Well, I guess I should share my negative opinions on Metro. . .

It has been a very long while since I routinely rode Metro, but it sounds like things have not improved since I did, and one or 2 trips in the past year or so are consistent with that.

The local news reports on this incident all refer to the "lack of a culture of safety." And we hear the usual "we have to study what happened...etc" from the Metro officials.

From my experiences, I always thought Metro failed to look at it's operations from a "customer" point of view, or care about "the customer experience."

One example that always bothered me was that lack of clear, audible announcements of the next station; although they were made, the audio almost always so bad, you were lucky if you could hear and understand it. A minor annoyance if you know your way around; just lucky that DC doesn't have a lot of tourists who don't (sarcasm intended). Of course, if announcements are inaudible, this is going to be a problem in an emergency.

A second example is that in my observations and experiences, Metro employees (if you could find one) always seemed annoyed or put upon if someone had a question or problem with one of the fare card machines or readers, or even simply asked for directions.

Third, it was not unusual for a train to stop in a tunnel-- and just sit there-- without an announcement as to why or for how long-- being made by the driver. So you waited and hoped.

IMO, such non-customer centric attitudes feed into (or maybe result from) the larger "lack of a culture of safety" the news reports are talking about.

Now, if I do have to go into DC, I drive and risk the tickets and pay the parking fees.