What a year it has been for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. With just a month to go in 2009, the system suffered yet another train crash on Sunday. This after a year that saw train derailments, system-wide delays and the worst accident in the history of WMATA. The transit agency is also losing ridership, and losing millions of dollars in revenue. For god’s sake, people are killing themselves inside Metrorail stations, which is a really odd, disturbing and all around off-putting thing to have to say.
The latest near tragedy occurred Sunday, when a first year train operator slammed into the back of a parked train at the West Falls Church Metro station rail yard. Three employees were injured. Read Metro’s latest public comments on the investigation. Those workers were lucky. Back in March, at the East Falls Church station, Metro worker Kevin Deiss was struck and killed by a train while on the job. That was an especially bad weekend. Just days prior, a Metro bus driver, Kurtland Johnson, took his own life when he stepped out in front of a train at McPherson Square. In June, Jeanice McMillan was at the helm of train 112 when it slammed into the back of train 214 on the Red Line, killing nine people. Eighty people were injured in the Red Line crash, which prompted a massive investigation and excruciating service delays. All said, it took Metro about three months to get rail service back to normal.
Declining ridership and declining revenue hit Metro especially hard in 2009. One could chalk it up to the ecomony. Like newspapers and media outlets, the agency has suffered greatly from a drop in advertising revenue. Then the June 22 Red Line crash occurred. Metro has been losing ridership ever since. I won’t suggest it’s been scientifically proven that the Red Line crash is what caused a lot of people to stop taking the train. Most news reports hint at the numbers. Metro’s public relation’s team has suggested it could be other factors, like the economy and the rising unemployment rate in the region. Either way, it all adds up to an extremely difficult budget situation, one that could last for the next two fiscal years. Transit officials are already facing a more than 22-million dollar budget shortfall for this fiscal year. Over the summer, Metro General Manager John Cato testified before Congress. Actually, he pleaded with Congress for an infusion of federal dollars. It worked for the transit agency, for the short term. Fare increases are likely to come next. More negative press will likely follow.
Believe me when I say I don’t mean to tie the alarming number of suicides that have occurred inside Metrorail stations to the bleak and battered situation Metro found itself in in 2009. I merely use it as a backdrop, and it is a bleak one. At least nine people have leapt into the paths of oncoming trains at various Metrorail stations in 2009. In September, a 15-year-old boy intentionally placed himself on the tracks as a train came into the Columbia Heights station. That too was a particularly bad week for Metro. Earlier in the week, a man committed suicide at the Gallery Place/Chinatown station. The incidents spurred short-lived news stories about how Metro was going to create a panel of some sort to look into the issue. Metro even talked of some sort of community outreach initiative. What’s really sad about suicide is that it isn’t covered properly in the media. It’s seen as taboo, and what’s more, something that doesn’t affect the listener’s life. Unfortunately, it’s still seen as shameful, something you don’t talk about. Unfortunately, that’s part of the problem, that people don’t talk about it. There are many who believe suicide is a sickness that can be treated, but there are no signs the mainstream media will start covering the issue anytime soon. There certainly aren’t any signs that news bureaus will cease to follow anytime soon the old rule of “We Don’t Cover Suicides”…..that is unless a bridge jumper is tying up traffic on the Capital Beltway. In 2009, suicides held up a lot of traffic on the Metrorail system. If that’s the kind of statement that makes Metro officials stand up, take notice, and really explore suicide prevention, I’m all for it. I’m not counting on it, however.
What a year it has been for Metro. With just one month left in 2009, the transit agency continues to experience major troubles. For the Metro public relations team, the mission continues to be on reassuring the public that their trains and buses are still the safest way to travel. When you add up how many automobile deaths and injuries occur each year in the U.S., public transit agencies still have the numbers on their side. With one month left in 2009, what else could go wrong for Metro? I'm giving it time. A lot can happen in 31 days.
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