Friday, March 15, 2013
Although ridership dropped, a fare increase boosted revenues.
Although revenues increased for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority in the last half of 2012, ridership dipped by 6 percent to below 100 million, according to transit authority statistics reported in the Washington Examiner. A revenue increase of about $15 million to $412.4 million, from July to December 2012, was attributed to a July 1, 2012 fare increase. While the uptick in revenue sounds good on the surface, Metro spokeswoman Caroline Lucas told the Examiner that “Metrorail revenue is still $20.2 million below budgeted expectations.” During the same July-to-December period, the first half of fiscal year 2013, Metro experienced another financial difficulty described in a report released on March 14 by the transit …
Thursday, February 7, 2013
BusTrack DC went live on the Apple app store at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
DC resident Jason Rosenbaum created his own metro bus tracking app after the Nextbus app stopped working in December. BusTrack DC is now available for free download in the Apple iTunes store. "I was looking for a replacement for the app that stopped working," Rosenbaum told Patch. "I built this because I use this app every day," he added. The new app relies on a public feed of GPS data that WMATA publishes. It acts as an interface to allow your phone to use that data in a meaningful way. Rosenbaum described the key features in an email: The app is free and open source, so other programmers can help create copies for Android and Blackberry and improve on what Rosenbaum created. "I’m not an app developer. This is my first app," he said. "I …
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Plan your commute carefully on Jan. 21.
While fewer people are expected to attend President Obama's second inauguration on Jan. 21, projections still show between 600,000 and 800,000 people will be there. That alone would cause an increase in traffic on Washington, DC's roads, buses, trains and sidewalks. For safety and security reasons, a number of roads surrounding the National Mall will be closed on Jan. 21. Some Metrorail stations and Metrobus routes will be affected as well. The District of Columbia's Presidential Inauguration 2013 website details the status of road access into Washington, DC, on Inauguration Day: The following roads will be closed from 3 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 21: The website also lists all of the "emergency no parking zones" in effect between 7 a.…
Thursday, January 3, 2013
The popular bus arrival time app has gone dark.
NextBusDC, a smartphone app that had been tracking the arrival times of Metro buses for users since 2009, has quit working, according to a Washington Post story. The app, which is the end product of a partnership between NextBus—a company that tracks transit system data, and AppTight, which makes the data user-friendly in an app format, stopped working on Dec. 20, according to the In The Capital website. In The Capital reported that a contractual relationship between the two companies “ceased,” with NextBus receiving only three days’ notice and AppTight no notice at all. AppTight’s Kelly Beener remarked that only the data feed to the DC app has stopped, and the San Francisco version continues to function. NextBus’ Ken Schmier told The …
Sunday, October 28, 2012
No trains or buses will run on Monday on account of storm, say transportation officials
Hurricane Sandy has forced officials with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to cancel all service on Monday, Oct. 29. That means that after tonight's closing time, there will be no Metrorail, Metrobus or MetroAccess service until further notice, according to a press release from WMATA. "Metro service will only be restored when it is safe to do so. Following the storm, Metro personnel will need to perform a comprehensive damage assessment, including inspections of track, bridges, aerial structures, stations and facilities," reads the press release. "Service restoration also will be contingent on adequate commercial power to support operations and repair of any storm-related damage." As well, a series of public hearings on …
Jenni Pompi
6:05 pm on Thursday, February 7, 2013
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