You make the call (Metrorail-related)

[Scrabbleship]

A packed 6-car Red Line train towards Glenmont was offloaded due to people crowding the doors (why is DC the one city with a door crowding problem!) at Metro Center in the height of rush hour onto an already packed platform. Though the train had been a bit gimpy earlier on and fell behind schedule, the way the T/O handled this was the absolutely jerkiest way he could have done so by pulling the "blame the passenger" card. It did not help matters that his train just stood there for a good 5 minutes which led to a conga line of Glenmont/Silver Spring trains going through afterwards.

If you were in his spot, with a crowded train behind schedule, what would you have done? Offloaded up the line? Run express through the core to make up for lost time? Have tried to make the run anyway? Did what he did and contributed to a crowding hazard but not have been a jerk about it? I was on that train and I can only say that behavior like this only adds fuel to the flames that are circling around Metro and that offloading at Metro Center in the middle of PM rush is one of those things that should not be done? Any agree.

This is only going to make more content for UnsuckDCMetro...

[btconet]

AFAIK, Operators don't make the call, but a command center.

So the call lies with them.

You say he did this in the "jerkiest way" but was he excessively unprofessional in how he announced the situation, given people's natural tendencies to want to ignore instructions given?

[Scrabbleship]

Whoever at the command center who decided that offloading a train at Metro Center in PM Rush with an already crowded platform is someone whose job seriously needs to be evaluated. The crowding there yesterday was bordering on hazardous; I've seen crowds after other big events (Caps/Nats/Wizards games, 4th of July, Marine Corps Marathon) be less of a hazard as what I saw yesterday. Also, it's the location and the timing that is just adding fuel to the fire. If this happened, say, at Judiciary Square, it'd be less of a hazard.

As for the T/O, just his conduct and demeanor in the "stop-crowding-the-doors-or-I'll-offload" semi-idle threat way probably earned him a lot of enemies and puts it on the passengers and passes the buck from the command center. He isn't the first one that has tried to pull that, one day last Spring there was a fire at Van Ness the same day as a Caps playoff game and a T/O on a more packed train gave the same idle threat...at Cleveland Park. I can't think of any other system who threatens crush loaded trains with offloading, I really can't.

Now comes word that said train was having power problems (it crawled at like 20 mph between Grosvenor and Pooks Hill portal) and Metro Center is where its last straw was. If a train's having problems like that over 10 miles north on the route, it should've been offloaded/parked at a siding far earlier. Van Ness or Farragut North would have been a good place to empty-and-bail if the problem was that bad.

[Tristan]

I would need John or someone with a track map to call in on this...but the call for a train to turn back is best made somewhere where the train can turn back quickly, without being on the wrong track too long, so you want to do it at a station where there's a crossover close by, and where you will delay the fewest trains by making the crossover move (keeping in mind that you need to occupy *both* directions for a period of time.

A good controller would analyze the situation and find the best gap between trains in both directions somewhere near where there is a crossover.  Not sure if that's the case with Metro Center, though I do suspect it to be so.  Also, I'm not sure if Central could dial into the station cameras and see what the crowd situation is, but I'm also thinking that would be a better station because if the crowds got crazy, they could back into the transfer portal or something before people spill off the edge, whereas at Judiciary Sq, they could only back up to the wall.

[Tritransit Area]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is "offloading"?

[Scrabbleship]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is "offloading"?

An alternate term for unloading.

[Tritransit Area]

But....why would someone unload a train when are no safety issues on board?  "People crowding the doors" is a pathetic excuse....

[Scrabbleship]

But....why would someone unload a train when are no safety issues on board?  "People crowding the doors" is a pathetic excuse....

Because many Metrorail employees are tricks with grudges who see their train as a temporary rolling dictatorship of hundreds (or over a thousand if an packed 8-car deal) on rails and can put a train movement on them.

As much as SEPTA is in constant near-strike situations, they'd have expressed or have been honest about a power problem.

[Tritransit Area]

Hmm....TWU Local 234 called an immediate strike at 3AM this morning when people thought that they weren't going to strike and that negotiations were going well.  They received an offer that would make anyone in this economy jealous.  This strike is effecting thousands of workers who are struggling to make ends meet.

Back on topic.  I don't understand what you mean by "power issues", but if crowding and train bunching was such an issue, I'd make the "The next stop for this train is ____.  This train will NOT be stopping at ___, ___, or ____.  There is a train behind me that will make these stops." *repeat*

Of course, that's what I'd instruct the operator to do if I had the grand job of being a controller in the WMATA system.

[Tristan]

Again with the details: if this train is needed somewhere right now, or needs to be pulled out of service, or whatever...it can't be trailing and limping along behind another train. 

If you sent a train to skip stops, it would actually have to make those stops anyway because it would catch up with the next train and have to stop whenever that train does.  Not like we have express tracks where a skip-stop train can pass in-service trains.

[Tritransit Area]

Ah, but I was under the assumption that the train that needed to be "offloaded" was significantly behind schedule, whereas  the train in front was numerous "blocks" ahead.  I was thinking that the offending train, with passengers, needed to speed up to get to its proper space along the line.

Now if it was broken for some reason, that's another story...

But, as you mentioned, the details are really lacking...you need more details in order to make the appropriate call.

[mrpete]

Unlike some NFL "officials"!

[WMATAGMOAGH]

The train can't move if they don't have a doors closed signal from all the train cars.  It doesn't matter where the train is when that happens.  Sometimes, the problem is simply a few too many people trying to squeeze on when they shouldn't, and there really isn't a problem, so they can put the train back in service just a station or two down the line.  Other times, there is a mechanical issue and the train is pulled entirely.  In either case, operating a train with doors cut out is very dangerous and requires the train not be in service.  You can see if your train reentered service or not by looking at the disruption reports on Metro's website.

Hate to say it, but WMATA controllers made the right call here.  As for the operator being rude, if he or she was, that is unfortunate.