Transit on Wednesday: Supply and Demand

After last week’s Metropocalypse , we all took in the reports as to how major loss of service happens , and the fallout after the fact. But nothing really hit the nail on the head like Lena H. Sun’s half-report, half-plea for the future . Sun touches on most of the points that seem (at least to us) to be regurgitated over and over these days: Metro’s infrastructure is old - trains are past their primes, overworked stud bolts can overheat and cause fires, and track needs replacing - to name a few immediate concerns. Gas prices are high, and cars are environmentally unfriendly. Consequently, ridership on Metro is constantly reaching record highs, even when nothing special is going on . Perhaps most of all, Metro is completely at the mercy of uncontrollable forces, like extremely hot or incredibly wet weather, and there’s nothing to say that something like this won’t happen again without immediate funds to rectify the problems. ...