Alex

Local transportation enjoyer and advocate

[Alex @dctranspotwt]

@maustermuhle Would be more a tourist attraction than an efficient transit system unfortunately. BRT on key bridge is still the way!

[Alex @dctranspotwt]

@ShawnChittle @wmata They won’t break again, they already “broke” yesterday night. Sorry for the confusion

[Alex @dctranspotwt]

@ShawnChittle @wmata Schedules and GTFS feeds got refreshed tonight at 12am, even though block IDs from the previous day are still running. Unfortunately this leads to a few hours where buseta (and sometimes other apps) go dark for bus tracking

[Alex @dctranspotwt]

@girardi_matt WMATA rejected it because they (rightfully) wanted a regional approach to fares. I believe they had no issue making the bus free, but they wanted the buy in from all jurisdictions in the service area.

[Alex @dctranspotwt]

@wmataGM This is a very simple but very thoughtful change. Really like it!

[Alex @dctranspotwt]

@wmata The addition of maps is very very helpful to understand the detours. Please keep doing this in the future!

Could you all also add this change to GTFS feeds, busETA, and MetroPulse?

[Alex @dctranspotwt]

@PYZC773 Definitely one of the best ideas. Even better if you fully deinterline BL via Rosslyn 2 and make the whole line automated with 4-car trains running every 2-5 mins. Would dramatically cut station costs and still keep most capacity. Only problem is likely needing a new railyard.

[Alex @dctranspotwt]

@fvigeland @councilofdc @brookepintodc From what I heard this could easily be added back later if DC gets the necessary funding. Def unfortunate though

[Alex @dctranspotwt]

@DCCarViolence Huge if true

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

BART spent $90 million on new fare gates. They're recovering about $10 million a year in fares.

That's a 9-year payback on paper. The actual return hit in six months.

Embarcadero station went from 112 hours of corrective maintenance in the six months before installation to 2 hours after. Daly City saved 109. Balboa Park saved 75. Across the system, 961 hours of cleanup work disappeared. Corrective maintenance is the term BART uses for graffiti, heavy soiling, vandalism, the damage that needs a crew not a janitor. At several stations it dropped to zero.

Crime fell 41% year over year. Riders who reported seeing fare evasion on their trip dropped from 22% to 10%. Citations issued by BART police went from 2,200 in January to under 1,000 in July, because there was nothing to cite.

The gates were a filtering project disguised as a revenue project.

Old BART gates were waist-high orange fins designed in the 1970s. You could hop them in under a second. That made the station effectively a public space, and the rider mix reflected that. The new gates are 72 inches of polycarbonate with 3D sensors that detect tailgating. You either pay or you don't enter. Once you don't enter, you also don't smoke on the platform, sleep in the elevator, or harass other riders.

BART tried hiring more police for years. Blitz operations at high-traffic stations. Increased patrols. Dedicated transit cops. None of it moved the numbers the way six feet of polycarbonate did.

The $10 million in recovered fares is the smallest line in the return. Fare revenue used to cover 70% of BART operations. After the pandemic it collapsed to 22%. The gates won't fix that gap directly. They fix the precondition for fixing it: a system that office workers, families, and tourists are willing to use again. Ridership growth at stations with new gates outpaced ungated ones before the rollout finished.

A $400 million annual deficit is heading to voters in November as a sales tax measure. Voters don't approve sales taxes for transit agencies they don't feel safe in. The $90 million on gates is buying BART the right to ask the public for more money.

That's the real return on six feet of polycarbonate.

[Alex @dctranspotwt]

@WMATASoldier @GreatLaya @crocsinwinter I think it was supposed to be Noma but not sure

[Alex @dctranspotwt]

@WMATASoldier Woah, thats really surprising (in a good way)

[Alex @dctranspotwt]

@kevinamezaga @Aden_Yacobi If the current budget proposal goes through, the C91 will be upgraded to 20 minute all-day frequency, seven days per week starting late June/early July

[Alex @dctranspotwt]

@CommissionerTRS @wmata @wmataGM Definitely painful. I believe the sign change happens automatically after the bud leaves. The driver cannot push a button to make the sign change sooner. I would check transit app/busETA and match the 4 digit vehicle number w/ upcoming departures if you want to be sure.

[Alex @dctranspotwt]

@a_r_marshall @wmata @SarahMeyerDC Absolutely!

[Alex @dctranspotwt]

@AdamTuss These are attrocious and unsafe conditions, basically impassable for elderly persons. I believe this is @VaDOTNOVA jurisdiction because it is U.S. 50.

[Alex @dctranspotwt]

@aaKravetz @wmata Station managers (the ones inside the booth) are specifically told not to confront fare evaders for safety reasons, as their job isn’t fare enforcement. Only Metro Transit Police (MTPD) enforces fare evasion.

[Tom Roussey @tomroussey7news]

It's possible winter weather will affect Metrobus service tomorrow morning. Metro says you can check whether your route is affected here: https://t.co/v2Nhs8IY5l #wmata

[Alex @dctranspotwt]

WMATA's upcoming bus service changes are out (starts Dec 14). https://t.co/GYj4OtXQJC