Metro considering re-balancing service on 5 lines

Sand Box John wrote:The only real solution is more rolling stock

Assuming 2 minute and 20 second headway between Rosslyn and Stadium - Armory and between Grosvenor and Silver Spring including the completed Silver line using all 8 car trains on all lines during peak plus 20 percent spares WMATA would need a fleet 1,888 cars.

Even if WMATA had the rolling stock for this (which they don't and don't even have on their fleet management plan through 2025), you still have the issue of upgrading the traction power system to be able to handle anywhere near that number of 8-car trains.

Not that I don't love the idea of all 8-car trains at 2.x-min headways, but doing anything like that will take years. Not to mention, the current plans call only for an estimated 506 8000-series cars to replace the 366 2/3Ks + 140 for growth by the end of 2024 to have 1622 cars by 2025.

"srepetsk"

Even if WMATA had the rolling stock for this (which they don't and don't even have on their fleet management plan through 2025), . . .

WMATA has collective forgotten the capability of the railroad because over the last 30 years they were more focused on adding miles then adding cars.

. . . you still have the issue of upgrading the traction power system to be able to handle anywhere near that number of 8-car trains.

WMATA began upgrading the power output of the traction power distribution system some years ago, they further along then you might think.

Not that I don't love the idea of all 8-car trains at 2.x-min headways, but doing anything like that will take years. Not to mention, the current plans call only for an estimated 506 8000-series cars to replace the 366 2/3Ks + 140 for growth by the end of 2024 to have 1622 cars by 2025.

If the suits within the Jackson Graham hold to that thinking Metrorail will continue to experience in service brake downs and over crowding because they have more bad order cars then good ones to put out onto railroad to fill the daily time sheet.

My "solution" to the headway and tunnel issue (excluding the red line) was to run:

8/8/8 on Blue/Silver/Orange

16 on Yellow to Greenbelt and 8 on Green (or 8 Yellows and 16 Greens if the tail of the Green has more riders than the tail of the yellow).

They had said something about uneven headways and it was discussed at length on GGW that this was the issue of synchronizing the system.

John always seems very knowledgeable and I realize rolling stock is an issue but if they don't have the cars to run this pattern, then the pattern should just be:
7/7/7; 14/7 or whatever number is needed in sequence down from there.

If the current pattern is hurting on time performance then sure something should be done, but cutting all of the Green line to 8 is very silly.

WMATA needs more flexibility to hire and fire. It needs a good GM that will fire people who under perform. It needs the new cars. It needs a maintenance plan that works on a long term basis. It needs a codified source of funding such as a sales tax like in LA. It needs salaries tied to externally auditable standards of performance.

I would be in favor of large scale single tracking after midnight or ending service after midnight. The majority of money is recovered in the rush, if service late at night costs more on a per rider basis and hurts system performance its time to just use buses late a night. DC doesn't have the redundancy of NY, long service hours might not be reasonable. That said the inefficiency in maintenance is astounding. I cannot help but feel the union is a major obstetrical for efferent operations.

WMATA needs more flexibility to hire and fire. It needs a good GM that will fire people who under perform.

Totally pointless since the unions will reinstate them anyways after a wasteful and lengthy legal battle.

That was my way of saying find a way to de-unionize WMATA, perhaps that means sending it to bankruptcy. That said I know people who do work for WMATA and they do some unhelpful things to employees that the union does block. It is tricky.

I would not all large organizations have horrible inefficiencies. Without first hand knowledge its hard to say. However, I know that anywhere you can't be fired (more or less) becomes a workplace with three types of people: those who do the minimum because they can, those who give up because so many people don't care, and those who inherently work hard because it means something to them. The first group needs to boot, the second group is generally the majority and the 3rd group should be promoted to management.

Believe Sand Box John is right,there's equipment that should be RETIRED(1000 series)that ties up manpower and resources
to keep them running,but the kicker is there are not enough cars/sets around to allow that.
So the only option is to patch around or a "meatball" quick fix to keep the pair/set running till the point that
requires a major repair,NOW,the shops are overloaded with all the MAJOR repairs.
Untill more 7000 series cars/sets go online after testing ,you have a car shortage for now.
There might be a parts shortage as well,along with NO $$$ to buy parts needed.
There' s got to be more to the shortage then just labor.

There are plenty of unions that allow underperforming employees to be terminated.

A "good" union provides cover, but ensures that any firings are backed by substantial evidence (and not simply an excuse for poor management). UPS has a fairly hostile management-labor relationship, but still manages to operate with extreme efficiency (in particular, the Teamsters will gleefully throw you under the bus if you've demonstrated unsafe behavior at work)

Although a lot of the extra maintenance has been track circuit related. It seems like once that is done and ATO is restored and the 7000s start to really retire the 1000s and 4000s everything will appear to get better. There will be more time and manpower for non-track circuit repairs and car service. I presume the fleet will return to unmixed train-sets (all 3K, etc) and announcements and sign operations will work better. One day the cell work will be complete as well...

The next GM might get to take credit for all this upswing that will happen even if things just continue as they are.

I don't however find the control center issues acceptable at all. Yes emergencies are confusing but the fan setup in the smoke death and sickness was the first thing I have found totally inexcusable. Though the track circuit issues were bad (and more fatal) but I can understand how someone without a lot of understanding of control systems would not realize how big a problem that is. Anyone reasonable should know you have to have one of the two fans to intake air.

There is always plenty of blame to go around but it really just shouldn't happen. I would not stop riding over these issues cars are far more dangerous however it makes people feel unsafe because they don't feel in control, and they can't trust the authorities to be competent.

The FEDs have called a meeting of the heads of DC/MD/VA to talk WMATA so hopefully that will do something, but somehow I doubt it.

"drwho9437"
Although a lot of the extra maintenance has been track circuit related. It seems like once that is done and ATO is restored and the 7000s start to really retire the 1000s and 4000s everything will appear to get better. There will be more time and manpower for non-track circuit repairs and car service.

Car maintenance and track maintenance are two different departments. WMATA doesn't pull manpower from one department to beef up manpower in another department.

Fact is, the wayside train control and signaling hardware upgrades are being done by outside contractors.

Good to know. Is there no internal workers for regular track control system maintenance?

"drwho9437"
Good to know. Is there no internal workers for regular track [sic] train control system maintenance?

Yes, their duties are mostly limited to routine preventive maintenance and bad order calls.

In a pinch they might find themselves replacing everything in a train control room such as what happen when the train control room at Silver Spring was flooded as the result of a storm some years ago.

"farecard"

And the human resources to use the rolling stock. But I thus agree with John.....

From what I have heard gleaned from various reports, train operator turnover is pretty high. There are very few train operators that have operated revenue train in automatic mode.

Sand Box John wrote:

Car maintenance and track maintenance are two different departments. WMATA doesn't pull manpower from one department to beef up manpower in another department.

From what I have heard, the idea is laughable. WMATA is so balkanized that Dept ABCD would sooner walk off the job than cooperate with EFGH, much less help them.

Because of the ongoing issues related to the slow zone by Stadium Armory (because of the power issues stemming from the transformer fire), Metro has scrapped its plan to re-balance the 5 lines' headways (which it sort of is doing already). http://wamu.org/news/15/10/05/metro_pla ... es_is_dead