.) Knowing how Metro budgets, they likely anticipated double 2009 levels.

Twitter feedback was fairly mixed, and during a simultaneous signal problem on the Red Line,  a dead train on the Orange Line and several core stations being unexpectedly shut down, for a while there, Metro teetered on the brink of total meltdown.





Metro charged peak fares from 4 a.m. til 9 p.m., and in an informal poll of friends and coworkers yesterday, the most common reactions to that were "gouging" and "a racket." While they moved less people that $1 paper farecard surcharge will likely increase Metro's take.

Other items:
Examiner take on inauguration / Post take
Transit benefits retroactively restored (Examiner)
 
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