DC Metro Interconnects

"Keith A. Glass" wrote:

On 23 Mar 2004 23:27:46 -0500, "Keith F. Lynch"
wrote:

John R Cambron * wrote:
If you had read the media reports you would have learned that WMATA
did an audit and found it was losing thousands of dollars from
pilferage by the employees that worked for the contractor that was
operating the parking lots.

Millions. There are, of course, ways to prevent such pilferage that
don't involve abolishing cash. Safeway seems to manage it.

You REALLY expect the DC Metro system to implement a RATIONAL,
CONSUMER-DRIVEN system ?

You must be on some really GREAT drugs. . . .The same DC Metro that,
until recently, kept its' bathrooms locked, and is locking them again

The restrooms on the WMATA metrorail were never intended for use
by the public. I have no trouble with them being closed to the
public.

--
================================================== ====================
Ever wanted one of these John R Cambron
http://205.130.220.18/~cambronj/wmata/ or Hebron MD USA
http://www.chesapeake.net/~cambronj/wmata/
================================================== ====================

You may pay cash for a BigBrother cards, but I have to wonder what
data the system keeps on hand about its use, ergo your activities.
So when the cop stops you and demands itc...what does it say? Or
the market I see: divorce lawyers.

All the times/dates/stops you have made? Just the last 20?

John Poindexter must be proud.

And while we can still use farecards today, it sounds like it
will not be for long. Bus transfers are vanishing soon.

As for the parking lots, it sounds to me like Metro's sudden about
face really is to reduce their embarrasment. There are many parking
lots that handle cash; it's not exactly rocket science to keep the
shinkage rate down to a reasonable percentage.

Note there is another "minor" change they've announced. The
"free" hours for parking have been vastly reduced.

--
A host is a host from coast to
& no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX
Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433

David Lesher wrote:
You may pay cash for a BigBrother cards, but I have to wonder what
data the system keeps on hand about its use, ergo your activities.
So when the cop stops you and demands itc...what does it say?

I've never had a SmarTrip card. But I doubt it contains any
information a regular farecard doesn't. The only reason I haven't
gotten one is because I don't want to spend an extra five dollars.
And because I haven't yet used up the several $44 farecards I bought
for $40 each on the last day before they eliminated the 10% bonus.

I might eventually buy one, as I'm tired of farecards being ruined by
the rain, and of having to go to Metro Center once a year or so to
trade in all my ruined farecards and farecards with a few cents left
on them, while putting up with the lecture about what a big one-time
favor they're doing me by letting me do this.

And while we can still use farecards today, it sounds like it will
not be for long. Bus transfers are vanishing soon.

Where did you hear that?
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.

John R Cambron * wrote:
The restrooms on the WMATA metrorail were never intended for use by
the public. I have no trouble with them being closed to the public.

Nor do I. However, plenty of people do.

If they were required to spend millions to make every station usable
to the blind and to wheelchair users, why not spend thousands to make
every station usable by people with weak bladders, which are far more
common than wheelchairs or blindness?
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.

John R Cambron * wrote:
Greenbelt

If you had gone further south along the access road you would have
ended up on Cherry Lane, ...

Yes, I found it eventually.

Going north down the pedestrian tunnel that leads to the MARC
platforms on the north side of the CSX tracks is the Hollywood
section of Collage Park.

Yes, I've gone out that way at least a hundred times. It's very
straightforward. I'm immediately at the end of Lackawanna Street.
(Every road in that neighborhood is named for a railroad.)

But when I need to get to Greenbelt proper, rather than Beltsville or
College Park, I have to exit the station in the opposite direction,
and brave the parking lots. There's no way to get to Greenbelt proper
via Lackawanna Street without walking miles out of my way, either up
to Sunnyside or down to Greenbelt Road to cross the rail line. (Metro
ends there, but another rail line continues north.)
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.

"Keith F. Lynch" writes:

David Lesher wrote:
You may pay cash for a BigBrother cards, but I have to wonder what
data the system keeps on hand about its use, ergo your activities.
So when the cop stops you and demands itc...what does it say?

I've never had a SmarTrip card. But I doubt it contains any
information a regular farecard doesn't. The only reason I haven't
gotten one is because I don't want to spend an extra five dollars.
And because I haven't yet used up the several $44 farecards I bought
for $40 each on the last day before they eliminated the 10% bonus.

Well, I'd bet otherwise...

I might eventually buy one, as I'm tired of farecards being ruined by
the rain, and of having to go to Metro Center once a year or so to
trade in all my ruined farecards and farecards with a few cents left
on them, while putting up with the lecture about what a big one-time
favor they're doing me by letting me do this.

Been there, done that. I too have a BigBrother card, but only to
suck in the 15-25c farecard leftovers.

And while we can still use farecards today, it sounds like it will
not be for long. Bus transfers are vanishing soon.

Where did you hear that?

The WMATA PR pages have been full of various "trials" of this and
I recall somewhere in there is the "eventually" aspect.

--
A host is a host from coast to
& no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX
Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433

"Keith F. Lynch" wrote:

John R Cambron * wrote:
The restrooms on the WMATA metrorail were never intended for use by
the public. I have no trouble with them being closed to the public.

Nor do I. However, plenty of people do.

If they were required to spend millions to make every station usable
to the blind and to wheelchair users, why not spend thousands to make
every station usable by people with weak bladders, which are far more
common than wheelchairs or blindness?

If you build restrooms and open them to all, some one has to be
paid to keep them clean. WMATA is in the business of moving
commuters not facilitating commuters.

--
================================================== ====================
Ever wanted one of these John R Cambron
http://205.130.220.18/~cambronj/wmata/ or Hebron MD USA
http://www.chesapeake.net/~cambronj/wmata/
================================================== ====================

David Lesher wrote:

You may pay cash for a BigBrother cards, but I have to wonder what
data the system keeps on hand about its use, ergo your activities.
So when the cop stops you and demands itc...what does it say? Or
the market I see: divorce lawyers.

All the times/dates/stops you have made? Just the last 20?

John Poindexter must be proud.

And while we can still use farecards today, it sounds like it
will not be for long. Bus transfers are vanishing soon.

Huh?? how so? You mean ONLY smartrip users will get free
bus transfers? You can't be serious.

As for the parking lots, it sounds to me like Metro's sudden about
face really is to reduce their embarrasment. There are many parking
lots that handle cash; it's not exactly rocket science to keep the
shinkage rate down to a reasonable percentage.

Note there is another "minor" change they've announced. The
"free" hours for parking have been vastly reduced.

Brian Robinson OR Carol Goter Robinson OR Bill Robinson writes:

And while we can still use farecards today, it sounds like it
will not be for long. Bus transfers are vanishing soon.

Huh?? how so? You mean ONLY smartrip users will get free
bus transfers? You can't be serious.


http://www.wmata.com/about/met_news/...m?ReleaseID=88
June 13, 2003

Metro plans to eliminate the $0.85 discount rail-to-bus
paper transfer, but only after installation of the new
SmarTrip fareboxes on all buses in the Washington region is
complete. Metro expects to have its entire fleet of Metrobuses
retrofitted with the new SmarTrip fareboxes by the end of
2003, and the region?s buses by summer 2004.
--
A host is a host from coast to
& no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX
Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433

On 24 Mar 2004 23:03:44 -0500, "Keith F. Lynch"
wrote:

And because I haven't yet used up the several $44 farecards I bought
for $40 each on the last day before they eliminated the 10% bonus.

Tha amounts on those cards transfer easily to the SmartCard.

-- Larry