Redundant elevators, and SmarTricks

Metro's Riders Advisory Council and the Metro Elderly and Disabled Committee are fighting against the removal of redundant elevators and pedestrian walkways from the proposed Metrorail expansion to Dulles Airport.

The expansion of Metrorail from the Falls Church area of Northern Virginia to Dulles Airport has been discussed for decades now. At 23 route miles, the completed project would be a huge addition to Metro's network, which is currently 106 route miles. Recently the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which operates Dulles Airport and owns the land upon which the rail extension will be built, agreed to take over the Dulles Toll Road and to build the rail extension. Airports Authority proposal.

However, the rail project has been running over budget, and it teeters on the edge of cost effectiveness measures that the federal government has set. If the project flunks the cost efficiency measures, it might not get federal funding, which would probably kill the project. (I say "might not get federal funding" because the cost efficiency measures are in the province of bureaucrats. Congress can always override the bureaucrats by making an earmark--a.k.a. "doling out pork barrel spending.")

So, in an effort to cut the costs of the project, planners have made some cuts. Instead of a tunnel through Tysons Corner, an aerial setup is now planned. More critically, however, planners have removed some of the redundant elevators from the plan. Planners have also cut the width of some of the pedestrian bridges and are considering removing some of the other bridges entirely.

In response to these moves, the Elderly and Disabled Committee and the Riders Advisory Council have sent letters to the Metro officials, and the letters were discussed at the April 5 meeting of the RAC.

Elimination of some of the redundant elevators stirs up passions, and with good reason. A single elevator that's out of service can greatly increase trip time for someone who depends on elevators. Metro does provide shuttle bus service, but this takes much longer than a train ride.

I still do not understand exactly which redundant elevators have been eliminated. Apparently there will still be redundant elevators between station mezzanines and platforms; however, the current plan eliminates redundancy at station entrances. The move would save a few million dollars (from $3 million to $30 million, depending on whom you ask) which is a small budget savings that could cause considerable inconvenience for many.

Metro is not designing the Dulles project; this task is up to the commonwealth of Virginia. If Metro were designing this thing, it's likely that all the redundant elevators would still be in the plan. As was discussed at the meeting, Metro's current design standards require at least two elevators for every change in elevation at the station. Thus the three newest stations (New York Avenue, Morgan Boulevard, and Largo Town Center) all have two elevators each inbetween the street and the platform.

New tricks for SmarTrip
Also discussed at the meeting is the possibility of new features for SmarTrip. A rider from Greenbelt brought up the idea that riders could be allowed to run a small deficit on their SmarTrip cards--rather like a credit card. At least one member of the RAC was cool to this idea; however, a Metro staff member later addressed the council about SmarTrip. He says that a plan is in the works that would allow riders to link their SmarTrip cards to a credit card so that the SmarTrip automatically replinishes when its balance gets low. This would be similar to the automatic refill option that many toll roads offer with their transponder accounts.

Other bits...
If you think Metro's stations are too dark, the interim general manager has heard your complaints. He's got some sort of plan in the works to, as he says, "punch up" the lighting in many stations. Also, there are two openings on the RAC. One member resigned because he couldn't make it to meetings, and another member will be kicked off because she hasn't come to meetings. Metro's Board of Directors will ultimately decide who fills the vacancies; however, the RAC will recommend that one of the seats be filled with someone "from the Hispanic community." (I think the agency could really use that. Lots of Spanish speakers ride the buses and trains, yet only recently did Metro begin making the "watch for unattended bags" announcement in Spanish.)