Is Metro Bleeding Millions from Parking?

Photo via thisisbossi

Yes, says a tipster:

Metro has quietly eliminated dozens of parking attendant jobs without notice. The first 20 or so jobs located at Green Line stations, attendants were dismissed in early June. The second wave of 20 or more attendants were dismissed on the Red Line, in late June. The Orange and Blue lines are next.

The attendants are being replaced by electronic “parking attendant” machines, which are video/credit card machines. Gates can be opened and closed remotely, at an understaffed “command center” located on the basement floor of their headquarters building. The center is currently staffed with four employees, working two shifts to answer customer’s issues.

The system is unable to handle multiple calls. From just one station customers can call multiple times during the day. The parking attendant machines are in 35 stations resulting in thousands of calls.

Also the machines are not designed to collect revenue. For example, when a customer comes to the gate without a SmarTrip card, it was the attendant that directed the customer back to the station to purchase one, or directed the customer to pay with a credit card, or issued an NPIR (Non-Payer Identification Report) commonly know as a “promise to pay” where the customer sends the payment on a later date. (Hundreds of these are issued every day. Metro only receives two to three percent of the payments, as they have no staff to follow-up.).

Now, at the command center for the electronic parking attendants, someone simply pushes a button and allows the customer to go free, because they have no way to collect revenue. They cannot send the customer back because they cannot conduct traffic control from the command center as there may be customers lined up to exit, so the customers are allowed to leave without paying.

Thus the real attendant was instrumental in assisting in revenue collection efforts for Metro. In addition the attendant also alerted Metro when gates were broken (allowing customers to park free) or systems were down. The parking attendant machines have no video capabilities beyond seeing the driver in the car.

To add the electronic parking attendants, Metro has spent a whopping $150,000.00-$200,000.00 per station using two contractors. They plan to recoup this money by increasing the parking rate (which was done July 1) and lowering operational budget projections.

The newly appointed director of operations has ordered this change. By the way, he was also overseeing parking during the mismanagement in 2003 that allowed millions of dollars to be stolen from parking revenue.

Metro also allows millions to go uncollected by allowing vehicles to be parked in the facilities for days and only paying the daily current rate. Metro has no ability to determine how long you have been there and charges you a flat rate even if you’ve been parked for days. Many customers are aware of this and use Metro facilities as storage for their vehicles. Simply leave before 10:30 a.m. or after midnight, and it’s free! Go to any station at 11:45 p.m., and you will find cars lines up waiting for the gates to go up.

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Honey Manager Don't Care

From anonymous:

Metro has annoying issues, hot cars, delays, malfunctions, off-boarding, buses not showing up, etc., but in general, I am grateful to have public transit since I do not own a car. Metro is how I get to and from work, as well as participate in other activities.

As of late, there has been a serious uptick in crime in the Mount Vernon Triangle/Chinatown neighborhood and at the Chinatown Metro.

I have felt very unsafe and have contacted the general police - who never show when I call.

The other night, I witnessed a particularly disturbing incident at the Chinatown Metro after the Nationals game.

It was around 10:30 p.m. There were a lot of people (since this is a major transfer point), and as I came off the train, I saw an altercation taking place on one of the escalators.

People were screaming for Metro police, and a few gentleman were trying to hold two juveniles who appeared to have attempted to rob somebody. The two juveniles were throwing punches, but the good citizens were not standing down.

People continued to scream for police, but none showed up.

So I ran to the other side - also screaming for help and prompting others to try and get help - and went to the vestibule at the 7th and H St. exit.

There were two gentleman there, and what happened next cannot be expressed through a message.

I conveyed what happened (other people were there, too) and asked why these things keep happening. I asked what they were doing about it?

One of the gentleman began to chastise me, tried to intimidate me, and belittled me. The other followed suit.

I was upset and conveyed how I felt unsafe.

To say they were unkind would be an understatement.

I exited through the gates and went to the front of the vestibule. A name plate said "Station Manager on Duty" with the name "A. Harris" listed.

I asked one of the gentleman who A. Harris was, and he asked why I needed to know.

I told him it was because that was who was listed as the station manager on duty, and I wanted to know who was responsible.

He told me I didn't need to know that information and then proceeded to call transit police on me - to scare me off.

The transit police did not show up, and I left realizing how futile this all was.

I submitted a formal complaint through Metro and called Transit Police myself the next morning to relay the incident and ask why there weren't several transit police visibly present when they knew there was a large sporting event. Chinatown is a problem station and a busy transfer point, particularly after games.

The response I got was "Just like you can't be all places at all time neither can our people."

That is unacceptable.

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Mayor Gray blasts Metro (Foreign Policy)