Changes To Metro

If you go onto Metro's website, you can read the plans for renovating the system, which is long overdue. It's going to be inconvenient for us riders, but it is a bitter pill that needs to be swallowed. I have to commend Paul Wiedefeld, the General Manager, for his willingness to take the bull by the horns, and make some very unpopular decisions regarding Metro. In the long run, I think things will be greatly improved.

There is going to be a lot of single tracking, closed sections of the rail with shuttle buses, and the Friday and Saturday night late night until 3 AM service is going by the wayside. Metro will now be shutting down at midnight seven days per week. Of course, I remember when Metro opened at 10 AM, and shut down at 6 PM on Sundays. That was when I first moved here in 1980. The 3 AM service had a great run, and hopefully, it will return someday when the bulk of the maintenance is completed. I can only think of two times when I've used the late night weekend service in the time that I have lived in the DC area. I can see how it might affect some of the nightlife businesses in the District. Of course, there is always the various bus lines, and some of them run very late at night in the city, and in Montgomery County. They don't over here in Prince George's County, which is a shame.

As a huge public transportation buff, I will always try to find a way to incorporated some form of public transportation into my transportation needs. Sometimes I will drive to a Metro station and park. Today, I drove to a parking garage in Silver Spring, MD, and then walked to the Paul Sarbanes Transportation Center, and rode the J2 bus to where I work. Coming home was the exact opposite. I had to work until 10 PM, and the last J2 bus is a 1:07 AM, so I was covered. I then drove the 9 miles from the garage to my house. It works OK, because at 9 PM they raise the arms in the parking garage, and you don't have to pay to park. In Bethesda, you have to pay until midnight. It's cheaper, taking into consideration the price of gas, to drive to Silver Spring and take the bus. IDEAL SOLUTION: maybe eventually there will be late night bus served here in College Park, MD.