After this current storm...

[WMATAGMOAGH]

And now they cancel above ground Metrorail service/all bus service on Sunday too. Not even looking at the logistics of things.


I swear I'm going to move into DC or to the other side of Montgomery County when my lease is up because if these storms happen every winter from here on out, living in Silver Spring will have zero benefits.

I'm obviously not in DC right now (I'm in a city that supposedly shuts down with a dusting of snow and people just start panicing the moment the word "snow" is mentioned in a weather forecast), but from what I am reading online, there are over 2 feet of snow on the ground, hardly anything is open, the roads aren't clear, and hundreds of thousands of people are without power.  Exactly where do you (or anyone else) have to go that is so important that WMATA should be open? 

[LandoverDivision]

And now they cancel above ground Metrorail service/all bus service on Sunday too. Not even looking at the logistics of things.


I swear I'm going to move into DC or to the other side of Montgomery County when my lease is up because if these storms happen every winter from here on out, living in Silver Spring will have zero benefits.

I'm obviously not in DC right now (I'm in a city that supposedly shuts down with a dusting of snow and people just start panicing the moment the word "snow" is mentioned in a weather forecast), but from what I am reading online, there are over 2 feet of snow on the ground, hardly anything is open, the roads aren't clear, and hundreds of thousands of people are without power.  Exactly where do you (or anyone else) have to go that is so important that WMATA should be open? 

Exactly thank you Oren. It's Sunday. The day with the lowest amount of people catching the bus and it's damn near 2 feet of snow outside if not more. There are cars and trucks still sliding everywhere outside. I'm glad WMATA isn't operating today. Buses will slide everywhere, and nobody will be on them.

[Tritransit Area]

Wow DC Area really can't handle snow storms at all, can it?  I just hope you guys are in service for morning rush hour.

Were your crews working through the night to get streets cleared, or did everyone go home and say "we'll wait till the morning?"

[NewFlyer9736BCT]

And now they cancel above ground Metrorail service/all bus service on Sunday too. Not even looking at the logistics of things.


I swear I'm going to move into DC or to the other side of Montgomery County when my lease is up because if these storms happen every winter from here on out, living in Silver Spring will have zero benefits.

I'm obviously not in DC right now (I'm in a city that supposedly shuts down with a dusting of snow and people just start panicing the moment the word "snow" is mentioned in a weather forecast), but from what I am reading online, there are over 2 feet of snow on the ground, hardly anything is open, the roads aren't clear, and hundreds of thousands of people are without power.  Exactly where do you (or anyone else) have to go that is so important that WMATA should be open? 

quoted for truth.

if a snow storm is this bad, it makes plenty of sense to shut down above ground services since most people (hopefully) have common sense and stay home rather than going somewhere not so important. this is why we have weather forecasts, so we can know about this in advance and people can take time to prepare themselves.

now my question is...when will metrobuses and above-ground metrorail be back in service?

[LandoverDivision]

Wow DC Area really can't handle snow storms at all, can it?  I just hope you guys are in service for morning rush hour.

Were your crews working through the night to get streets cleared, or did everyone go home and say "we'll wait till the morning?"

Yeah from what I hear, they cleaned some streets but the problem is since it's Sunday, a lot of streets aren't going to be cleared or close to being cleared until Monday. And Tuesday there is suppose to be another storm. I can handle the snow, but if it's closing schools and things, hey let it be. I ain't mad at them.

[WMATAGMOAGH]

Wow DC Area really can't handle snow storms at all, can it?  I just hope you guys are in service for morning rush hour.

Were your crews working through the night to get streets cleared, or did everyone go home and say "we'll wait till the morning?"

Yeah from what I hear, they cleaned some streets but the problem is since it's Sunday, a lot of streets aren't going to be cleared or close to being cleared until Monday. And Tuesday there is suppose to be another storm. I can handle the snow, but if it's closing schools and things, hey let it be. I ain't mad at them.

The fact it is Sunday has nothing to do with clearing efforts.  The fact there is far more snow on the ground than the DC area is used to handling is an issue. 

Wow DC Area really can't handle snow storms at all, can it?  I just hope you guys are in service for morning rush hour.

Were your crews working through the night to get streets cleared, or did everyone go home and say "we'll wait till the morning?"

SEPTA practically shut down, did it not?  IIRC, the rationale of the new policy for SEPTA is similar to WMATA's.  Even the LIRR is instituting a similar policy.  Now I realize that Philadelphia is better equipped to deal with snow than DC, and there seems to be a lack of coordination between SEPTA and the local jurisdictions, and the day before a huge blizzard isn't really the best time to change your snow policies, but WMATA doesn't seem to be the only TA taking the let's bag it and put ourselves in a position to operate after the storm instead of operating through the storm anymore.  Probably not a bad decision either for major snow events.

[Tritransit Area]

While SEPTA ended up shutting down most services (although all trolley lines and certain RR lines ran until 2PM), everything was up and running for today.  The policy didn't really change so much, except that they would give warning when services were going to be shut down instead of running things until the buses/trains/trolleys couldn't move any longer. 

On the other hand, PATCO, the Atlantic City Line, and the River LINE (between Trenton and Walter Rand TC) all ran.

While I better understand closing things when roads are starting to become impassible, it's disturbing that the transportation network in the DC region is basically shut down for multiple days, save for limited underground Metrorail service.  While the plow came through my side street last night, I'm dismayed that with all of the county systems down there, getting service on at least major routes, especially bus routes, wasn't a priority.  Despite Metrorail being closed above ground for over a day or so, not even limited service could be provided.

But anyway, these days public transportation appears to be a luxury than a die-hard necessity.  There really is no good reason why systems (especially public transportation systems) aren't prepared, being overly overwhelmed by something like this that isn't completely foreign to this region.  Unfortunately, since transportation generally gets the shaft when it comes to funding, we come to situations like these.

[Scrabbleship]

Wow DC Area really can't handle snow storms at all, can it?  I just hope you guys are in service for morning rush hour.

Were your crews working through the night to get streets cleared, or did everyone go home and say "we'll wait till the morning?"

Yeah from what I hear, they cleaned some streets but the problem is since it's Sunday, a lot of streets aren't going to be cleared or close to being cleared until Monday. And Tuesday there is suppose to be another storm. I can handle the snow, but if it's closing schools and things, hey let it be. I ain't mad at them.

If they don't have at least full Metrorail service and some bus service tomorrow, something will be very, very wrong.


For the old-timers here, prior to this winter was there ever a time when the shutdowns were that drastic? Or is this a byproduct of an agency near collapse at a time when DC's had its worst snow season since Colonial times?


I just hope next winter has like a couple good 5-6" snowstorms that don't ruin area transit and have above average temps otherwise.

[Perry]

It's called learn from prior mistakes of sending out buses and have them stuck rather than running anyway.  Other large storms in the late 70's and 80's that I remember as a kid, they'd run the buses and they wouldn't really be on a schedule or rarely show up because they were stuck.  So, keeping them off the streets to give the plows a chance to clean up the main thoroughfares isn't that bad of an idea. 

Enough with the Metro is on the verge of collapse.  They are just taking safety precautions rather than risk accidents and having very spotty at best service.  The jurisdictions, all of them, even precious Arlington, need to just get their acts together and get the roads plowed so people can get back to work tomorrow.

[LandoverDivision]

Isn't also a thing whereas Metro wants to save money because of the massive budget gap? So it's better to save gas and money and stay on the safe side. Again, this is going to force people to do what they should be doing and staying in the house.

[WayneNYC]

I agree with WMATA (and other local systems) shutting down.  It's better to be safe than sorry and it's a situation where people are advised to stay in, and employers were advised to give their emplyees the time off to keep traffic off the roads.  It's pretty rare that buses in NYC have to pull in for inclement weather, but the bus operator are allowed to use their discretion.  In fact they're advised by both management and the union to not proceed into any situation they think may be questionable.  The subway is often not affected for a couple of reasons.  On the el, most of the snow simply fall through to the street and the longest service intervals is 20 min (late night trains) and of course in the tunnels it's not an issue.

[WMATAGMOAGH]

OPM just announced the federal government is closed tomorrow.  Many school systems have already announced they are shut tomorrow, and on Tuesday as well in some cases (when the next snow storm comes through).  My guess is WMATA doesn't think it can be at full speed tomorrow and the local governments won't have things cleared to the point people really need to be out.

Jason, the current snow policy had always been in effect (I have or had a document from 10 years ago almost that calls for all underground service_, but they haven't been implementing it much until now, or we just didn't know about it as much because the internet and social media were not really used in this way.  The last time WMATA tried to run through a storm, it took awhile to come back to full speed, people bitched, and the policy was changed so that service can resume more quickly.  People seem to be accepting the current policies without much complaint, aside from some transit buffs on Subchat, whose opinions aren't really worth much in this case.  WMATA says it can handle any snow up to about 8 inches, and generally does without major problems. 

Brandon, there is very good reason in my opinion the DC transit systems and local governments are not prepared for this sort of thing.  The investment simply would never pay off.  Most years, the DC area simply does not get this much snow over the course of the entire season.  Unless you think having plows and other equipment sitting around for years without use so it can be there for situations like this one is worthwhile, then the governments have made the right move.  (That said, I'm sure if you want to pay for the equipment they currently lack, they will gladly take your money and buy it.)  Obviously, I'm not in the DC area right now, but my parents still do not have power.  Our street is plowed to the pavement right now only because my neighborhood has a contractor that plows our streets for us instead of the county, but in a storm like this, it is more likely than not that my parents could drive to the end of our street and then be confronted by conditions on the main roads worse than those in our neighborhood.  The governments don't even have all the major roads clear right now and won't until the end of the day today.  Whether running transit is a concern of the local governments isn't even a question that can be asked at this point in my opinion since it is simply impossible to have cleared this much snow by this time with the equipment that the governments have in their possession.

I should add for everyone's benefit to get an idea of how large a storm this is, in 2007, Ithaca, NY got about 2 feet of snow in 24 hours and everything there shut down.  Why does anyone expect a place like DC to handle this much snow if Ithaca and other Upstate New York locales are shut down under those circumstances?

[Perry]

I thought I heard somewhere yesterday that New Jersey was running out of salt. It's definitely not a DC area thing where there is a problem getting things cleared out.  It's not worth the liability to send people out in dangerous conditions to take a chance riding on a bus that is going to have problems, just to set themselves up for people to complain that the bus wasn't reliable.

[Scrabbleship]

I know most people here see Twitter as a joke and it's 99.98% people who don't know the inner workings of  transit agencies, but the reaction to the latest news (no change in rail initially tomorrow, limited bus service) is VERY anti-Metro. Some samples.

• "#WMATA FAIL! Only underground rail service? Limited bus? How can a major east coast city function without mass transit?"
• "No above ground wmata service tomorrow. I actually wanted to go into the office. Ugh."
• "Really confused why it has been over 24 hours since @wmata last provided an update on status of DC Metro. #snOMG"
• "WTF @wmata I need to know if I'll be able to make it to work tomorrow"
• "I wish #wmata would make a decision about tomorrow. Either way I think it will be easier to walk to work than take #metrofail."
• "Hey! Look! @wmata finally stopped drinking long enough to tell us what they are doing tomorrow (link to press release)"
• "WTF with the no above-ground service even on Monday, @wmata!?! Fer reals?"

[never mind that the official Metro twitter feed is @metroopensdoors, but still...]


I'm lucky that my job syncs to OPM, however most people want some element of normalcy in their lives and with another 5-8 inches due Tuesday night I think things might only get worse. So many Northeners moved to DC for a reason: to see less snow. Heaven help this isn't just El Nino.

[Annex4421]

I know most people here see Twitter as a joke and it's 99.98% people who don't know the inner workings of  transit agencies, but the reaction to the latest news (no change in rail initially tomorrow, limited bus service) is VERY anti-Metro. Some samples.

• "#WMATA FAIL! Only underground rail service? Limited bus? How can a major east coast city function without mass transit?"
• "No above ground wmata service tomorrow. I actually wanted to go into the office. Ugh."
• "Really confused why it has been over 24 hours since @wmata last provided an update on status of DC Metro. #snOMG"
• "WTF @wmata I need to know if I'll be able to make it to work tomorrow"
• "I wish #wmata would make a decision about tomorrow. Either way I think it will be easier to walk to work than take #metrofail."
• "Hey! Look! @wmata finally stopped drinking long enough to tell us what they are doing tomorrow (link to press release)"
• "WTF with the no above-ground service even on Monday, @wmata!?! Fer reals?"

[never mind that the official Metro twitter feed is @metroopensdoors, but still...]


I'm lucky that my job syncs to OPM, however most people want some element of normalcy in their lives and with another 5-8 inches due Tuesday night I think things might only get worse. So many Northeners moved to DC for a reason: to see less snow. Heaven help this isn't just El Nino.

The only thing this shows me is how dumb, stupid, and ignorant people are how is WMATA gonna run buses if the rodas aren't clear, and at least most of them who down here in southeast have the A's running so they're in luck. Buses won't return to normal until things clear out people are acting like spoiled kids about this. And most of Schools, Govenment Buildings are closed so why is people even fussing about it for?