New Slogan Should Be "Metro Opens Doors...Too Soon"

In yesterday's Washington Post, they ran a story about how Metro train operators continue to stop short of the end of the platform when driving 8 car trains. The problem? This means the last car or so has its doors opened in the tunnel! They say nobody has been injured from these mistakes yet but it can only be a matter of time!

I'm not sure how long the doors are remaining open before the driver realizes it, but most of the time...passengers are so eager to get off the packed train that they would just hop right off without even looking. And then they might be falling 4 feet or so to the track (or maybe to the emergency walk on the side?)

Regardless, get with it train operators. I mean seriously, I know you have a lot of things to think about when operating a train but without a doubt, SAFETY is the number one concern of WMATA. Keeping your passengers safe includes not letting opening doors before the platform. In other words, pull the train all the way up!

The article also talks about how sometimes the doors are opened on the wrong side of the train! How is that even possible. How is that crap not automated or at least protected against? We tend to be a little more on the HATE side than the LOVE side here, but we can't help it. We really do love the Metro system, but we also really hate stupid and easily preventable problems like this. Get with it.

Full article here.