MetroBus | DC ParaTransit Info

Lena Sun of the Washington Post writes that the Metro Board has approved a plan to spend up to $1 million hiring “professional” mystery riders, who will go out and assess MetroRail and MetroBus services.

This isn’t a new idea. As the Post notes, it’s been done before, albeit using trained volunteers - and is something we at DC ParaTransit Info has mentioned before.

Done properly, it can produce relatively unbiased metrics about the service, as opposed to the idea of using customer feedback. Customer feedback tends to only concentrate on negatives - how many people actually take the time to call or write to WMATA to tell them they’re doing a good job?

This is a preview of Post: Hired Riders to Assess Metro. Read the full post (473 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

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Updated 4-16-2008 @ 8:26am

WMATA is geared up for Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to DC this week, with fixed-route service changes to cope with the expected crowds. This includes running rush-hour scheduling from 5am to 7pm on both Wednesday April 16th and Thursday April 17th.

Several fixed routes will be affected by rolling road closures over the course of the visit. The WMATA web site estimates that up to 16 fixed route bus services may be affected. MetroRail especially is likely to become very crowded, with large numbers of people from outside the area riding the system over the course of this once-in-a-lifetime event.

This is a preview of Metro During The Papal Visit. Read the full post (659 words, estimated 2:38 mins reading time)