EPISODE 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 e...
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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 unpreced...
Episodes
20 of 29 episodes
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 cut...
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 Wiedefel...
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...
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 ag...
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...
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...
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...
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 Prin...
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...
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...
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, bu...
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 abo...
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....
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 memb...
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...
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 cove...
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...
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...
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. C...