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That's something I noticed pretty quickly. St. Petersburg trains come much more often during rush hour, often enough that missing the train doesn't mean being late for work.
Metro could be up to that level. The problem is design flaws like building the stations too deep, and having to put your ticket in twice--those can't be undone. But Metro is much better than the horrible systems in Chicago and New York.
But Metro is much better than the horrible systems in Chicago and New York.
NYC's subway takes a huge crap on ours. You just can't beat 24/7 service and express trains. Not to mention you can eat and drink on NY's trains too without looking over your shoulder. D.C. can never have express trains because of its design, but I believe vendors should be allowed to sell newpapers, magazines, food, and drinks in metro stations and metro should have 24/7 service. Hell make the fare between 12am-5am 5 bucks per ride and run a train every 30 minutes. Closing the system at midnight is a big inconvenience.
It annoys me when I see people walking up and down the escalators at Wheaton station. Those are the longest in the western hemisphere and if you so much as trip up, let alone fall down one you'll most likely die a painful death.
Are you saying able body people shouldn't walk up/down the escalators??
Metro could be up to that level. The problem is design flaws like building the stations too deep, and having to put your ticket in twice--those can't be undone. But Metro is much better than the horrible systems in Chicago and New York.
Apparently double-ticketing is rare. I remember being so surprised when St. Petersburg only checked once. Definitely saves time, especially on the way out.
Apparently double-ticketing is rare. I remember being so surprised when St. Petersburg only checked once. Definitely saves time, especially on the way out.
NYC's subway takes a huge crap on ours. You just can't beat 24/7 service and express trains. Not to mention you can eat and drink on NY's trains too without looking over your shoulder. D.C. can never have express trains because of its design, but I believe vendors should be allowed to sell newpapers, magazines, food, and drinks in metro stations and metro should have 24/7 service. Hell make the fare between 12am-5am 5 bucks per ride and run a train every 30 minutes. Closing the system at midnight is a big inconvenience.
But those NY trains are very dirty and uncomfortable.
But I agree, there is no reason Metro can't run all night.
And they can't change it, since they'd have to get rid of all the machines and turnstile. But it's totally inefficient to have different prices for differnent destinations.
NYC's subway takes a huge crap on ours. You just can't beat 24/7 service and express trains. Not to mention you can eat and drink on NY's trains too without looking over your shoulder. D.C. can never have express trains because of its design, but I believe vendors should be allowed to sell newpapers, magazines, food, and drinks in metro stations and metro should have 24/7 service. Hell make the fare between 12am-5am 5 bucks per ride and run a train every 30 minutes. Closing the system at midnight is a big inconvenience.
A bigger inconvenience would be service outages and crashes that are worse than what we have now, because Metro can't perform much-needed track maintenance between 12a-5a.
Aside from the fact that the demand at that hour is very questionable--DC isn't a 24/7 city like NYC--the configuration of the tracks, as you noted, means that certain maintenance functions can only be performed while the system is closed down.
And they can't change it, since they'd have to get rid of all the machines and turnstile. But it's totally inefficient to have different prices for differnent destinations.
Not sure about inefficient, but it can certainly be confusing. I wish Metro would adopt the same concept with their system maps that London has, which basically breaks down the entire system into zones. That way you quickly know what your fare is going to be when travelling within a zone, or from zone to zone.
BTW, since we're talking about Metro fares, it seems that the implementation of the new "peak of the peak" fare hikes is going to be somewhat delayed, because the turnstile computers aren't capable of processing all of these new fare computations. It makes you wonder: if Metro's computers can't keep up with all of the new fare scenarios, how will riders?
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