Protesters who attended Saturday’s Tea Party rally in Washington found a new reason to be upset: Apparently they are unhappy with the level of service provided by the subway system.
Rep. Kevin Brady called for a government investigation into whether the government-run subway system adequately prepared for this weekend’s rally to protest government spending and government services.
Seriously.
Please note that the above item is from the Wall Street Journal, that complete communist-socialist-Hawaiian rag.
I’ll type slowly, so conservatives can follow along.
Anti-government protesters and their supporters are complaining about a government service that delivered them to their anti-government protest.
It’s exactly like what happened to the barefoot soldiers at Valley Forge, except the soldiers at Valley Forge couldn’t go home and stock up on frozen meatballs at a Wal-Mart in suburban Virginia.
(Props to Eschaton.)
So basically the anti-government people wanted the DC city government to add extra runs for them? And the government should be prepared for them and do extra stuff? lmao
I wonder if DC Metro was still having operators recuperating from the inaugaration, where they were running peak service pretty much all day, carrying about 1 million people. Now the estimates on how many were there varies. Protesters say millions, DC Fire Department, which is a taxpayer funded service, that has to be ready to respond if something goes wrong at these events, to treat the injured if there is a brawl or stampede, said it was more like less than 100,000. If the DC Fire Department was right, I think Saturday service would have been sufficient. Plus, people from Texas used to either driving, or taking DART(Dallas Area Rapid Transit, which by the way just opened the first phase of there new Green Line), are probably not used to DC Metro’s system. I wasn’t when I was there. Took me a little bit to figure out the system, and they don’t even have our Ticket Vending Machines where you punch in the destination. You have to insert the farecard into the entry gate, and again when you exit the system and it deducts the fare. DC Metro has a bunch of old equipment, old rolling stock, partially forced to continue running due to AIG insuring a bad sale and lease back scheme, and old fare machines.
You missed that they’re calling for a GOVERNMENT INVESTIGATION — which means 1) we’re paying for it and either A) they trust the government enough to believe its investigation into why they shouldn’t trust the government or B) whatever results from an investigation would be distrusted as government-produced-lies and would require a further government investigation to resolve.
I’m going with B.
So in the final analysis, you’ve just highlighted that government can’t run a subway system that caters towards its ridership and therefore, that same government surely isn’t capable of handing something as vital, personal and sizable as the health care system and catering to its consumers. Thanks for clearing that up Jon.
It’s called the “Quality of care”, stupid. And Government provides low quality and “don’t” care.
ESO has it right. You, and apparently Atrios, are behind the curve, DeVore.
With parking an autmobile anywhere near The Mall even more discouraged than it is in downtown Seattle, people wishing to express an opinion are forced to either rent very cost prohibited buses or take public transit.
And because said transit system has accommodated anti-Bush protesters in the past it is relatively easy to discern that the management of said system is either incompetent or sought to discourage anti-Democrat protests (with the former being most likely).
And whether you want to admit it or not, you all would be doing the same calling for an investigation if the problem had cropped up during the Obama Inaguration.
. Empty Suit Obama spews:
Excellent ESO. Tip of my cap to you to Jon!
So Jon, are you one of those KLOWNS that feels government ought to be prepared when they have months of advance notice?? Perhaps the LEFTIST DC krowd intentionally made it difficult for protestors?? Naaah, no conspiracy. I’ll go with INCOMPETENCE!
uhhhhh.. These right wing morons are so tedious…
@6
Cynical is still so very stupid…
I demand DC Metro spend more on Government services (police, metro, fire) so I can protest government spending.
Done and Done. (It’s the hypocracy stupid!)
The rest of your lunacy is noted, but irrelevent.
Or could it be that the protesters actually relied on their own/public transportation to get to the events, rather than being bussed and transported by Union orginizers and busses.
i’m not saying i agree with the protestors, but there’s a difference between government spending locally and government spending nationally. clearly they’re of the opinion that DC doesn’t spend enough on metro – that may not be the same thing in their minds as spending too much at the federal level.
just playin’ devil’s advocate
I just love how when one of the crazy train engineers stops his car in front of the lunatic troll platform, they all climb aboard.
If it is indeed true that any publicly owned and operated health insurance plan is absolutely and inevitably bound to provide “low quality and don’t care”, then how in the world is it going to manage to drive under all of the private competition, consigning poor ol’ JCH to spend the remainder of his days in a – GASP – public mental institution?
Which is it going to be? A superior form of health insurance that consumers and providers flock to, thus driving the private insurance giants into ruin?
Or a miserable, socialistic experiment characterized by prolonged waits for services, indifferent bureaucrats-for-life, and insufferable waste and fraud, leaving us to wonder who in their right mind would choose it?
Typical Conservatives. They demand services from organizations they are trying tooth and nail to destroy. Hypocrites.
Okay Leftist Pinheads,
Show Puddy where we conservatives tried to destroy DC Mass Transit Google “Republicans try to destroy WA DC Mass Transit”.
And show Puddy where DC Police allowed the “Tea Party protesters” to drive their way to the Capitol Mall.
Since you all are stepping up to the plate to comment, put your mouth where your fingers went.
DC Metro, considering it’s unique circumstances, is a pretty well run system. I am not sure if it has any dedicated funding, and has to deal with 2 state governments, and a City Government that although elected, has few rights, and can be over-ruled by Congress. The Metro was originally opposed by President Eisenhower, same President who started the Interstate Highway System. By the way, some of the people who use it work at the Pentagon.
As I said, I wonder how many came from Houston, or Dallas, where they only have Light Rail. DC Metro is heavy rail, like the New York Subway, the CTA, MARTA(Atlanta), the Miami-Dade Metro, LA Red Line(despite the stigma of being the Subway from HE!!, it gets decent ridership). The Metro has had some problems lately. Too much trust in Automated Train Control led to a fatal accident a few months ago, and the Metro has all trains manually operated right now, as a precaution. Turns out the train that hit the other one did not know there was a stopped train in the track block ahead, so the system did not stop it. The operator tried to hit the emergency brake, but on the DC Red Line, during Peak HOurs, it’s not possible to stop in time. It runs on a frequency of 2-4 minutes.
As for Conservatives trying to block or destroy rail, let’s see, Minneapolis(Hiawatha Light Rail was built only due to forceful support from Governor Jesse Ventura, but he was not perfect. Station platforms were too short, now being lengthened to accomodate longer trains), Houston(Rep. DeLay fought Houston building Light Rail, which did get built, voter approved expansion now underway, after getting around Tom DeLay’s delaying tactics), but not all Conservatives are against transit. Salt Lake City, Phoenix(although not sure about their senior senator’s position on it), San Diego, have all built rail transit in recent years. In Canada, 2 Light Rail operations were built in one of the most Conservative provinces, Alberta. The Progressive Conservatives(the name for the Provincial Conservative party in Alberta) have been in government in the provincial government in Edmonton for 40 years now. Plus being Canada’s oil province, it has an added benefit, less gas consumption in Calgary and Edmonton, more oil to sell in the rest of Canada, and the world, more royalties for the province.(The C-Train goes one step further, uses wind-generated electricity to power the trains).
I have the feeling many on the left don’t understand conservative principles.
Less government is about less FEDERAL government.
If my city council votes to do something I disagree with, I can speak in front of them and address all of them.
I can’t do that with my federal government. Best case, I can let my local federal politician know my views.
Local government actually lives in the area they govern over so they have a vested interest in their decisions. What does some congress critter from florida care about my neighborhood issues.
I would not mind seeing a Federal Recomendation(not a standard) on rail procurement. Mandates would not work because of unique issues in some cases pertaining to each city, but right now, mass production is the exception, not the rule. Interesting piece I found on Harris County METRO’s website in Houston about there new generation of Light Rail Vehicles they ordered. I think it’s a bad idea to be retiring their first cars that are only a few years old when Portland just put there Type 1 cars that are reaching 25 years of age through an upgrade that will give them 20 more years, and run in train with Type 2,3 and 4s(mandatory, because the Type 1s are not ADA compliant, older High-Floor designs lacking wheelchair lifts). It’s there procurement practices that are interesting, and instead of catering to these anti-government people, Texas Congressmembers should be at least bringing it up to the DoT if they do not already know.
http://www.ridemetro.org/News/.....chase.aspx
A BETTER WAY TO BUY A RAIL CAR
Imagine the next time you bought a car, you selected more than the paint color and type of transmission.
Imagine you picked the gauge of the undercarriage, the size of the brake lines, the routing of the exhaust pipe and the placement of the trunk.
Imagine how long it would take and how much it would cost?
It’s no wonder we prefer to buy what’s already parked on the lot.
For many years, U.S. transit agencies have insisted on developing one-off rolling stock every time they order new rail cars. It’s an expensive and time-consuming process, that virtually killed the rail car industry here in the United States.
At Houston METRO, we opted to change our ways when it came time to buy 100 new cars for the build out of our light-rail system.
We went to the industry with just two criteria: we wanted a model already running somewhere in the world and we wanted a car with an air conditioning system that could handle the heat and humidity of Houston’s semi-tropical climate.
The idea was so simple even the five manufacturers we talked to were skeptical.
In the end, we ordered from CAF of Spain.
What did METRO save with our off-the-rack purchase?
We cut $10 million in the costs needed to develop the latest-and-greatest car, we shaved delivery time by one year, we got an industry-startling price of $3.1 million per car, and, because CAF knows its cars better than we do, the company agreed to maintain the cars for eight years at a guaranteed price.
The concept is basic, yet the benefits for Houston taxpayers profound.
Although the irony is, Houston already had what is pretty much becoming the Standard Light Rail Vehicle in the US, the Siemens Low Floor, which is running in San Diego, Houston, Portland, Salt Lake City(on order), Charlotte, and the same company already has high floor LRVs(with either lifts or level boarding at high platforms) running in St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Sacramento, San Diego, Denver, and 2 Canadian Cities. A Japanese Company built the rolling stock for lINK, San Jose, Dallas, and Hoboken. The irony is, the technology in the last domestic streetcar built for 50+ years was exported to other countries, and re-imported when rail transit came back.
@15
Oh REALLY Marvin…
Your local and state government sets your property tax rates to pay for schools/fire/police/social services.
By your own “conservative priciples” no true conservative can complain about their property taxes.
SERIOUSLY, conservatism = less FEDERAL ONLY government? That’s the stupidest claim by a conservative ever!
Evergreenrailfan…
Where is the DC Rail destruction or funds reduction or funds obstruction? That’s the PuddyQuestion and all Puddy hears are
* crickets chirping * and zzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz
BTW did anyone find if the “Tea Party Protesters” could drive up to the Capitol Mall?
Looks like another thread of vacuous empty-headed words. Thanks for playing HA Leftists. Even Jon can’t back it up! AGAIN!
@18
Puuuuudddyyyy…
Been to DC? There’s a ton of public parking at the mall. The mall is surrounded by The Various entities that make up the Smithsonian, the National Achives, National Portrait Gallery, Lincoln Memorial…
Combine the public lots and various private exhobitant fee lots and I’ll bet all (generous estimate) 60,000 tea-baggers could have driven their own cars and parked within a half mile of the mall.
In fact, there are streets that cross the mall. So a car-pooling tea-bagger could stop at a red light, physically on the mall, you know, “drive up to the Capitol Mall,” and let out passengers.
I suspect you’ve never visited our nation’s capitol if you’re trying to argue that people aren’t allowed to park at the National Mall. Either that or you’re truly ignorant.
Less government is about less FEDERAL government.
So Gregoire and Nickels are doing a helluva job? And we can count on your no vote on I-1033? Nice to see a righty supporting our local government officials.
checksaid,
Wrong as usual. Puddy has operative NDAs for jobs done in DC. Been there done that many times. Puddy knows most of the 495 exits by heart fool! Personally Puddy likes the Pentagon City Mall. Ever been there fool?
And the blogs said the DC Police were keeping cars from certain areas last Saturday. Butt then again you were probably cruisin the kook-aid sites like many others last Saturday. Puddy knows of some of you!
PS. The truly ignorant one is checksaid. He likes the kook-aid!
@21
Uhhh…What part of that refutes what I said. Are you still claiming that you can’t park at the National Mall?
I don’t recall the protestst taking place across the Potamac @ the Pentagon. (“I’ll take irrelevent defense of my stupidy for $1000, Alex. For Double Jeopardy, I’ll take, “Throwing up a non-sequiter to seem like I’m not a moron.”)
If you do indeed know DC as well as you claim, then you were lying when you made the claim about DC police not allowing parking at the mall. Knowingly lying. And you got caught. AGAIN!
Once again checksaid can’t read…
Check with Van Jones AKA Another TJ. We cruise some of the same blogs. Puddy realizes reading is difficult for you.
Mike Rogers comes to mind…
See ya leftist tool.
Naturally. The GOP whiner, Rep. Kevin Brady, earlier this year voted against funding to improve the DC Metro.
There are metaphorical rakes hitting conservative foreheads all across this great land today. Wow, these folks are stuck on stupid.
@23…
Yawn…”And the blogs said,” (27X Ha)
The mall is a big place. Last July I walked from the Lincoln memorial to the Air And Sapce Museum. That covers almost the entire length of the mall. Now I’m an able bodied young-ish male. Took about 25 minutes with a quick hop into the Natual History Museum to pick up a book for my kids.
So now you and the blogs, I assume, are complaining that you couldn’t drive right up to the stage and hop out?
Christ, you’re a bunch of whiny pansies. Walk a couple blocks losers!
Also, some conservatives were complaining that they had to take a taxi to the event, a mode of transport that is suspiciously similar to car travel.
Thwack!
Taxis have right of passage where passenger cars don’t. Check Seattle for instance Van.
Thwack Thwack back at ya!
Nice spin…but wrong as usual.
The protest WASN’T anti-government.
It was a protest on the outragious level of spending.
I typed this slowly so you dolts can get it.
Hey thanks for the link Van@24…
“Brady voted against the stimulus package.” Wow that’s a great rake Van. A bill many in the US said was a debt buster (they were right) and a bill that most money is still in the Treasury waiting for a home.
You mean the Porkulus Bill where Senator Byron Dorgan complained Janet Napolitano was playing politics with the Porkulus money her department received? Hmmm… Puddy remembers certain peeps who complained to Puddy when Puddy placed the Democrats who voted against funding the troops because there were Republican pork barrel projects in the bill.
Magically y’all forget these things.
@14 & @16 At least I’m somewhat impressed that DC Metro recycled everything previously developed for BART–rolling stock, ticketing system, even station architecture–rather than re-inventing everything from the wheels up (maybe including the wheels themselves) like so many other systems seem to have done, including Sound Transit.
Heavy rail/subways also seem to make sense for the Bay Area and DC (not to mention Los Angeles) because of the greater distances and higher speeds involved. This in spite of the fact as the old cartoons remind us, LA’s old “Red Car” went all the way to “Azzzzuza, Kew-Ka-Monga and Sannnn-Boinadeeeno”.
When the teabaggers heard about the National Mall, they probably thought of Bellevue Square, where Kemper Freeman has free parking for everyone.
@31 Are you kidding? It’s a wonder two-thirds of ’em didn’t wander off to Maryland trying to find the Wal-Mart.
Goldy, while I basically agree with you, I don’t think you’ve got it quite the way I see it. Their compliant that the gov’t screws everything up is borne out by their experience on the subway. The first absurdity is this: If they believe the gov’t to be totally incompetent, why do they think a gov’t INQUIRY is going to be any better?
The other is, if they’re really worried about wasteful gov’t spending, why waste more time and money on yet another government inquiry?
ArtFart, thankfully they did not go Indian Gauge like BART, which is 5ft 6″ between rails. Looks like DC Metro is Standard Gauge. What Sound Transit did, was create a hybrid, taking some of the best features of Light and Heavy Rail and combine them. Possibly overbuilding the system. The one to watch to see if they adapt Vancouver’s system, is Honolulu. They approved an elevated, electric automated transit system last year. Most likely I can see two bidders for it, Bombardier and Rotem(South Korea). It is already the most expensive starter line yet, If anybody would beat us for that distinction, it would be Honolulu. Being an island state, everything gets shipped in, and unless a Jones Act waiver gets issued for it to be handled by non-US flagged ships(highly unlikely), the cost of shipping a lot of it can be expensive. Although moving some of the equipment for the project, I am sure the Matson Line would love it, they are still bragging on their website about the time they moving unlimited hydroplanes to Honolulu for a race. That’s been at least a decade.
Los Angeles is building both Light and Heavy Rail, and in 2000, they had an interesting anniversary for the Blue Line, they painted a few of the LRVs in Pacific Electric colors. LINK thankfully has the Downtown Segment half done(the existing tunnel) and working on starting the next phase. Once they get it on the other side of the U-District, I hope no more tunnels are needed, that is one of the biggest costs. Although Kemper Freeman is holding out for a tunnel in Bellevue, probably so he can kill East LINK with a higher cost. Now LA is considering building a tunnel to link the Blue and Expo lines to the Gold Line, so transfers to the Red Line can be lessened. San Francisco MUNI’s MuniMetro, which operates in the upper level of the Market Street Subway(BART on the lower), is an upgrade of a legacy streetcar system outside the tunnel, although the F-Line is supposedly the best, with it’s vintage cars, is more popular than the others. The Boeing LRVs that used to be used on the J,K,L,M, and N lines were a failure that lasted 25 years(they did not catch on outside of SF and Boston, and exist only in 2 museums(one in Oregon, the other in Maine).
As for the political tagging that goes on, like you Conservatives, and you Liberals, that I often see on these blogs and hear on Talk Radio, (Don’t mean you ArtFart, just Generalizing), one may not notice that elsewhere in the world it is harder to tag. In Australia, the conservative parties are the Liberals and the Nationals(loosely called the Coalition, and cracking up right now over issues like Climate Change, and means testing a private health insurance rebate, both been rejected by the Senate, which the Coalition still controls, with help of 2 minor parties and an independent Senator. They fear the Labor Government sending the bills back un-amended in the next few months, because if they hold there ground again, it could see both Houses of Parliament dissolved and a fresh election. The Australian Senate uses a different electoral system than us, Proportional Representation, and with all Senators up for election, it lowers the electoral thresholds, making it easy for parties like Family First and the Greens to gain a bigger foothold.) In Sweden, there is the Moderate Party(but really Conservative). At least Germany managed to survive 4 years with the Center-Left and Center-Right in a Grand Coalition, but it depends on the minor parties share of the vote later this month to see which parties form the coalition. Merkel wants to partner with the Free Democratic Party, more closer to CDU(Christian Democratic Party) principles than the Social Democratic Party, and the Greens, and a new party making gains, the Left Party. The Greens will probably do only 5%, keeping seats in the Bundestag, but not much else, after they pretty much suggested the un suggestable in Germany when it comes to the Autobahn, National Speed Limits. To many German Motorists, the variable speed limits on urban stretches are compromise enough.
A little background on the Australian Story I mentioned about. They got both Public and Private in Australia.
http://www.reuters.com/article.....ZP20090914
@34 Re: Los Angeles….our newlywed daughter and her hubby, who live in Santa Monica and both work in Culver City, are hoping the logjams get broken on building the “Subway to the Sea” under Wilshire and the light-rail line planned to run from Santa Monica to the airport. Nobody likes the weird articulated buses whose styling almost shouts “Don’t you wish I was a real streetcar?” How the schedule for all this is likely to be affected by the recession and California’s and Los Angeles’ budget woes is something nobody really seems to want to talk about.
Those at the rally were protesting BIG government spending (NOT anti-government), quadrupling of our deficit, and healthcare/insurance.
Gibbs and company claimed they didn’t know about the protest. BS. The subway system should have had extra routes. Heck, even Metro has extra bus service to sports events in Seattle.
Also, too: it turns out Brady voted against $150 million in emergency maintenance funding for the Metro in July too. Also.
And this site supports a mayoral candidate who led the Sierra Club to oppose public transit funding, and has kept any public transit funds from going to park & rides, out of a visceral hatred of people who have to use cars to get around — those of us who actually work for a living, the elderly, the disabled.
Your site is not different than these hypocrites.
Hey Goldy if we get the Public Option in healthcare can we get a private option in transit, maybe like they have in Curitiba, Brazil, or in Sweden?
Another TJ, good point. Votes against it, but does not mind using it. Could have been worse for Brady, if 9/12 had been on Friday instead of Saturday. WMATA(Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority, DC Metro’s official name) carries around 1.2 million people on a weekday, 800.000 on MetroRail alone, across 100+ miles of lines.(Metro Center is an impressive hub, just near the Galleria/Chinatown system, and the two hubs connected by the Red Line). I am sure they could handle, if what Capitol Police and DC Fire Department are saying was only 30,000-70,000 people. Interesting quote in your article you posted, that this Republican Congressmember was getting mocked by the Wall Street Journal, now run by that Australian Liberal(as I said before, really a Conservative), Rupert Murdoch.
By the way, the day before the rally, one DC Metro line had to be shut down for emergency maintenance in the middle of the day. The Red Line, loose communication cable hanging in the tunnel between Dupont Circle and Van Ness-UDC stations. They had it re-opened by Rush Hour though. On weekends, that is when maintenance is usually scheduled, when they can afford to single-track lines for a little bit, and alternate directions.
“Heck, even Metro has extra bus service to sports events in Seattle.”
Not any more, they don’t…unless the Bush admin’s order prohibiting federally-funded transit systems from “unfairly competing” with private charter services has been rescinded yet.
It has not been rescinded yet. I heard somewhere that Starline does UW Husky Service, at least from Northgate and Shoreline Park and Rides, Metro provides the rest, but supposedly Starline might be subcontracting that to Metro. LINK and SOUNDER can be a good alternative to gameday traffic for Seahawk fans. Starline wanted $25 per fan, not sure how much the Seahawks would cover. The Seafair shuttles this year were operated by First Student, using school buses, some of them Seattle School District property.(I do not know if this qualifies as an Official Use for such school bus owned by the district but subcontracted to another operator. District 1’s fleet says so but not entirely visible to anybody who did not know where to look, “For Official Use Only”). Also, these private operators, they don’t want transit competing for riders to special events, but want to use the transit system’s property to do the job they have banned the transit system from doing. So far, steel-wheel on steel-rail transit is exempt from this law. In DC, that is good for Nationals fans, and for DC United fans, as Nationals Park and RFK Stadium are near MetroRail stations. The Seafair shuttles would have better been operated by transit buses, they have more doors, shorter dwell times. On this one, they don’t have a Park and Ride to pull into at Genessee Park, it is a regular street. One Time Trial Friday this year, I saw a line of people waiting to get on the 39 instead of taking the shuttle bus offered.
I was looking to see if there was a statement or even an apology on WMATA’s website, did not find one, but found this. Press Release, dated September 10th, announcing that there would be trackwork on the Red, Green, and Orange lines on the weekend of September 11th-13th.
http://www.wmata.com/about_met.....aseID=4050
Track maintenance on the Red, Orange and Green lines this weekend will cause inbound and outbound trains to take turns sharing one track. Customers should add at least 30 minutes of time to their trips.
Red Line Track Maintenance
Metrorail customers traveling between the Medical Center and Grosvenor-Strathmore Metrorail stations should add at least 20 minutes to their travel time for their trips because Metro will replace drainage pump cables. Trains will share one track between these locations from 9:30 p.m., Friday, Sept. 11, to closing (midnight), on Sunday, Sept. 13.
Orange Line Track Maintenance
Metrorail customers traveling between the East Falls Church and Ballston-MU Metrorail stations should add at least 20 minutes of travel time to their trips because Metro will replace crossties, the track support structures. Trains will share one track between these locations from 9:30 p.m., Friday, Sept. 11, to closing (midnight) on Sunday, Sept. 13.
It might have been on just a few sections of track, but the sharing of track by the Metro Trains leads to delays throughout the line that is affected. Chances are, if it’s a weekend, somewhere on the Metrorail system the track gangs(maintenance crews) would be working, and there will be delays. They got some more scheduled for this weekend and next weekend. Anybody planning a protest for a weekend in DC and expects to use the Metro system, should at least check the website.