Passing the Suck

Ever noticed how often there are train malfunctions to start off rush hours?

A very reliable Metro source shed some light as to why that happens.

Apparently, a rail yard like West Falls Church is expected to have and report a certain number of cars ready for revenue service each morning. With West Falls, it's 144 cars, the source said.

The source said that a lot of times, just before the trains are set to roll out for revenue, a train might call the tower and report, for example, a last-minute propulsion problem with one or more of the cars.

According to the source, the yard will--incredibly--OK that train to go out for revenue just so West Falls (or any of the other yards) can make its morning number to report to downtown.

"The tower will say 'call it in when you get to East Falls Church,'" the source said. "Once it goes on the mainline, it's not [the yard's] problem any more."

Then, the source said, "the sh*t goes down; that's why you get trains going down very first thing in the morning."

"Metro is a kingdom, and there are all these little fiefdoms. You all live under the king, but [your fiefdom] is your domain. You collect taxes. You rule that area. You don't come in my area. I don't come into yours. Nobody cares about the final result. It isn't about making sure everything runs the best it can. It's all about [making sure] the blame doesn't come back on you. There's no 'this is what we're trying to achieve.' They're trying to achieve something different from what the guys downtown are. This place is about screwing over someone else. Sarles and these guys are insulated from this."

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