We must say, even we could not come up with an idea more stupid than what the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Administration has come up with. First there was the "Safe track" project a couple years ago where they shut down whole lines for half a month to do inspections and repairs. Now they plan to completely redo the parking lot and bus facilities at the King Street Metro Station when there is nothing wrong with the way the station functions in its present configuration. But that's not the worst of it (although it will eliminate 32 parking spaces and really cheese off a lot of people).
METRO PLANS TO COMPLETELY CLOSE DOWN EVERY METRO STATION IN THE CITY OF ALEXANDRIA AND HUNTINGTON AND SPRINGFIELD IN FAIRFAX COUNTY FROM MEMORIAL DAY 2019 TO LABOR DAY 2019 TO COMPLETELY DEMOLISH AND REDO THE STATION PLATFORMS AT A COST OF HALF A BILLION FUCKING DOLLARS even though these stations work perfectly well without spending all that money.
This move will play havoc with Alexandria's summer tourist industry and the hospitality and restaurant industries that feed in its orbit. Not to mention the hordes of federal workers that don't take the summer off but have to work anyway. You should see the crowds on weekday mornings and evenings. There is no way in hell that shuttle buses will handle these crowds without majorly screwing up traffic between the shuttle points.
We have been riding Metro pretty regularly since we retired from the taxi business last March, and there is NOTHING WRONG WITH THE DAMNED STATION PLATFORMS! Certainly nothing that justifies a complete replacement of all of them at a cost of nearly half a billion dollars.
We have often said here that we try to be cynical, but it's hard to keep up. This is a case in point.
In our opinion Metro is BLACKMAILING THE CITIZENS OF D.C., MARYLAND AND especially THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA by denying Metro service for three months to the unfortunate residents of Alexandria and vicinity. We think the intent is for everybody to be absolutely begging for tax increases to keep Metro running after they see an example of what happens when it's cut off.
Sure, there were cases of falling concrete at a few Metro stations in D.C.; but these were due to lazy inspectors just re-wording the previous year's reports and declaring everything to be okey-dokey. There is NO reason to replace these platforms, and the people's representatives should be throwing a fit; but these jurisdictions in Virginia are all run by Democrats; and Alexandria is a one-party show. Republicans rarely even bother to run, knowing that they would be neutralized by the rest of the City Council.
There is a silver lining, we suppose. This may just outrage enough of the citizenry that Alexandria and vicinity turns Republican. There's always hope.
We have been riding Metro pretty regularly since we retired from the taxi business last March, and there is NOTHING WRONG WITH THE DAMNED STATION PLATFORMS! Certainly nothing that justifies a complete replacement of all of them at a cost of nearly half a billion dollars.
We have often said here that we try to be cynical, but it's hard to keep up. This is a case in point.
In our opinion Metro is BLACKMAILING THE CITIZENS OF D.C., MARYLAND AND especially THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA by denying Metro service for three months to the unfortunate residents of Alexandria and vicinity. We think the intent is for everybody to be absolutely begging for tax increases to keep Metro running after they see an example of what happens when it's cut off.
Sure, there were cases of falling concrete at a few Metro stations in D.C.; but these were due to lazy inspectors just re-wording the previous year's reports and declaring everything to be okey-dokey. There is NO reason to replace these platforms, and the people's representatives should be throwing a fit; but these jurisdictions in Virginia are all run by Democrats; and Alexandria is a one-party show. Republicans rarely even bother to run, knowing that they would be neutralized by the rest of the City Council.
There is a silver lining, we suppose. This may just outrage enough of the citizenry that Alexandria and vicinity turns Republican. There's always hope.
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