Every once in a while, we get a number of really good e-mails. I like to put them together in a little something called Mailbag Monday. The common theme here is that all these e-mails involve Metro.

Steve writes: “I agree (as does, I believe Council member Graham,) that requiring the use of SmarTrip cards for bus riders is unfair and misguided. As you point out, many of the bus riders may not even have credit cards. In addition, they do not all use Metrorail; currently Metrorail stations are the most convenient way of purchasing SmarTrip cards; WMATA has made vague statements about putting SmarTrip machines in grocery stores, etc., but talk is cheap.

“The majority of Metrobus riders do not also use Metrorail as well. There is nothing wrong with continuing to make SmarTrip cards as one method of paying bus fares, but cash should always be an alternate option, as it is in most other major transit systems both in the U.S. and abroad. (Even 2 years ago, most Metrobuses were still not outfitted to accept SmarTrip.)”

Md. stops must improve

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The first part of Howard’s comment in response to the impact of the proposed fare hikes got edited down to just about nothing last week because of space limitations. Nevertheless, I think he also says that local board representatives need to be held more accountable: “MD officials should demand that if there is to be any increase in fares for MD riders, the service is going to have to be significantly improved. Specifically, every train at rush hour should go all the way out to Shady Grove so we don’t have a situation where half the trains (stopping at Grosvenor) leave from D.C. half full while those going to the end of the Red Line are jam packed to the point that people can’t get on and off at their stops.

“Further, Shady Grove needs additional access to the train platform from the entry gates. For a station that carries multiple times as many people as stations like Rockville and White Flint, Shady Grove has the same access (one escalator for each direction, one set of stairs and one elevator) as many stations that serve far fewer riders. It is common to have situations where it can take 5-10 minutes just to get from the train to downstairs. Sometimes people from one train are still waiting to get down when another train pulls in to offload its passengers. Passengers from the second train can’t get off because the platform is still too crowded with people from the previous train trying to get downstairs to the gates. If Shady Grove riders are going to be asked to pay the highest public transportation fares in the country they should receive much, much better service than they are currently receiving.”

Questions, comments, random musings? Write to Steve@SprawlandCrawl.com.