An incompetent WMATA attempts crowd control

Metrorail is buckling under the strain of increased ridership. Metro will take some steps to help move people along quickly and ease the load. Wash. Post story; Metro press release.

The steps will be modest and, I think, ineffective. Metro will be placing stickers on the platforms to indicate where train doors will open, so that people will queue up in the right spot on the platform. The stickers will also deliver a subtle hint to stand to the side of the doors to allow passengers to exit the train. I remember Metro's last attempt at floor stickers. The stickers deteriorated within weeks, with large pieces of them coming off. Metro eventually removed what was left of them. Metro's press release gives no indication that the agency suddenly found a more durable sticker material, so hopefully they will have workers constantly applying new stickers.

Even if the stickers, well, stick, they won't be all that effective as long as Metro can't get trains to stop in the same place on the platform. Often they miss platforms entirely, inconveniencing customers as they have to double back from the next station.

Metro will also change the door chime and the verbal "Doors closing" warning, presumably to make them more stern. Currently people hear the chime and then race for the doors, sometimes sticking hands and personal items in the doors in an attempt to keep them open. A certain degree of this behavior is inevitable in a city where people don't want to wait 150 seconds for the next train. But changing the door chimes won't help. Something that might help is retraining train operators. Many of them use the "Doors Closing" warning as a device to hurry crowds: they will sound the chime several times in rapid succession--sometimes more than five times--before closing the doors. They will sound the chime even as masses of people are still crowding into the train. These operators use the door chimes to say: "hurry up." No wonder people do not take the chime seriously.

Metro will also put up signs telling people to stand to the right on escalators. Tourists are baffled and dazzled enough as it is and few will notice the signs. Most small groups of tourists (two or three, say) will stand aside if politely asked. The large mobs of tourist crowds are just trying to keep themselves herded, and asking them to move is impossible. They won't notice signs.

I would bring all this up in Metro's lunchtime online chat today, but I am increasingly convinced that this is a rudderless agency. It screws up on safety protocols, which results in dead workers and suspicious bags rolling through crowded downtown stations. It can't get work permits for escalator repair. Millions of dollars of revenue go missing from its parking lots. It botches crime reports. It buys empty buildings and then leases additional office space. It takes months to rebuild escalators, with some escalators sitting empty and barricaded for months with no apparent reason.

Worst of all, none of the important folks realize this is a rudderless agency. If I was on the board I would have fired general manager Dick White after millions was stolen from parking lots under his watch. The board kept him. There is a culture of incompetence in the agency, and it starts at the top. Management isn't doing anything about it. Neither is the board.

No, bringing this up in some dumb online chat won't help.