Dinner time!

Oh yeah!!

From You, To Me! (Vol. 38)

Good Morning,

As you read this, I am out camping with my oldest stepson down at Point Lookout. Today we'll be fishing and crabbing for the better part of the day, enjoying the great outdoors. Hopefully I'll have some pics and stories to share. Speaking of pics to share, I did some light home improvement yesterday that I'm proud of. I installed a new light fixture in my dining room, and I also replaced my range hood fan thingy in my kitchen. This was my first time really doing any electrical work in the house. I'm happy to report that everything went as planned!

While the investigation of the accident continues (anybody else tired of this? I know I am), we are continually entertained by the stuff we see on the train. Crazy Red Line Guy definitely worked his way to the upper echelon of metro characters with ease, joining the ranks of Bust A Move Guy. Funny stuff!



"Hmmm..."

Weapon of choice: the loudspeaker!!!

Oh great. I can easily see this being abused. You can see the look on her face. "Bitch, you got 5 seconds to get outta my face before I have to use this!" Click on the pic to enlarge it. How many neon vests can you count?

Thanks for the submission, and thanks for reading The Chronicles of Narn-...I mean MetroMan
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"From Me, To You"


Hello MetroMan!
I just wanted to share a little something I saw at 8:30 this morning at the Brookland-CUA Metro Station.

First, why are there chicken bones there so early?

Second, I was damn near accosted by a Metro janitor when she noticed Iwas taking pictures of it. "Snapping pictures, eh? Well, I have a schedule and I don't get here till blah, blah, blah, and this is NICE STATION." And she kept mumbling "this is a nice station" as she walked away. Maybe she thought I was going to report her? I'm actually mad that she has to pick this mess up in the first place. I didn't say anything back to her though, 'cause she seemed pretty salty about my documentation.

Meh...
Thanks!

To answer your first question...Black people were there. *shrug* Hey, it is what it is! LOL!!

As for your second issue, as I expected, Metro employees will be getting more and more defensive when they see people taking pictures within the metro system. For fear that they are pictured doing something OTHER than they're supposed to. Fear not, as you have every right to take pics on/within metro. Employees may try to bully you into thinking otherwise, but don't settle for their harrasment/inquistion when challenged. Section 100.8(a)(2) of WMATAs use regulation establishes and protects the rights of individuals to take pictures on metro sans tripod use. I highly doubt that anyone approaching you about taking pictures will be familiar with this though.

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"2 car train noted on WMATA - Next Train"

Last Data Update: 4:19:19 PM EDT
Last Page Refresh: 4:19:39 PM EDT
Page will refresh every 30 seconds.

I see our elusive beast is getting more and more exposure! It's good to see that the population of this endagered train species is recovering well. I've never used the "Next Train" application on metro's website.

Thanks for the submission!!
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"From Me To You"

Sid Vicious partied too hard!

Damn. I know the feeling that guy is experiencing. I've taken the metro home plenty of time after a too happy happy hour. More like a happy evening. That time of night is when you see all of the weird people!

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"Worst Case Scenario?"

I guess WMATA could be worse:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/18-cracks-found-in-Delhi-Metro-pillars/articleshow/4826411.cms

I see WMATA isn't the only system with deadly infrastructure failures. Concrete is a different animal. I'm no civil engineer, but I know that it can have cracks that are acceptable, not compromising safefty & rigidity. But it appears that something definitely went awry here. Maybe they should contract their construction out to WMATA. Hey, they may have electrical problems down the road, but at least the concrete work will be sound, and they'll learn new phrases like "stand clear, train moving forward", "train moving momentarily", and "we apologize for any inconvenience".
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"NON METRO RELATED"

This is what I learned today in my Customer Service Training Class.
Thought you might get a kick out of this one...
Customer Service yeah right...
my creations OF THE CANDIES BEFORE ME..lol rotf

tsk tsk tsk...you're supposed to be paying attention in class, and you're making orange & green line trains with your candy? "Stand clear, jolly rancher moving forward." I bet Greg was sitting there looking at you like

lol...thanks. Have a great day!
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"On the yellow line today (7/28) about 12:30"

A little lunch time nap...

Do I even really need to comment on this? LOL!! Is that a cigarette in his hand?
Thanks for this pic. Simply hilarious!
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"Metro manager commendation"

So I'm on my usual trek towards the metro and I'm about to scan my smartrip card. Well sure enough the farecard doesn't close so I have no clue if it took my money. Great. I try scanning on another gate and get the dreaded see station mgr. I walk over and I'm greeted with good morning how can I help you? I explain the situation and she says that I can exit and try it again. Sure enough it works and I thank her.

I'm very pleased with my interaction because the first thing I thought of was how you've had weird encounters or how others get a mgr who doesn't want to do their job. Sure enough there are some good ones.

Orange line metro rider

It's definitely good to know that there are indeed some good metro employees out there. We give them a bad rap most of the time, when in reality its just a few bad apples that are spoiling the bunch.

Thanks for sharing this positive encounter of a third kind with us!
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"From Me To You"

Irony. The homeless finding shelter under a home buying "federal credit" billboard @ Rockville station. A "home buyers" dream.....

LOL...damn. Irony indeed. The husband in the billboard is saying "Don't look at her honey...just don't look." Thanks for that submission. Kinda serves as a metaphor of the problem of homelessness in this country.

That does it for this week folks! I did this entry ahead of time, yesterday at 10:30am to be exact, so if you sent me something afterwards, it will be posted next week. Have a great weekend!

Camp breakfast

MetroMan's Pic Of The Week (7/31/09)

Mbutu, a displaced Somolian pirate, rides on an 8 CARRRRRRGGGHHHH train for the first time.

Just In Case You Were Wondering...

Why your coworkers are late today...

Where You Might Crash and Die'ogram

A New WTFMETRO Character

I tried to save this for this week's volume of "From You, To Me". But dammit, it was too funny for me to contain that long. This was submitted from an iMetro reader.

I present to you, Crazy Red Line Guy...

Let Us Pause For A Minute...

...and laugh at David P. Baker, the Alexandria Police Chief who was arrested for DUI Saturday night.



With a blood alcohol content more than twice the legal limit, this guy failed FOUR field sobriety tests more than two hours after the accident. Chief Wiggum here MUST have had a good night partying to blow a .019 more than two hours after his crash.

He's now on [paid] leave awaiting his trial. If the law holds up, he'll definitely be going to jail. Being a police chief and all, I wonder if he'll be allowed to book himself. It'd be cool for him to set the self timer on the mugshot camera and run back and pose.

Although I have a particular disdain for law enforcement officers in Northern VA, I am glad that they upheld the law, and didn't allow David "hiccup" baker to get away scott free due to his rank. Frankly, I wouldn't mid if they beat his ass for no good reason either *shrug*

Well, we know one thing is for sure, Mr. Baker has a career awaiting him at metro upon his release!

Brakes Break

I was checking out the service report posted on wmata.com for July 22nd, last Wednesday. It's the latest one the have available.

2:50 p.m. An Orange Line train at East Falls Church In the direction of New Carrollton was taken out of service due to a brake problem. Customers were required to exit the train.

3:22 p.m. A Red Line Train at Wheaton In the direction of Shady Grove was taken out of service due to a brake problem. Customers were required to exit the train.

5:39 p.m. A Red Line Train at Fort Totten In the direction of Shady Grove was taken out of service due to a brake problem. Customers were required to exit the train.

6:49 p.m. An Orange Line train at Eastern Market In the direction of New Carrollton was taken out of service due to a brake problem. Customers were required to exit the train.

Hmmm...

Something else that caught my eye, and actually made me laugh in this report:

6:40 a.m. A Green Line train at Greenbelt In the direction of Branch Avenue was not dispatched due to no cars available.

3:49 p.m. An Orange Line train at West Falls church In the direction of New Carrollton was not dispatched due to no cars available.

An angry mob amasses...

As a train sits out of service at the silver spring metro station.

Beyonce Clown Fail (Non-metro related)

...




...when your best just isn't quite good enough.

Hello, And Welcome To Monday!

I try to use Monday as a barometer, or sort to gauge how my metro-week is going to be. If this morning's indicator holds any truth, the forecast is partly shitty, with a slight chance of WTF.

I arrived to the College Park Metro Station with a SmarTrip card balance of negative $0.35. Needing to replenish my ghastly metro fares, I expeditiously walked to the farecard machines. Three of the five machines at College Park service SmarTrip Cards. As I approach the machines, there's an indecisive guy in front of me, who ends up cutting in front of me. Not biggie, I just hopped in the other line. The lady in front of me was adding funds to her card as well. She "dipped" her credit/debit card, and the machine took quite a while to process the transaction...much longer than usual. The machine finally gave her an error message, saying it was unable to process the transaction. She stormed off. Another metro-induced case of the Mondays.

It was my turn at bat, and I dipped my debit card. "I'm sure this is gonna work for me. That chick probably didn't have any money in her account. I know I have money in my checking account", I thought to myself. *wait*...*wait* DENIED! Being the suave guy known as metroman, I had some cash in my pocket. Apparently their computers were down, rendering credit card transactions impossible. I whipped out some crisp dollar bills, and tried to insert them into the slot. This resulted in failure...I gazed up, at the electronic sign...


Just fucking great. (By the way, it also alternately read "In Service". I guess it techinically WAS still in service, should you happen to have a pocket full of change...wtf)


I moved down to the third SmarTrip machine. By this time, I hear my train entering, and leaving the station. I touch my card to the sensor to get this thing going. NOTHING. I looked up at the electronic sign. "NO SMARTIP"

So here we have one SmarTrip machine that takes no bills, nor is it processing credit cards. And we also have another SmarTrip machine that doesn't ummm....process SmarTrip Cards?


The last glimmer of hope in the last and final SmarTrip-capable machine. But only appropriate for this Monday morning was that fact of it being occupied by a tard who couldn't quite figure out how to work the machine.

I finally said screw it...and purchased a paper farecard from one of the other machines. The Wizard and her accomplice just stood near the faregates having a grande old time laughing it up about everything under the sun.


As I waited for my next train, I realized how much more convenient the MARC is to get downtown from College Park, opposed to metro and all things associated with it.


And in true Fort Totten fashion...


Good Morning.

Metro Opens Doors...

On the wrong side of the platform!



A metro train operator was placed on [paid] administrative leave yesterday for his inability to open the train doors on the appropriate side of the train. Thursday evening, green line riders at the Waterfront station were greeted with the station wall when the doors opened. According to metro, the operator of the six car train "probably hit something by accident" in this latest of many metro debacles.

Metro: Fuck up and you get a vacation!

Another One Bites The Dust!

A man was fatally stuck and killed by a red line train after intentionally placing himeself on the tracks at the Van Ness-UDC station earlier today.

I've lost count.

Greetings!

A screenshot of iMetro readers, worldwide. Pretty cool. Approaching 130K hits!

From You, To Me! (Vol. 37)

Another week of delays, and another week of increasing exposure of the ineptitude of WMATA. It's almost boring to keep writing about the same stuff over and over again...ALMOST. I did the majority of my commuting from College Park this week, as my regular full length commutes were met with amazingly annoying delays and rail fails.

Yesterday, I found myself wondering "How does John Catoe feel throughout all of this?" We read it all the time...the rants of "fire Catoe!"..."Catoe should resign!" Then the Washington Post prints an article which pretty much catches Catoe in a huge contradiction of himself. Sometimes I feel bad for the guy. It just so happens that these times are few and far between, and never when I'm trapped within the metro rail system. I wonder if he feels he's doing a good job. What does his wife say to him when he gets home on a daily basis? Oh well...I guess it all comes with being the man in charge...and making $300k+

I also feel for metro spokeswoman, Candice Smith. Day in and day out she has to face the media and try to make her craptastic agency NOT seem to be the bunch of embiciles they appear to be. From the bus driver assaulting McGruff the Crime Dog, to train operators falling asleep...she has to deal with the media...OH WELL!!

Big fish! This woman was a hot mess when...

She got on the Orange Line.

Now just WTF is this shit here? Please don't tell me thats a purse. Is it a pillow? She's on the phone like "GUUURRLLL you won't believe this shit!! I'm sittin next to a muhfuggin fish! A muther fuckin fish on the mother fuckin train!!...unnn huh...yeah girl...da urinch line!!" I wish I had pohotshop here on my laptop. You KNOW I'd do the customary Samuel L. Jackson "[INSERT WHATEVER HERE] On A Train" pic.

And I've got 2 more pics from the same commute home...

Seat Hog #1

Seat Hog Pt.2

I guess he cant decide!

After a long day at work, Leroy just needs to be comfortable. I wonder if the guy in the second pic asked him to move, or did Leroy do it on his own feeling of guilt.

Thanks for the pic...still LOL @ the damn fish.

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ummm, srsly, this makes me kinda want to avoid metro at all costs now

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/21/AR2009072102479.html?hpid=topnews

Man who are you telling? Statistically, metro riding is safe based on the shear volume of passenger trips/miles. But these findings just make you wonder how much is being kept behind closed doors? I like how most of the lines have circuit failures, but metro says its rediculous to consider this problem as widespread.

LOL thanks!

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The Elusive 2 Car Train...

Spotted at Farragut North this morning! Nice to see that some things never change.



I see we have something in common! I too spotted our famed & fabled 2 car train.

I took this pic at Fort Totten yesterday morning. Good times! The two car train is pretty much in the same boat as Unicorns, the chupacabra, and the loch ness monster. I love it! Nothing like the sport of "two-car train hunting." It takes minutes to learn, but a lifetime to master. I'm beginning to think this endangered train only exists on the Red Line...

Thanks for the submission, and thanks for continuing to read iMetro!
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"Beat the Heat"
Metroman,

Forget the new AC units, this dude's kickin' it old school.



Enjoy the weekend.

Paul H.

LOL...typical fatty trying to hog all of the cool breeze!

Thanks for the pic!!
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Reading is Fundamental


DCPS's finest! Taken on the Green line and why is it that each evening the conductor has to remind these fools to not lean on the doors or the train will be taken out of service? He says it everyday and still they crowd the train and push themselves on!

"Metro employee reads about deadly train derailment" Man, sometimes its a zoo just trying to get OFF a crowded train. Quite often the doors aren't ajar long enough, causing panic amongst passengers waiting to board. Just the other day (when I was delayed at Metro Center), I witnessed a tourist family get split up due to a trigger-happy train operator. Oh well...who cares about tourists!!

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"BS Parking Ticket"

These pics were taken at Glenmont metro - which is under construction. During this construction the "reserved" spaces were moved several times. As you can see in the progression of the pictures the right side of this row is now "reserved" while the left side is not.

I had to pay $50 because I could not afford to take a day off of work to fight this BS ticket - wtf metro?!

Aww damn!! Please don't tell me they moved the signs after you parked there? If so, I'll personally call Al Sharpton & Jesse Jackson so we can fight this. (Wait...I didn't even ask if you were...) Anyways, thats pretty messed up. I could see a warning ticket knowing the circumstances of the construction and all. I wonder if anyone else got caught out there by this sudden change. It's really unfortunate that you were unable to fight the ticket. You definitely would've had a strong case against the citation.

You have just earned yourself "The MetroMan Stimulus Package". Yes, it's a real thing...other stimulus package recipients can attest to this. I will contact you within the next couple of days via email.

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The Loafer v. The Croc v. The Flip Flop

Sadly, The Croc ruled the day...

My gosh...I absolutely hate Crocs! I just want to stomp the hell out of people's feet! Now for women they have croc sandals. WTF? Why. Just why?

Thanks for the submission!

That pretty much does it for this week's mailbag folks! I hope you all have a good weekend. I'll be busy doing a bit of flying. Today, I think I am gonna fly the kids to Ocean City for some beach time. Tomorrow, after washing the plane, I think I will fly over to Annapolis to go to a housewarming/bbq. And Sunday, I'll be flying over to Delaware to meet up with family at the Delaware State Fair.

It should be a fun time, weather permitting.

MetroMan's Pic of the Week (7/24/09)

*sigh*

Thanks to iMetro reader J.M. for this pic!

NTSB Speaks...

The NTSB has released an update from their investigavtive efforts. The malfunctioning circuit that attributed to last's month fatal crash had not be working properly since 2007. It sad to say, but it seems this was an accident waiting to happen...a couple of years in the making.

The Wee-Z bond came back and bit metro in the ass!


This only begs the question, what else is out there that we don't know about? What else is sweptt under a rug, only to be uncovered by tragedy?


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/23/AR2009072301575.html?hpid=topnews

Metro Calling In The Reinforcements!

Day by day, we learn about more faulty track circuits within the metrorail system. Routine track inspections have always been performed, but NOW after the accident, these inspections are now yielding faultering circuits at a rate of tow to four per day, as reported by metro. What were track inspection crews looking for in the past? Who knows!

In order to save face in the public's eye, Metro has announced its plea for help to AIRINC, a company which specializes in communications systems and engineering. Metro is calling on AIRINC to devise a real time train-tracking system. Said system will avoid the need to reduce train speed to a 15mph crawl due to failed and disabled circuits. Malfunctioning circuits have been discovered at locations within the system, including Court House, and Foggy Bottom. Hmmm...I recall those stations being the reported problem point in my recent past...Coincidence? While problematic circuits have been discovered on 4 out of metros 5 lines, "metro says that it is a 'gross exaggeration' to say the problem us widespread." LOL..seriously? Metro's temporary solution to these malfunctioning circuits is to turn them off. That's cool. When I have a sink full of dirty dishes, I simply turn the kitchen light off. Hakuna Mutata.

The Washington Post is reporting that such a backup system will cost millions of dollars. Thats just what we need!

While we're at it, does AIRINC happen to specialize in escalator, and elevator repair?



Or maybe even AIRINC can fix the faregate machine at College Park, which is like playing a real life game of "Press Your Luck". Moving at full speed thru these faregates is a recipe for disaster. ONE of them NEVER works for exiting...and it changes every day. I think the metro station manager does this to mess with us!!




Ok, so AIRINC does communcation stuff, so the two notions above may be a bit of a stretch. But maybe they can also take contro of the e-alert system, which runs in about second place to every blog in the DC area. Yesterday, the e-alert system accidentally sent out alerts from 2003. "Metro says the malfunction in its e-mail notification system for news releases began at 10:45 a.m. Subscribers can expect as many as 300 e-mails sent from "METRO: Press Release" with the subject heading beginning with "Metro News," but linking to news from 2003.

It's a listserv software problem, Metro says, and its IT department is working to fix it."

WTF METRO!?!

Here we go...

Just left silver spring. Train stopped due to "congestion of trains ahead of us". See what I mean?

Sent from my iPhone.  

Metro: it's own soap opera.

Blue and orange lines screwed again today! Broken down train at
Farragut West! Simply amazing! Can we get a day without a huge delay?
Just one...please?

Sent from my iPhone.

Sent to me via Twitter...

http://twitpic.com/b3y0x

"Metro lies about putting obsolete 1000 series cars in the middle of trains - taken this morning at Metro Center "

Tsk Tsk Tsk!!