Metropocalypse
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Metropocalypse
Explosions and smoke-filled tunnels. Frustrated riders and epic commutes. This is the new normal on Washington’s Metro. Metropocalypse, a weekly podcast from WAMU 88.5, explores the unprecedented plan to rebuild tracks and re-engineer culture on the nation’s second largest transit system. Send quest...
Neueste Episoden
29 EpisodenEPISODE 27: A Metro Carol
Metro is taking disciplinary action against half its track inspection department. Late-night trains will not return until July 2019 at the earliest. W...
Episode 26: Ride With Metro’s GM
WAMU's Martin DiCaro commutes with Metro's GM; we talk with a transportation expert about the impact of the rail system's impending hour cutbacks.
Episode 25: Happy Anniversary, Paul Wiedefeld
On this week's podcast, we talk Metro's steps toward reducing service hours, a Silver Line throwdown and Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld's first...
Episode 24: Worst Of The Worst Commutes
Red Line commuters can be thankful that the 10th SafeTrack surge is winding down. But the month-long rehab project, which shut down service along Fort...
Episode 23: Can Donald Trump Make Metro Great Again?
The president-elect's promise to spend $1 trillion on infrastructure improvements is emerging as one of the least divisive aspects of his agenda, at l...
Episode 22: Gazing Into The Future (Through The Lens Of A ‘Reality Check’)
Buckle your seatbelts, because where we’re going, there are no roads (or single-tracking). We consider two potential scenarios for Metro in the years...
Episode 21: Shocks To The System
Want to hear something really scary? Metro’s 10th SafeTrack surge is hitting its most heavily trafficked artery, shutting down two stations on the Red...
Episode 20: Arguing For Equity
Permanently ending late-night service. Temporary shutting down stations with low ridership. Many of the ideas for fixing Metro’s ills raise questions...
Episode 19: Metro-Politics
When it comes to Metro politics, the most important thing isn’t party lines — it’s regional lines. We talk to a WMATA board member from Prince George’...
Episode 18: Full Throttle Into The Past With Zachary Schrag
Why are there so few seats on Metro platforms? How did D.C. home-rule advocates impact the historical trajectory of the rail system? Why are there onl...
Episode 17: Will Nats Fans Have To Race To The Metro Station?
As playoff baseball returns to Washington, D.C., thousands of Nationals fans could face a choice: Stay for the end of a game, or leave early to catch...
Episode 16: Has Metro’s ‘Death Spiral’ Begun?
More than a decade ago, a top Metro official warned of the potential for a "death spiral" involving a confluence of maintenance problems, budget press...
Episode 15: Report Cards, Wish Lists And Maglevs
WMATA regularly gives itself a report card called Vital Signs, and the latest has some good news about railcar reliability, but bad news about on-time...
Episode 14: Broken Culture, Honest Announcements
We talk to Metro Board Chairman Jack Evans about what he wants to see as the transit agency tries to fix its infrastructure and its culture. We also h...
Episode 13: Metro’s Summer Of Stumbles
We walk through all the ways Metro is having a bad summer with Politico's Lauren Gardner, Greater Greater Washington's David Alpert and members of the...
Episode 12: ‘Death Star’ With Earth Tones
Next time you're in an underground Metro station, look up and around. Are you in a calming streetscape setting? Or does it feel more like an interstel...
Episode 11: Track Fires vs. Garbage Fires
As the bad news keeps coming for WMATA, we've been thinking about how Metro's woes compare with those of older systems. Kate Hinds, who covers transpo...
Episode 10: Labor, Safety And Money
Rep. Barbara Comstock discusses how changing the pay structure for Metro's unionized workers could help the transit agency close up some of its budget...
Episode 9: #Hotcars And Hot Work
Why is the air conditioning so bad on some Metro cars? And what, exactly, is happening out on the Orange Line tracks during SafeTrack surge No. 5? Mar...
Episode 8: Metropocalypse Now!
Martin Di Caro and guest co-host Lauren Gardner of Politico take a bus bridge with Rep. Don Beyer and encounter a bottleneck along U.S. 1. Come for th...
Episode 7.5: Live At Kramerbooks In D.C.
In front of a live audience, we nerd out on questions about ridership and "death spirals;"
expansion plans and bus lanes; and the 1990s technol...
Episode 7: Nerd Riders
Greater Greater Washington founder (and fellow transportation nerd) David Alpert tells us about his website's MetroGreater contest. We answer hot ques...
Episode 6: How Will Washington Get Around In The Year 2026?
In the latest Metropocalypse, we explore the future of Metro: What will the system look like in 10 years? Should responsibility for running the system...
Episode 5: Why 1986 Still Matters
In 1986, a federal official issued a warning: If Metro continued to expand rapidly, the system faced a future of stark choices over maintaining existi...
Episode 4: Historic Blunder Of Epic Proportions?
SafeTrack hits its second phase, with full shutdowns of sections of the Orange Line forcing commuters to use bus "bridges" between stations. What if M...
Episode 3: Filling The Information Vacuum
We talk to civic hackers who use WMATA's open data sources to share information about delays, accidents and more. The principal of a charter school wi...
Episode 2: Dispatches From Day One
The Metropocalypse crew is on the scene at the Ballston station in Virginia as the "new normal" takes effect. We also ask key questions of Metro's gen...
Episode 1: The Surge
Welcome to the inaugural edition of Metropocalypse, WAMU 88.5's new podcast about Metro. WAMU 88.5's Martin DiCaro and Politico's Martine Powers explo...
Metropocalypse: Trailer
Explosions and smoke-filled tunnels. Turf wars between government agencies. Frustrated riders and epic commutes. This has become the new normal for th...